Re: Random DNS and/or network issues

[Jay Kraly]

I've figured out my 554 problem sending to hotmail, it turns out my 
server was using 'localhost' as the outgoing smtp helloName.  I did 
specify the correct servername in the servernames block, but hadn't set 
autodetect=false or autodetectip=false so it always used the first name 
it found which was 'localhost' (second was 127.0.0.1 which also didn't 
work).  Reading the comments in the config.xml file I thought just 
adding a servername would override the autodetection, but I guess it is 
also necessary to turn off autodetection completely.

-J

Jay Kraly wrote:

Thanks for the answers.  If the 554 is not James fault but due to a 
transient issue on hotmail causing it to reject the mail, is there a 
way to tell James to resend those emails at a later time?  I've 
noticed that it immediately bounces the 554's to hotmail back to me, 
but on other unknownhostexceptions it keeps trying until my preset 
limit of retries.

I've recompiled 2.1.2 with "mail.debug" set to true to see if it will 
give me any further hint as to what is going wrong.  If any of the 
output looks useful I'll send it on to you to see if you can make any 
sense of it.

Thanks again for the help.

-J

Noel J. Bergman wrote:

The fact is that my clients who are using the James mail server are
getting fed up with my explanation that it is hotmail's fault and/or
transient network issues.
   

I send e-mails to Hotmail constantly without problems.  I scanned our james
logs, and we have never had this particular problem with Hotmail.  None of
the examples I posted earlier were related to James.  They had the same
problem with sendmail, exim, postfix, qmail, etc.  Don't take my word for
it: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=554+hotmail
The 554 is a deliberate rejection of the SMTP transaction from Hotmail, not
something coming from James.  That rejection is not based upon the James
code, but upon either the IP address, a problem with Hotmail, or the content
of the transaction.  For example, a 554 is often used to reject spam.  It
would be nice if Hotmail gave you more information related to the 554.
Are you aware that your mail server is in at least one spam-blocking DNS
RBL?  It isn't your fault.  You are just collateral damage in a /24
netblock.
 

the lack of stability when connecting to the outside world is
forcing me to consider switching to another platform.
   

Your experiences are more than atypical, and it is not clear if the
instability originates from within James or within the network.
 

I'm not trying to be a pain, just trying to ascertain whether James is
moving in a direction that will solve my problem, or not.
   

There is new DNS code in James v2.2.0aX, and there is always work to improve
stability and reliability.  There is nothing that James can do about that
554, but if there is something that we can do about the IP issue, we'd do
it.  If you can provide examples from your log, that could be helpful.
	--- Noel

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