[sambar] Mail Server Woes

[Joe Byrne]

The osirsoft issue would cause a different problem, unless Sambar is reporting the wrong error message.  With the blacklists, its not an issue of finding the MX record, but rather one of making a determination to accept mail from a sender using a known (or suspected) open relay server.    The first thing to do is see if Sambar truly can't locate the MX record.  I don't know if Ipswich (www.ipswitch.com) allows you to download their WS_PingProPack software as a trial or not, but I find it an invaluable tool when dealing with DNS.  This utility will attempt to locate an IP address from any host using whatever DNS server you have.  It is especially useful since it will query any specific DNS record type you want.  So, with this program (or one like it) I would see if I can get MX resolution from the Sambar PC.  If so, then my guess is (a) a problem with Sambar's DNS or (b) a false error message from Sambar.  If you can't, then the problem is more likely something local or upstream that is filtering the DNS query or response, ie a change is a firewall or other filtering system.  Again, with WS_PingProPack, you can perform a very detailed trace and find the exact point where the request is failing.  Then you have something to work with.  For what it's worth, I can resolve the MX records with the DNS server I gave you so I doubt its a problem with the target's SOA server.  Its more likely a filter problem of some sort more localized to your connection.   Another thing to try is running your own DNS application and see if you can get through directly (I actually think doing this is crucial rather than relying on the ISP's DNS).  One of the better Windows based DNS servers is SimpleDNS Plus (http://www.jhsoft.com/).  A bit on the pricey side for DNS ($70.00?) but an absolutely fabulous piece of software.  I use it exclusively in an environment that gets upward of 50,000 DNS requests per minute and it barely phases the program. Set up and maintaining DNS records is also a breeze.  I know you can download a 15 day evaluation of SimpleDNS Plus, so I would try that, point your Sambar server to it and see if that isn't a better way to go.   --Joe   ----- Original Message ----- From: Sal D'Anna To: sambar List Member Sent: Sunday, August 31, 2003 2:31 PM Subject: [sambar] Mail Server Woes Hi Joe,   This is from a post a couple of days ago that could be related to your problem.   More info can be found here. http://slashdot.org/articles/03/08/27/0214238.shtml?tid=111&tid=126   From:   Danny Mallory For those of you using RBL.. FYI. A friend of mine called me yesterday because his RBL (not sambar) was dropping messages. After digging into it we found that none of the Osirusoft RBLs were responding anymore.. not even resolving DNS.. So we both pulled all entries for them in our mail configs.. Looks like the reason is out on slashdot today. http://slashdot.org/articles/03/08/27/0214238.shtml?tid=111&tid=126 ------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe please go to http://www.sambar.ch/list/ ------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe please go to http://www.sambar.ch/list/