Question

How to stop spam being sent from our server

Asked by: gbzhhu

Hi,

We have a Windows 2000 terminal server.  We have been told that spam is coming from our server.  I can see from the event log 1000's of warning message from SMTPSVC event id 4000 with message text "Message delivery to the remote domain '<domain name here>' failed for the following reason: The remote server did not respond to a connection attempt."  This is a web server and not Exchange server.  How can I troubleshoot who is sending these spam emails from our server?

Thanks
H

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2009-09-10 at 08:19:36ID24721688
Topics

Spam Black Holes

,

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)

,

Exchange Email Server

Participating Experts
4
Points
500
Comments
13

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. Spamming???
    I have turned up the logging on my SMTP Service and i see a lot of this... This is an SMTP protocol error log for virtual server ID 1, connection #45560. The remote host "216.159.242.70", responded to the SMTP command "rcpt" with "550 5.1.1 User unkn...
  2. "SPAM" or "POSSIBLE SPAM" in email subject line
    "SPAM" or "POSSIBLE SPAM" is being added to the subject lines of some of our email. We recently discovered our server had been used to relay spam but that problem has been corrected. We are not showing up on any blacklists and all of our email seems to b...
  3. Spamming solution
    Hi, i am getting this kind of email in my inbox " Undelivered mail returned to sender". this email is comming back to our company webmaster address. webmaster@XXXversal.com Now i am confused about, why it comming back to us when we didnot sent any email to any of t...
  4. major Spam emails
    For the last week, a lot users, almost everyone has started reiving tons of spam emails. I myself am receiving 10 to 15 spam emails per day. I'm not sure what has happened, but I haven't made any changes to my firewall, and I can't block the emails, as they are sent from &q...
  5. mDaemon SPAM
    I'm running mdaemon 10... When a spam message from the outside world is sent to my mdaemon server, my mdaemon server flags it as spam but does not send a message back to the sender stating that it was spam and not delivered. Is there any way to correct this?

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: shauncroucherPosted on 2009-09-10 at 08:37:53ID: 25301275

run diagnostic checks using mtoolbox --> diagnostics

shaun

 

by: shauncroucherPosted on 2009-09-10 at 08:38:04ID: 25301277

Sorry, mxtoolbox.com

Shaun

 

by: gbzhhuPosted on 2009-09-10 at 08:49:02ID: 25301390

Which domain name? These domain names are all different but they all have .com.br at the end.

I am assuming that some program has got itself into our server and sending these emails or are they our server trying to send NDR?

I am clueless!

 

by: shauncroucherPosted on 2009-09-10 at 08:58:38ID: 25301505

From the server, go to Internet and run whatismyipaddress.com and then use the IP address here in mxtoolbox.com and see if you are an open relay.

Shaun

 

by: gbzhhuPosted on 2009-09-10 at 09:11:59ID: 25301652

whatismyipaddress.com reports wrong ip for the server (probably reports firewall IP)

Got server IP using ipconfig on server but trying that in the domain name box and clicking look up gets an error

Invalid Input
mx requires a Fully Qualified Domain Name and 192.444.5.555 is not a valid FQDN.

 

by: alanhardistyPosted on 2009-09-10 at 12:39:00ID: 25303497

You are not looking for the internal IP Address of the server, you are looking for the Internet IP from the router.

As Shaun has suggested - visit www.whatismyip.com and then copy / paste the result into http://www.mxtoolbox.com/diagnostic.aspx and see if your sever is an open relay.

 

by: MesthaPosted on 2009-09-10 at 14:34:50ID: 25304742

Do you have SMTP installed on the machine? If so, has it been secured?
Authenticated relaying locked down, strong administrator password?

Simon.

 

by: gbzhhuPosted on 2009-09-11 at 01:07:43ID: 25307414

Yes, got result now from the mxtool

501 Sorry, access denied due to access rule

 Not an open relay.
 0 seconds - Good on Connection time
 0 seconds - Good on Transaction time
 Reverse DNS FAILED! This is a problem.
 OK - Reverse DNS matches SMTP Banner

What does it mean?

 

by: gbzhhuPosted on 2009-09-11 at 01:13:28ID: 25307447

Simon,

We have an SMTP service running (checked on the services list on the server).  Don't know how to secure it but log on tab on the properties has local system option checked

 

by: MesthaPosted on 2009-09-11 at 01:55:14ID: 25307644

The SMTP Server service is managed through the IIS admin console.

Simon.

 

by: v-jushawPosted on 2009-09-11 at 02:08:37ID: 25307701

Use this Guide to lock down your exchange service on this server


http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=895853&SD=tech  give a good guide


http://www.amset.info/exchange/filter-unknown.asp - This site gives some pictures and goes over a add on to enable tar pitting on a 2000 exchange server, try this if all else fails


If your not using the exchange feature tho on this server, might consider uninstalling it or just blocking port 25.



Best of luck to you,

 

by: gbzhhuPosted on 2009-09-17 at 02:04:27ID: 25354033

Folks,

Please bear with me.  I have been side tracked to an urgent project and will be back in a few days

v-jushaw,  I haven't tried these links but will do. Thanks

H

 

by: gbzhhuPosted on 2009-09-30 at 04:45:55ID: 31627131

Sorry for leaving this for awhile.  This issue was passed on to a colleague so I leave it as it is.  Thank you all for your input

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...