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Can't send email to one specific domain.
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Can't send email to one specific domain. - 30.Sep.2008 5:50:55 PM
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Telarian
Posts: 3
Joined: 30.Sep.2008
Status: offline
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I'm trying to troubleshoot a problem we have sending to one specific domain.
We're running Exchange 2003 sp2 on Windows 2003 Std sp2.
We can send emails to any other domain just fine but when we try to send emails to any earthlink.net address, it fails with the following ndr.
There was a SMTP communication problem with the recipient's email server. Please contact your system administrator.
<mx.mydomain.com #5.5.0 smtp;550 Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable>
I can telnet to their mail exchangers on port 25 and receive proper smtp responses.
There is a similar problem having to do with ESMTP described in MS kb article # 828263, but this is not the same. We don't have the same symptoms and the other domains which would cause problems with that issue do not cause problems for us.
We've actually had this general problem for a long time. We ran into this over a year ago but unfortunately Earthlink refused to even talk to us about the issue. Even when we had one of their users on the phone with us they refused to discuss it. At that time the problem seemed to be that their mx records were simply wrong. The issue just sprang up suddenly. Since we couldn't get any help on the issue we just worked around it by adding an SMTP connector to exchange just for them and routing all of that mail directly to them at their working mail exchanger. That worked for a long time.
Recently it all stopped working again and we found that they had changed the names of their mail exchangers from mailX.earthlink.net to mxX.earthlink.net. So we made this change but they seem to have made some other changes as well, because it didn't solve the problem. So that's where we stand.
I thought I'd try calling them again but I get no answer at the phone number listed in their domain registration. Unfortunately their web site doesn't seem to list any good contact information for this kind of issue.
I should also point out that we've tried removing the Earthlink specific smtp connector and just handling them like anyone else again. It doesn't seem to help.
We've been using postmaster (which one hopes would be a valid address), hostmaster (which they list on their domain registration) and several known valid client addresses to test the issue. They all seem to have the same problem.
Perhaps even more tellingly, we've emailed these addresses from outside our system using gmail and yahoo accounts. They worked just dandy.
I've also checked the blacklists and we're not on any of those that I can find.
So now I'm turning to the msexchange.org community. Maybe one of you has a clue why this might happen. I sure don't.
I appreciate any response,
Tory
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RE: Can't send email to one specific domain. - 30.Sep.2008 11:20:27 PM
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uemurad
Posts: 5571
Joined: 7.Jan.2004
From: California, USA
Status: offline
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Check your SMTP log to see the responses you received from the Earthlink systems. They should at least give you a better idea of what is failing.
_____________________________
Regards,
Dean T. Uemura
Microsoft MVP - Exchange
exchangeguy.blogspot.com
uemurad@yahoo.com
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RE: Can't send email to one specific domain. - 1.Oct.2008 12:34:35 PM
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Telarian
Posts: 3
Joined: 30.Sep.2008
Status: offline
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heh
Thanks for the advice uemurad.
I'm still baffled, but at least I'm baffled with more information.
I suppose I'm just not experienced enough to make heads or tails of this log file, but it isn't telling me much. What do you think?
