We operate a Sendmail 8.12 server for the 8 people in the main office, with Fetchmail 6.3 picking up mail from our ISP.

Recently we changed ISP, and since then, instead of taking less than a minute to get all the eMails waiting at our ISP, it takes over 15 mins .. and outbound mail won't go at all.

We can stand the slow trickle in, but the outbound will have to be fixed. We get 'DNS failure to resolve smtp.ozemail.com.au' (our ISP's outbound server). Then of course all the attempted re-sends start clogging up the system over time.

From the server, I can ping the IP address of smtp.ozemail.com.au, but can't ping it by name, which makes me think there's a problem with nameservice. I have set our internal named as primary, and ozemail's nameserver as secondary.

From any other host on our network, I can ping smtp.ozemail.com.au by name, just not from our internal mailserver.

Everything used to work perfect when we were with Bigpond, it's all happened since we changed ISP ..
any advice much appreciated.

Grif

I hope I'm not insulting you by suggesting you just put the ip and name (of the ISP) in your hosts file. That will get read first and you won't have to worry about looking up the ISP mail server via DNS. No more look ups, except on the local file system. It sounds like your organization is small enough that using this scheme is adequate for your needs.

Outbound mail isn't a fetchmail issue, and it sounds like your fetchmail problem isthe same as your SMTP - it can't find the mail server.

Quick question - having set up my own name server and found it far more difficult than I'd expected, why don't you just use the ISPs as primary? Do you particularly need need it for local use? Are you name serving on the "other host" or trying to do it from both? It seems odd that the other host works OK if that's the name server but you can't get the address from from your mail box. have you configured bind (or whatever) to accept queries from other machine on the network (from memory you need to do this from named.conf).

ps - you must be one of the few people who says everything was fine with bigpond

Meetscott, thanks.
I'm never insulted by people who are trying to help.
I had thought of just setting the IP address in .HOSTS,
but that seemed the 'coward's way out', and wanted to solve the prob by understanding it properly. If I can't do that by the end of the week, I'll certainly 'retire hurt' and just stick it in .hosts.

BillyMayDay, thanks.

Last things first .. I am actually embarrassed to say things were fine with Bigpond. I have to admit that at all other times they've given service that could be called lousy if it improved a bit. They were very 'So what?' when we asked for their help with a DOS attack last year.

As for the ISP etc .. we use them as the collection point for all mail to anyuser@mc-aust.com.au. Fetchmail go-gets it all, and Sendmail then parses eMails into seoparate mailboxes on our local server, so everyone in the office has their own mailbox and mailaddress.

The prob that only started when we changed to Ozemail, is that the obvious reverse check of the sender's domain before acceprting the mail from the multidrop box at Ozemail, fails. You see it start the download exchange, then stall, fail, try again, fail, give up and accept it anyway, and move on to the next mail item waiting. But the two check/fail steps take a min or so to get thru.

If I ping the domain that Fetchmail is obviously having trouble with, I can get a response, so the DNS is obviously working. My resolv.conf has two 'nameserver' lines, one for my internal, and one for the nameserver at Ozemail, so if mine fails to resolve it, it falls thru to Ozemail's. I guess that's the two check/fail steps I see.

The extra funny thing is that if I ping other domains by name, the turnaround is very quick, EXCEPT for Bigpond, which takes usually over 900ms .. it seems as if Ozemail is deliberately 'throttling' the opposition!!

anyhow .. any other thoughts?

Grif

Another possiblity would be to use a different service altogether. I would suggest http://www.dyndns.com and take a look at their mail services. I don't use this service because you have to pay for it and I'm a cheapo but I have used their free domain names and dynamic updating to keep my computer accessible from anywhere. My ISP will change the IP address from time to time. I leave a daemon going to check it every 5 minutes and update it if necessary. http://www.dyndns.com is a top notch outfit. They've had a 100% uptime for years. It's kind of a do-it-yourself site you set up via the internet but you sound pretty driven so this would suit you fine. If I made a little more money I would definitely do it. Family takes priority over email ;-)

I just realized you're all the way in Australia! I would think it would still be available but I don't really know. Interesting. If you do look into http://www.dyndns.com I would be appreciate you posting back and letting us know it goes. How cool is that!? Communicating all the way around the world! You gotta love the Linux Community! Maybe I should add USA to my location instead of just Scottsdale, Arizona.

