Hi,

I just took over a server for a client friend of mine. Apparently 2 days ago their email worked fine. Now they can send but not receive email. It just doesn't connect from her client.



I have no working knowledge of mail servers.

I guess my first step would be:

How do I find out what program the old admin was using to handle the mail?

I appreciate all the help.



----- UPDATE --------

I did find out that the server is running exim. when running the exiwhat command this is what I receive.

8446 daemon: -q1h, listening for SMTP on port 25 (IPv6 and IPv4) port 587 (IPv6 and IPv4) and for SMTPS on port 465 (IPv6 and IPv4)


So obviously that part is working because my client can send emails.
Should exim be responsible for both incoming and outgoing or would a separate program be used for the pop3?

show the log of send pop and imap

When you say you've taken over the sever, has the server been moved from another location. If it has, then the ipaddress that the dns servers new where to find it would have changed. This could account for why you can send but not receive.

There was no IP changes. It is a dedicated server that my buddy owns. The last admin is no longer with us.

here is a netstat from the server. there is nothing listening on port 110. (serverhostname and my personal ip removed from paste)

she said all her mail worked fine up to now 3 days ago it stopped working.

Nobody has the new root password except for me, which was changed over a month ago now.

Only things I've done to the server was edit some websites that are hosted on it.


Active Internet connections (servers and established)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State PID/Program name
tcp 0 0 *:tcpmux *:* LISTEN 4316/portsentry
tcp 0 0 *:2082 *:* LISTEN 26800/cpsrvd (SSL)
tcp 0 0 *:2083 *:* LISTEN 26800/cpsrvd (SSL)
tcp 0 0 *:2086 *:* LISTEN 26800/cpsrvd (SSL)
tcp 0 0 *:2087 *:* LISTEN 26800/cpsrvd (SSL)
tcp 0 0 *:mysql *:* LISTEN 3750/mysqld
tcp 0 0 *:submission *:* LISTEN 8446/exim
tcp 0 0 localhost:783 *:* LISTEN 8468/spamd.pid --ma
tcp 0 0 *:2095 *:* LISTEN 26800/cpsrvd (SSL)
tcp 0 0 *:sunrpc *:* LISTEN 4316/portsentry
tcp 0 0 *:2096 *:* LISTEN 26800/cpsrvd (SSL)
tcp 0 0 *:http *:* LISTEN 5169/httpd
tcp 0 0 *:1040 *:* LISTEN 4297/perl
tcp 0 0 *:smtps *:* LISTEN 8446/exim
tcp 0 0 *serverhostname:domain *:* LISTEN 31084/named
tcp 0 0 localhost:domain *:* LISTEN 31084/named
tcp 0 0 *:ftp *:* LISTEN 3955/pure-ftpd (SER
tcp 0 0 *:ipp *:* LISTEN 2574/cupsd
tcp 0 0 *:smtp *:* LISTEN 8446/exim
tcp 0 0 localhost:rndc *:* LISTEN 31084/named
tcp 0 0 *:https *:* LISTEN 5169/httpd
tcp 0 0 *:2077 *:* LISTEN 26841/cpdavd - acce
tcp 0 0 *:2078 *:* LISTEN 26841/cpdavd - acce
tcp 0 0 *:submission *:* LISTEN 8446/exim
tcp 0 0 *:smtps *:* LISTEN 8446/exim
tcp 0 0 *:ftp *:* LISTEN 3955/pure-ftpd (SER
tcp 0 0 *:ssh *:* LISTEN 3722/sshd
tcp 0 0 *:smtp *:* LISTEN 8446/exim
tcp 0 4684 *serverhostname.com:ssh *my ip connected to ssh:59912 ESTABLISHED 19736/0
udp 0 0 *serverhostname.com:domain *:* 31084/named
udp 0 0 localhost:domain *:* 31084/named
udp 0 0 *:39408 *:* 31084/named
udp 0 0 *:ipp *:* 2574/cupsd
udp 0 0 *:39409 *:* 31084/named

If the sever is not listening on port 110, sounds like the pop3 sever is not down. exim handles smtp only, so there will be another program handling pop3, just need to find out which one.

Also what version of linux are you using?

turns out the server was running courier

not sure why it randomly stopped working, but I was able to restart the service and it appears to be working ok now.

thanks for the help

Glad you have it working again