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Unable to send and to receive mails (qmail) since today

Dear experts

Since this morning, our qmail reports the following when we try to send a mail:

2008-07-23 13:06:21.203413500 starting delivery 3: msg 261365 to remote wwwrun@www.wsl.ch
2008-07-23 13:06:21.203427500 status: local 0/10 remote 1/20
2008-07-23 13:06:21.206351500 delivery 3: deferral: Sorry,_I_wasn't_able_to_establish_an_SMTP_connection._(#4.4.1)/
2008-07-23 13:06:21.206362500 status: local 0/10 remote 0/20
2008-07-23 13:24:30.381655500 starting delivery 4: msg 202975 to remote info@fedex.net
2008-07-23 13:24:30.381659500 status: local 0/10 remote 1/20
2008-07-23 13:24:30.777815500 delivery 4: deferral: Sorry,_I_wasn't_able_to_establish_an_SMTP_connection._(#4.4.1)/
2008-07-23 13:24:30.777818500 status: local 0/10 remote 0/20

The only change since yesterday:
The virus scanner has updated (like every night). We use mcafee and the system is a SuSE Linux.

The responsible person for this mailserver is not rechable.
Has anyone an idee how to fix this? This is very urgent.

Kind regards
Reto

Update:
The service faded out since yesterday. Yesterday at 6 pm we received the first errors (once every 5 to 10 minutes), then it got worse and since today 10 am we are not able to get or send any mails.

nabeelmoidu

Its been some time since I've used qmail...anyway we'll give it a try
are you sending mails directly or are you relaying through another server ?

if its the former, try manually telnet to the port 25 of the mx server of one of the domains like fedex.net from the qmail server and try sending a mail
in case you need here's the reference for trying to send mail via telnet.
http://www.rdpslides.com/webresources/FAQ00035.htm

this way it can be isolated to a system level issue ( like dns not reachable, firewall problems etc) or a qmail configuration issue.

buchli

ASKER

Hello
Thank you for your answer.
Here is my data:
Internally we use directly our mailserver. Externaly we use a mailscanner (greylisting), but this mailscanner get's the same error message we get when we telnet localhost 25 (see below).

Try to use another mailserver gives this result:
---------
telnet smtp.hispeed.ch 25
Trying 213.46.255.24...
Connected to smtp.hispeed.ch.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 smtp.hispeed.ch ESMTP server (InterMail vM.7.08.02.00 201-2186-121-20061213) ready Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:20:03 +0200
ehlo mailhost.foo.bar
250-smtp.hispeed.ch
250-HELP
250-XREMOTEQUEUE
250-ETRN
250-AUTH=LOGIN PLAIN
250-AUTH LOGIN PLAIN
250-PIPELINING
250-DSN
250-8BITMIME
250-STARTTLS
250 SIZE 15360000
mail from:reto.buchli@foo.bar
250 Sender Ok
rcpt to:xxx@hispeed.ch
250 Recipient Ok
data
354 Ok Send data ending with .

Testdata from WSL
.
250 Message received: 20080723212252.IEAH21702.viefep23-int.chello.at@mailhost.foo.bar
quit
221 smtp.hispeed.ch ESMTP server closing connection
Connection closed by foreign host.
------------

This works. We already checked our DNS and network switches. They seem to be ok.

Now the same with our mailhost: (this we tried already, but you will see the client answer):

-------------------
telnet localhost 25
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 mailbi.wsl.ch ESMTP
ehlo localhost
250-mailbi.wsl.ch
250-PIPELINING
250-SIZE 40000000
250-DATAZ
250-STARTTLS
250 8BITMIME
mail from:reto.buchli@wsl.ch
250 ok
rcpt to:reto.buchli@wsl.ch
250 ok
data
354 go ahead punk, make my day

Testdata from WSL
.
451 qq temporary problem (#4.3.0)
quit
-------------------

This fails. It is the same error message, we get sending a mail internally.

Now, what may be wrong here?

Thank you.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

buchli

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nabeelmoidu

Good work Reto..

Sorry I couldn't be of much help...its been two years since I've touched qmail :(