E-mail client problem

garyg007 · 05-29-2009, 05:08 PM

I am using Slackware 12.2; with Thunderbird
version 2.0.0.18 (20081105) e-mail client.
The client will not connect to the e-mail server; but the client will send messages.

My e-mail is accessable using a web browser.

This used to work.

Anyone have any idea what in the world could have caused this failure?

I do not believe this is a slackware problem, but thats the primary distro I am using - so I posted here.

gary

justin_p · 05-29-2009, 05:51 PM

Did you do anything recently to change your configuration? Which version are you running?

Those would be the first things I looked at.

gargamel · 05-30-2009, 02:33 AM

I you haven't changed your configuration and not installed an update of your mail server and/or client, I don't know, but here are some things you might look for (sorry if some of them sound trivial to you...).

/etc/rc.d/rc.sendmail
Is this file executable?

Are you using a local mail folder in Thunderbird?
Or is it configured to be able to fetch email for you from your webmail account?

Did you configure a mail server in Thunderbird?
If so: Is it the local one or an Internet mail server?

I don't know Thunderbird too well, but as far as I remember it's possible to prevent it from sending without explicit user interaction. It may be helpful to use this option in order to track it all down.

gargamel

Nille_kungen · 05-30-2009, 03:09 AM

When i have these kind of problems i often try telnet to the mail server to see if it works ok and i try all steps to fetch a mail.
Has there been any updates on the mail server?

astrogeek · 05-30-2009, 03:17 AM

Hi garyg007,

I recently had a similar problem - my Tbird quit connecting to the accounts from one host (others were still working, maybe a clue).

The host said nothing had changed but I found that I had to change the account names for all those on that host from username@host.com to simply username (or vice-versa, I forget which). Obviously they had changed something.

I also recall a long ago similar problem when server name changed from pop.host.com to mail.host.com - try a few common variations.

If it is from one host probably a server change.

Dinithion · 05-30-2009, 03:25 AM

I would probably use a different approach. From the information we got, it seems the problems just started existing out of thin air. A email provider will most certainly not be down for several days, so there is reason to believe that the error is somewhere in between the email-server and your computer.

From what I get, you have problems getting email, and not sending. Therefor I would start checking your email service. I find it simplest to use telnet for such purposes (If they don't demand ssl). Connect to your mail-server at the port your client is connected (The standard pop3/imap) and see if you are able to log on "manually".

connect to yout e-mail server:
imap:
telnet <address> 143

You will get something like this:
* OK IMAP4 ready

Login:
login username@emailaddress.com <password>

pop3:
telnet <address> 110

you should get something like this:
+OK <something>

Login:
user <username> (Without domain)

(Reply: +OK)
pass <password>
(Reply: +OK)

This way you can check if you get connected, and if you do you can verify your username and password. I like this method. If you can't connect, verify the domain you ought to connect. Some providers use the same for all connections, i.e. mail.provider.com, while others use different servers for different protocols, i.e. pop.provider.com or imap.provider.com. This information should be updated at their FAQ etc. If your connection information is corrent and you can connect to the server, then the server is working. If you cant connect; check your router, firewall etc.

Alternately you could configure another mail-client to check if the server is working properly. You could use something like gkrellm and configure a email notification. It has support for imap/pop3 with and without ssl.

If it works, I would reconfigure/double check my thunderbird configuration.

ehdwuld · 05-30-2009, 08:51 PM

For weeks I couldnt get to my hotmail acct with thunder bird
it seems the website had an ad that needed to be "no thanks"'d and thunderbird couldnt do that

just on the subject
kinds
sorta
maybe not

garyg007 · 06-05-2009, 03:58 PM

@Dinithion: Thankyou for the suggestions.Tried "telnet" and the telnet commands were partially successfull - no error message, but also never got a response from the server.

Then here is what I did:
(For those who care, my ISP is windstream.net) After reserecting my windows box (Windstream won't talk to you if you are not running Windows), Windstream was contacted and I spent about 40 minuets on the phone with them to configure outlook-express. Using the configuration they provided, I was still not able to connect to the e-mail in box. So I have 2 linux computers, my sons win98 box and my revived XP box. and they can all send an e-mail but none of them can receive mail.

