Slow SMTP and POP3 connections
 

Hi folks!

I've got an issue with my mail server (RH7.3) at the moment, and this happened after a power failure which resulted in a abrupt shutdown of the server. I'm not sure if this has got to do with anything, but sendmail was running fine until then.

Here's the current situation:

Now it takes almost 2 minutes for a pop3/smtp reply via mail clients or telnet! I have gone looking for answers from various sources, from tuning down the identd timeout to checking on the host file, and even making sure that entries in resolv.conf were referrable. None of those changes solved anything.

Here's the ODD part.

If I were to telnet within the server itself to 127.0.0.1 or 192.168.1.111 via IP for example, it works instantly! But if I telnet to port 25 or 110 via localhost, I would have to wait up for ages before I could get the greeting message.

And yeah, if I were to ping localhost, it was able to resolve the address correctly, which means that my host file is configured correctly, no?

So here's a breakdown of the 'tests' that I've done:

# telnet localhost/external IP 25/110

- this takes forever for a reply!

# telnet 127.0.0.1/internal IP 25/110

-zaps in instantly!

I'm starting to run out of ideas, so any help would be appreciated! Thanks in advance!

sounds a bit like DNS troubles. do you have a DNS server running on the box? Every time I've encountered these problems, it was a DNS problem.