SnoopJre
asked on
Groupwise 5.5 outbound mail problems
I have recently taken over the IT position at a small company. I do not have any networking experience and have been tossed straight into the fire.
The problem I'm having is with the email. The mailserver is running on Windows NT and is using Groupwise 5.5. There is also a Cisco PIX 501 for firewall. The only problem with the email is the outbound side. Internal and inbound emails work perfectly. Outbound emails work about 10% of the time. Senders will sometimes receive a message saying their email didn't go through due to the IP being banned or it is undeliverable or no response at all. The errors numbers I have seen are 550, 553, 571, and 554.
The Cisco Pix 501 IP address (209.252.73.106) is listed on the CBL. I do not know how to change any settings in the Cisco because the device manager never loads in IE. I have spoken with the previous IT manager and he had never seen this problem. He did say that port 25 is blocked except for the mailserver. From what I have researched it seems like this would fix my problem, but I've been told it was already done. Do I need to redo this? It is odd because their doesn't seem to be a pattern as to what emails are blocked.
I'm not sure what to do at this point and any advice is greatly appreciated.
The problem I'm having is with the email. The mailserver is running on Windows NT and is using Groupwise 5.5. There is also a Cisco PIX 501 for firewall. The only problem with the email is the outbound side. Internal and inbound emails work perfectly. Outbound emails work about 10% of the time. Senders will sometimes receive a message saying their email didn't go through due to the IP being banned or it is undeliverable or no response at all. The errors numbers I have seen are 550, 553, 571, and 554.
The Cisco Pix 501 IP address (209.252.73.106) is listed on the CBL. I do not know how to change any settings in the Cisco because the device manager never loads in IE. I have spoken with the previous IT manager and he had never seen this problem. He did say that port 25 is blocked except for the mailserver. From what I have researched it seems like this would fix my problem, but I've been told it was already done. Do I need to redo this? It is odd because their doesn't seem to be a pattern as to what emails are blocked.
I'm not sure what to do at this point and any advice is greatly appreciated.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Just happened to crash on his last day, eh???
*cough* sabotage *cough*
The 10% of the time that it works, do you know if that 10% represents email that is addressed to the same recipient(s)??
*cough* sabotage *cough*
The 10% of the time that it works, do you know if that 10% represents email that is addressed to the same recipient(s)??
I am not familiar with groupwise under Windows, though, I have had experience with groupwise under Netware (which it should be, IMHO). Under Netware, you could see each email inbound and outbound as the MTA addressed each instance - is this the case under windows? Is there a utility that will show you email traffic? If so, there should be errors inside of the log.
Also, try this:
http://www.yuki-onna.co.uk/email/smtp.html
but from the windows server running groupwise and see if you can manually send an email to one of the blocked recipients - this will narrow down the problem(s).
Also, try this:
http://www.yuki-onna.co.uk/email/smtp.html
but from the windows server running groupwise and see if you can manually send an email to one of the blocked recipients - this will narrow down the problem(s).
You say "The Cisco Pix 501 IP address (209.252.73.106) is listed on the CBL.". If you're referring to the CBL anti-spam list, that the first thing you need to correct. ALL outbound mail will appear to be coming from this IP address, and if it is on the CBL spam list, many mail servers will not accept mail from you, and he mail will be rejected with 5xx error codes. Go here http://cbl.abuseat.org/ to start the process of being removed from the list.
If the problem is outbound internet mail only, you've likely got some sort of DNS resolution problem with your GWIA which relies on the DNS settings of the server it is running on. Can you ping to www.novell.com or some other domain? Can you successfully do a nslookup? Open a command prompt on the GWIA--GroupWise server and use ping and nslookup. The syntax:
ping www.novell.com
nslookup www.aol.com or mail.<your company>.com
If these work (you won't get ping back from novell but it should resolve to a 130.x.x.x address as I recall).
First, see in the Services control panel and find the MTA, POA, GWIA listed and check the Properties | LogOn tab and see if you can make the GWIA interact with the local desktop. You'll likely have to shut the service down and restart it if that option is available. If it is, you'll be able to see the GWIA screen like we see on NetWare and if you use the --show switch on Linux.
Send an email outbound and watch it.
If you can't get the graphical console to work, go into ConsoleOne, find the GWIA under the domain (under the GroupWise system) and assuming you can get into the properties of it, on the GroupWise tab, Network Address, confirm there is port 9850 appearing in the HTTP box. This way you can launch the webconsole and check the log file on an outbound message.
Let us know.
Scott
ping www.novell.com
nslookup www.aol.com or mail.<your company>.com
If these work (you won't get ping back from novell but it should resolve to a 130.x.x.x address as I recall).
First, see in the Services control panel and find the MTA, POA, GWIA listed and check the Properties | LogOn tab and see if you can make the GWIA interact with the local desktop. You'll likely have to shut the service down and restart it if that option is available. If it is, you'll be able to see the GWIA screen like we see on NetWare and if you use the --show switch on Linux.
Send an email outbound and watch it.
If you can't get the graphical console to work, go into ConsoleOne, find the GWIA under the domain (under the GroupWise system) and assuming you can get into the properties of it, on the GroupWise tab, Network Address, confirm there is port 9850 appearing in the HTTP box. This way you can launch the webconsole and check the log file on an outbound message.
Let us know.
Scott
Well, how's it going?
It seems to me that the solution isn't really a solution. Better delete this question..
ASKER
Email started working correctly for no apparent reason. Possibly due to clearing up space on hard drive.
Well, let's try:
first off, is the outbound issue a new development or has it always been this way?