Something else I found out, about May 15 Windstream changed the domain names of their e-mail servers --- from "mail.alltel.net" to "pop.windstream.net". Obviously, that was the first problem.That having been fixed, now it appears that port 110 is closed/blocked.

iptables has been de-activated (I think); The linksys people insist that there is nothing that needs to be changed in there router config (it is set to factory defaults) And the windstream people want to sell me a monthly maintenance agreement to assist with the network device that they provided (it is a speedstream 5200).

SOOooo.... It boils down to

Quote:

can anyone assist in verifying that port 110 really is blocked, and if it is locating the source of the block

Thanks all for the comments, so far

Gary

Alien Bob · 06-05-2009, 04:27 PM

Looks accessible from here:

Code:

$ telnet pop.windstream.net 110
Trying 166.102.165.130...
Connected to pop.windstream.net.
Escape character is '^]'.
+OK Windstream.net POP3 Server ispmxfep01

Eric

garyg007 · 06-05-2009, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alien Bob

Looks accessible from here:

Code:

$ telnet pop.windstream.net 110
Trying 166.102.165.130...
Connected to pop.windstream.net.
Escape character is '^]'.
+OK Windstream.net POP3 Server ispmxfep01

Eric

Hello Eric

here is what I get:

Code:

gary@suseLaptop:~> telnet pop.windstream.net 110
Trying 166.102.165.130...

That is it!
on all 4 pc's - both windows and linux; thats why I am thinking that port 110 is getting blocked - Shields-up at grc.com shows that port 110 is closed; even with thunderbird running, port 110 does not appear to be open.

any idea what could be the source of the port being blocked?

after an extended wait the response is

Code:

gary@suseLaptop:~> telnet pop.windstream.net 110
Trying 166.102.165.130...
telnet: connect to address 166.102.165.130: Connection timed out
gary@suseLaptop:~>

So why is it timing out?

mRgOBLIN · 06-05-2009, 08:20 PM

Looks like it's being filtered somewhere (it's open from here).

Can you even ping that IP address 166.102.165.130 ?

If ping fails try "mtr 166.102.165.130" to see where it's being dropped.

garyg007 · 06-05-2009, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mRgOBLIN

Looks like it's being filtered somewhere (it's open from here).

Can you even ping that IP address 166.102.165.130 ?

If ping fails try "mtr 166.102.165.130" to see where it's being dropped.

No joy!

Code:

Debian:/home/gary# ping 166.102.165.130
PING 166.102.165.130 (166.102.165.130) 56(84) bytes of data.
^C
--- 166.102.165.130 ping statistics ---
9 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 8014ms

Debian:/home/gary# mtr 166.102.165.130
bash: mtr: command not found
Debian:/home/gary#

garyg007 · 06-05-2009, 11:38 PM

found and installed mtr. Here are the results of running it. I'm not shure how to interpret what I am seeing.
192.168.1.1 is the linksys wireless router.
192.168.254.254 is the speedstream 5200 modem/router

mRgOBLIN · 06-06-2009, 01:46 AM

My guess would be a routing problem either with your speedstream or your ISP.

Compare a few mtr traces to things like your ISPs nameserver, google.com and the IP of your smtp server.

Dinithion · 06-06-2009, 02:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by garyg007

Hello Eric
on all 4 pc's - both windows and linux; thats why I am thinking that port 110 is getting blocked - Shields-up at grc.com shows that port 110 is closed; even with thunderbird running, port 110 does not appear to be open.

Btw, that's not the way it works. You are not a server, and you computer doesn't listen to port 110. Therefor grc doesn't see port 110 as open. When you check your email, you use a port from your computer (Way beyond 110) to connect to your ISPs mail-server at port 110.

The conclusion is, as mrgoblin said a router problem. On my linksys I there aren't any options to block destination ports. I have no experience from speedstream, but I doubt the standard configuration block outgoing pop3 connections. That sound really odd.

Can you connect to their secure pop3 server? Try:
telnet pop.windstream.net 995

This works here. If it doesn't they blocked that port as well. On this port you can't logon, onless you manually set up a ssl tunnel. And that's not a trivial thing to do. But if you can connect to this port, try to configure your mailclient to use ssl instead. But I guess you've tried that already.