On Thu, 17 Jan 2002, Tal Amir wrote:

> On Fri, 18 Jan 2002, Tzafrir Cohen wrote:
>
> > Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2002 01:08:00 +0200 (IST)
> > From: Tzafrir Cohen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > To: Tal Amir <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Cc: the linux-il mailing list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Subject: Re: access problem
> >
> > On Thu, 17 Jan 2002, Tal Amir wrote:
> >
> > > hi all,
> > >
> > > this is kind of trickey, so i'll try to be as clear as i can.
> > > i have a RH 6.2 machine at work, functioning as a mail-relay to an
> > > exchange server sitting in the local LAN, with NAT address.
> > > the linux machine is in a DMZ, with 1 nic, real ip.
> > > everything worked wonderfull for more then 2 years, until last week, when
> > > someone did a hard reset to that machine.
> > >
> >
> > Yuck. It is possible that some files got trashed in the process.
>
> thats my guess to... ;(
>
> >
> > > as for now, users that try to telnet this machine
>
> ssh is installed, but that does not explain why telnet isnt working.
> i use ssh most of the time.

ssh works and telnet doesn't work from the same place?

>
> > > or get mail from it (using ms outlook) are
> > > getting stuck in the autontication.the mail client gets stuck on
> > > "verifying username and password" for 1-2
> > > minuetes, and then gives up with a connection timeout.
> >
> > Outlook has very strange-looking error messages. Figuring them out is not
> > always easy.
> >
> > telnet your-server 110
> >
> > If and when a (tcp) connection is established, try writing the following:
> >
> > USER username
> > PASS topsecretpasswordinplaintext
> > QUIT
> >
> > (wu-imapd is very polite, and will give you a prompt for every step.
> >
>
> telnet to port's 110 and 25 works. only mail clients cant get to
> authonticate. this is the most wierd part (?!)
>
> >
> > > i forgot to mention that some users use this machine as a pop3 server, and
> > > others use the exchange (all mail messages
> > > are forwarded to teh exchange, except for users that have "CL username" in
> > > sendmail.conf .
> > > from the outside, all services work just fine.
> > >
> > > this is not a firewall problem, since i unloaded the policy, tried and got
> > > nothing as well.
> > > for some reason, i cannot get to authonticate (as pop3 or telnet) from the
> > > internal network.
> > > there is nothing preventing me to access in hosts.deny .
> > > i am able to ping that machine from the inside, but thats about all i can
> > > do. nothing more.
> > > i did not change anything,or even touched that machine since the last
> > > time it worked, so there is no way that i did
> > > something wrong in any of the configurationfiles.
> > > the only change that was "made" was that hard reset. (boy, is that guy
> > > gonna get it) ;)
> > >
> > > any idea's are welcomed.
> > > tal.
> >
> > Let's go one step at a time:
> >
> > * Is anybody listening on the ports of the internal interfaces? Perhaps
> > your programs only listen on specific IPs?
> >
>
> there ARE NO internal interfaces.
> 1 interface (eth0) with 1 real ip. this machine is in a dmz, and the
> firewall translates everything to it. this is why its accesible from both
> internal and external locations, and vice versa (it can access NAT
> addresses).
>
> > Use netstat -ln --tcp and see if any service listens on an address that is
> > not 0.0.0.0 (=all interfaces).
> >
> >
> > * Do packets from the clients get to the server?
> > Use tcpdump or any other sniffer. This could be a DNS problem or a routing
> > problem.
> >
>
> no routing problem. as i said, i can ping it from the internal LAN.
> also from outside. this is not the problem.
>

This does not eliminate routing problems. This also does not eliminate DNS
problems.

For instance: from your description I understand that remote access to the
mail server is through port-forwarding or something similar.

Is it possible that your mail clients try to access the "remote interface"
(due to DNS mis-configuration or whatever) and fail?

The fact that you can ping does not necessariliy means that you can
establish a TCP connection, and vice-versa.

DNS issues can be more problematic, since clients can (and sometimes do)
cache the answer to DNS queries.

I had an issue once which was related to a change of DNS address. One
cleint computer was not able to access a host after a DNS change. pinging
to the host name sent ping packets to the new address, but still the mail
client would not connect. I killed the mail client, and restartedit, but
it would still not conect. In the end it turned out that the DNS caching
was done by the over-protective pop3 proxy of Norton Anti-Virus.

What does tcpdump tell you?

>
> > * Have you looked at the logs? Any connection attempts logged?
> >
> another thing i forgot to mention : syslogd is running but not logging
> anything. the last log entry is at the same date when the hard reset
> acourd. i dont think that there is a connection, but go figure..

Totally queit? Too quiet?

-- 
Tzafrir Cohen                        /"\
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