I don't know, my experience with SMTP is, if you don't get an error
message, it went and you need to look at the mailserver logs to see
what happened. Although Outlook is pretty bad about useful error
messages.
When you say it only occurs with Outlook, I take it you don't mean
that particular email client, but rather it works if you use webmail.
Have you tried temporarily a different email client from the problem
computer, like Thunderbird or Windows Live Mail?
The most useful thing, especially if you or the customer controls the
mailserver, is to look at the logs right after sending an email. Was
the message received? Was it relayed and did it go to the right
mailserver according to MX records and to the right recipient? Was it
accepted by the recipient's mailserver, and if not, what SMTP error
codes were logged? Is it still in the mailserver queue being retried?
If you had packet loss so bad that outgoing email didn't work, I'd
expect trouble with incoming mail, webmail, web browsing, etc.
And if Outlook is unable to send the email, you should get an error
message, and the message should be stuck in the Outlook outbox.
Unless some antivirus program is spoofing to Outlook that it was sent.
-----Original Message----- From: Bill Prince via Af
Sent: Friday, October 31, 2014 10:53 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] outlook becomes "intermittent" in satellite office
It was doing this on 5.21; we upgraded to 5.26 as a test. No
difference. And, it's the same router whether it's local (main office)
or remote (satellite office).
The symptom is that "some" email never reaches the destination only
when
sent from a computer in the satellite office, and only when using
outlook.
If the email is sent from web mail from a computer in the satellite
office, it works fine. Received email is fine.
Likewise, if the computer is moved from the satellite office to the
main
office, it works fine too.
It's not recipient specific. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Regardless of recipient.
My current suspicion is that there is "something" going on with the
VDSL
link. It's the weakest link in the chain, and using old phone cables
that were buried a couple decades ago. Maybe an MTU issue, but I'm
guessing that it's load related; and SMTP is more sensitive to the
issue
than most other things.
bp
On 10/31/2014 4:18 AM, Shayne Lebrun via Af wrote:
Get rid of 5.26; in my experience, it has odd packet loss problems.
Drop down to 5.19, or go up to 6.
Also, what happens to the email that 'doesn't reach it's
destination?' Are
you having problems sending, or receiving?
-----Original Message-----
From: Af [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bill Prince via Af
Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2014 8:59 PM
To: Motorola III
Subject: [AFMUG] outlook becomes "intermittent" in satellite office
This is a bizarre set of symptoms, and I really don't know what is
going on.
So I will articulate the facts, and maybe one of you can tell me what
might
be wrong.
We have a business subscriber that occupies several buildings. The
buildings are separated by enough distance that we have to
interconnect by
means other than vanilla ethernet.
Our service is delivered to their main office. Our SM is installed
there
(PMP450), plus a Mikrotik router on ROS 5.26. The Mikrotik manages 4
VLANs;
1 business VLAN, which is bridged to the main subnet in the main
office.
The other 3 VLANs are guest VLANs; each on their own
(private) subnet.
All the computers, etc. work fine in the main office.
The main office is connected to the "guest building" with a VDSL
modem (~~
800' phone line between buildings). Not much occurs in the guest
building;
it has a couple of WiFi APs for the guests.
In the guest building, we've installed an RB260GS switch. It divides
the
various ports out to 4 different VLANs. A couple ports are the
"business
VLAN", plus 3 different "guest VLANs". The SFP port on the RB260GS
is used
to connect to the "satellite office" another couple hundred yards
beyond the
guest building. The SFP port is on the business VLAN.
At the satellite office, they have 2 computers. Everything on the 2
computers in the satellite office seems to work just fine. Web
browsing,
streaming youtube, etc.
However, when they run Outlook, "some" email doesn't go to the
destination.
As far as we can tell, it gets to their off-site SMTP server
(Globat), but
some of it doesn't ever reach its destination. If they use their
web-based
email, the email works every time. Also, the POP part of the email
works
just like you'd expect.
Today, we moved one of the computers back to the main office, and
surprise,
surprise, Outlook starts working just like it's supposed to.
We've run extended ping tests between the satellite office and the
main
office, and there is no break in the link. It seems solid. So
where/how is
the SMTP part of email breaking?
What tests can I run to figure this out?
--
bp