MeetScott, thanks
I had a look, and must admit that I didn't understand what some of the offerings were about, but I can get to it just fine.
Linux community worldwide? I have to agree it's great. Everyone seems happy to help where they can, and take time to be patient with dummies.
I look fwd to being able to help someone, someday, use Linux where Windows was once the only obvious solution.
It's a ppity that Linux use still requires you to be a bit on the geek side. I saw someone in the Linux community deride Windows by saying 'oh any dill can use Windows!!', well, that's just the point, isn't it. If Linux was that easy to deploy, it would be a world beater wouldn't it?

Agreed. I've been using Linux for over 10 years. I'm an Aerospace Engineer (yeah I know rocket science) and a software engineer. You don't need the education I have to use Linux but you better damn well have some real dedication. I would never use anything else personally. In fact, I haven't even owned a Windows based system in years. I'm more comfortable in a Linux environment by far. I get things done more efficiently. I cannot be intellectually honest and say that it's better for a professional like my wife, who has a masters degree in nursing or my dad who is a developer, an aerospace engineer and an electrical engineer. It's just not polished enough for some people and I can appreciate that. I hope some day it is. I want everyone to enjoy the freedom and efficiency I do but it has taken me a long time to get to this point! I started using Linux for the thrill of the challenge and now I depend on it at work and at home. I've had to be passonate about it and I think you still have to have that passion to use it successfully. Let's hope it continues like it is because it's a hell of a lot better than it used to be!

Russell, do you have any problems downloading mail with a standard pop client - something like evolution under linux or outlook under windows (from the same servers)?

Are you suggesting that fetchmail is doing a reverse DNS check? I didn't think it did that. That's in your fetchmail file (.fetchmailrc or whatever)?

How are you running fetchmail and what options are you using?

How's Tarren Point?

meetscott, you don't need to add the USA part, only an American would put AZ after a city (cheap jibe, but hey, I work for an American company and always rib my US colleagues on this sort of thing and I couldn't resist the tempation.)

I deserve a little jibe. If I forget how to laugh at myself and be humiliated (in a good way), I'm in worse trouble than if I add the USA! Or not add the USA? What am I supposed to do again? ;-)

BillyMayday
No prob at all using a POP client .. the mail rips down!
as long as it's on a host other than the mailserver.
For some reason mail transactions on the linux box are either slow coming in, as mentioned, or don't work at all outbound, while they used to be almost instantaneous.

I 'watch' the site from home, and set up some reports to be mail to me by CRON every night at 8pm. a few scripts concatenate a few things like Mailstats, and size if mailboxes (so I can see if ones growing and I need to check an internal user's mail client, or redirect his/her mail 'cos he/she's on hols etc.

I just create the file and then use mail -sStuff Russgriffiths@etc < file
to get it away. That don't work any more either.

Something's seriously broken and I just can't find what, but it seems to be wrapped up in DNS service on the box. ie .. ping 68.142.197.85 works fine, but ping www.yahoo.com fails.

I'll get copies of resolv.conf and named.conf tomorrow.

MeetScott
Don't let them tease you about that ponytail!!
(a quote from the movie The Fugitive)
Grif

The Fugitive is a great movie. I added USA for you guys ;-) And I added my name. It kind of bothers me being referred to as meetscott. I'm just plain old boring Scott. And by the way. I just cut off my long hair a few months ago. I was trying to look a little better while I was looking for a new job. Wife wants me to grow it back but it's too damn hot in Arizona for it. Didn't bother me back in Minnesota. Makes me smile when someone mentions my ponytail even though I don't have it anymore

Guys .. all fixed
turns out the DNS was broken

The DHCP server on the new router supplied by the new ISP wrote some stuff into the config files.

I took out the 'new line' .. a domain reference, and punched '/etc/rc3.d/S55named restart' .. and everything fired up.
A bazillion eMails poured in at next poll of the main account, and all the relay mail to the road warriors went out like lightning.

Guess who has now disabled DHCP and given all the internal hosts fixed ip addresses??

Thanks for inputs

grif