Hi, I am running Slackware 9 with Balsa Mail Client. I used to be able to check my POP3 accounts and send mail via SMTP fine, then all of a sudden I can still receieve the mail from my POP3 accounts but i can't send anything! I have 2 POP3 Accounts and both refuse to send, i know it is not them because it works on my other computer (WinXP) I tried (From my linux box) to telnet to the servers on port 25 but could not connect This is really annoying becasue i can't send any mail! Also i know it is not Balsa's fault because i have tried with several mail clients. If anyone can help me out please reply. Thanks.

Have you been messing with IP tables of late?

Please post output from:

iptables -L

Flibble

hmm...

# iptables -L
# bash: iptables: command not found

that was run as root?

Flibble

Woops, hehe Here it is:

Hmm.. bang goes that theory.

Next try running Ethereal with a "host <mail server ip>" filter and then connecting on port 25 via telnet. Post output.

Alternatively if all you have got is tcpdump then tcpdump host <mail server ip> and telnet from another term. Again post output.

Flibble

Incidentally, with no firewall running, you might want to look at how securely your box is configured.

Flibble

This is the tcpdump command and then I telnetted from another term:

Something is configured to drop your packets (firewall) in between you and that host. You would otherwise expect either an ACK (if all OK) or a RST packet (if the host was up but the port was closed).

Can you ping the server? I get :

PING w.netfirms.com (209.171.43.26) 56(84) bytes of data.
From w.netfirms.com (209.171.43.26) icmp_seq=1 Destination Net Unreachable
From w.netfirms.com (209.171.43.26) icmp_seq=2 Destination Net Unreachable
From w.netfirms.com (209.171.43.26) icmp_seq=3 Destination Net Unreachable
From w.netfirms.com (209.171.43.26) icmp_seq=4 Destination Net Unreachable

--- w.netfirms.com ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 0 received, +4 errors, 100% packet loss, time 3029ms


Also when I look at what SMTP servers are authoritative for your domain, that's not one of them:

dig w.netfirms.com

; <<>> DiG 9.2.1 <<>> w.netfirms.com
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 46929
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;w.netfirms.com. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
w.netfirms.com. 86376 IN A 209.171.43.26

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
netfirms.com. 259176 IN NS ns1.netfirms.com.
netfirms.com. 259176 IN NS ns2.netfirms.com.

;; Query time: 246 msec
;; SERVER: 213.1.119.99#53(213.1.119.99)
;; WHEN: Sun Jun 15 20:31:58 2003
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 84

nslookup -silent
> server ns1.netfirms.com
Default server: ns1.netfirms.com
Address: 209.171.43.30#53
> set type=mx
> netfirms.com
Server: ns1.netfirms.com
Address: 209.171.43.30#53

netfirms.com mail exchanger = 10 mh.netfirms.com.
netfirms.com mail exchanger = 20 m0.netfirms.com.
> set type=a
> mh.netfirms.com
Server: ns1.netfirms.com
Address: 209.171.43.30#53

Name: mh.netfirms.com
Address: 216.208.35.70
>

This suggests to me that your SMTP servers for the netfirms.com domain are mh.netfirms.com with m0.netfirms.com as the secondary backup. Trying this I get:

telnet mh.netfirms.com 25
Trying 216.208.35.70...
Connected to mh.netfirms.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 mh.netfirms.com ESMTP

...which looks fine to me.

Flibble

I get this:

Nothing The same thing with my other POP3 account (hotpop.com)

Im thinking, maybe something was changed in my firewall...could i open a port or something to fix this?

What firewall are you running, I assumed it was iptables?

Flibble

No, I think i just have my routers firewall and thats it.

Ah!

What kind of router is it?

If its a Cisco then I can definately help you out, if not then try posting the (sanitised!) config and I'll see what I can do.


Flibble