#Software: Microsoft Internet Information Services 6.0
#Version: 1.0
#Date: 2008-10-01 16:23:57
#Fields: date time c-ip cs-username s-sitename s-computername s-ip s-port cs-method cs-uri-stem cs-uri-query sc-status sc-win32-status sc-bytes cs-bytes time-taken cs-version cs-host cs(User-Agent) cs(Cookie) cs(Referer)
2008-10-01 16:25:24 209.86.93.228 OutboundConnectionResponse SMTPSVC1 myserver - 25 - - 220+mx-bracke.atl.sa.earthlink.net+ESMTP+Service+ready 0 0 54 0 94 SMTP - - - -
2008-10-01 16:25:24 209.86.93.228 OutboundConnectionCommand SMTPSVC1 myserver - 25 EHLO - mx.mydomain.com 0 0 4 0 94 SMTP - - - -
2008-10-01 16:25:24 209.86.93.228 OutboundConnectionResponse SMTPSVC1 myserver - 25 - - 250-Requested+mail+action+okay,+completed 0 0 41 0 281 SMTP - - - -
2008-10-01 16:25:24 209.86.93.228 OutboundConnectionCommand SMTPSVC1 myserver - 25 MAIL - FROM:<Tory@mydomain.com>+SIZE=9421 0 0 4 0 281 SMTP - - - -
2008-10-01 16:25:24 209.86.93.228 OutboundConnectionResponse SMTPSVC1 myserver - 25 - - 550+Requested+action+not+taken:+mailbox+unavailable 0 0 51 0 375 SMTP - - - -
2008-10-01 16:25:24 209.86.93.228 OutboundConnectionCommand SMTPSVC1 myserver - 25 QUIT - - 0 0 4 0 391 SMTP - - - -
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RE: Can't send email to one specific domain. - 1.Oct.2008 3:48:45 PM
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uemurad
Posts: 5571
Joined: 7.Jan.2004
From: California, USA
Status: offline
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I'm a bit puzzled by the log. Let's walk through it:
quote:
2008-10-01 16:25:24 209.86.93.228 OutboundConnectionResponse SMTPSVC1 myserver - 25 - - 220+mx-bracke.atl.sa.earthlink.net+ESMTP+Service+ready 0 0 54 0 94 SMTP - - - -
This is your server connecting to the external system
quote:
2008-10-01 16:25:24 209.86.93.228 OutboundConnectionCommand SMTPSVC1 myserver - 25 EHLO - mx.mydomain.com 0 0 4 0 94 SMTP - - - -
2008-10-01 16:25:24 209.86.93.228 OutboundConnectionResponse SMTPSVC1 myserver - 25 - - 250-Requested+mail+action+okay,+completed 0 0 41 0 281 SMTP - - - -
This is your server saying hello (EHLO), and the external system acknowledging your system (response code=250) and telling your system to proceed
quote:
2008-10-01 16:25:24 209.86.93.228 OutboundConnectionCommand SMTPSVC1 myserver - 25 MAIL - FROM:<Tory@mydomain.com>+SIZE=9421 0 0 4 0 281 SMTP - - - -
2008-10-01 16:25:24 209.86.93.228 OutboundConnectionResponse SMTPSVC1 myserver - 25 - - 550+Requested+action+not+taken:+mailbox+unavailable 0 0 51 0 375 SMTP - - - -
Here's where I'm puzzled. Your system is indicating the sending address (MAIL FROM), and the other system is responding by saying the mailbox is unavailable. Normally this happens in response to your specifying the recipient address (RCPT TO).
quote:
2008-10-01 16:25:24 209.86.93.228 OutboundConnectionCommand SMTPSVC1 myserver - 25 QUIT - - 0 0 4 0 391 SMTP - - - -
Your server responded to the rejection by disconnecting (QUIT). That is what it should do.
So, the question is, why is the sending address being rejected? It could be that you are required to have (and don't have) a reverse-DNS record (PTR) for the IP address from which you are sending. It could be that the domain you specify in your EHLO command doesn't match the domain in the reverse-DNS record. It could be that either your specific sending address or your domain is on a blacklist or greylist for the recipient domain.
Does any of this help you diagnose the underlying issue?
_____________________________
Regards,
Dean T. Uemura
Microsoft MVP - Exchange
exchangeguy.blogspot.com
uemurad@yahoo.com
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RE: Can't send email to one specific domain. - 1.Oct.2008 5:50:43 PM
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Telarian
Posts: 3
Joined: 30.Sep.2008
Status: offline
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Well, yes that definitely may shed some light on the problem. I knew that we had to have ptr records for the ip addresses of our mail exchangers, but I was not aware that they needed to match our domain. We do have ptr records but they don't match our domain name.
Actually, to be more precise, we do have ptr records on our dns servers that match our domain. Those dns zone's have not been delegated to our dns servers though. There are also valid ptr records for them on the dns servers of the isp's that provide the connections, but those don't match our domain. Those dns servers are the dns servers of record for those subnets.
I'm looking into what it would take to get our isp's to delegate those zones to us. That is something I would like to have done regardless of this issue.
On further examination though, that doesn't really even make sense to me. Some of our mail exchangers are external backup systems that are not owned by us. Those ptr records are never going to match our domain. Actually, those aren't currently used for outgoing mail, but I was in fact considering changing that. I thought I might see if I could work around this issue by forwarding all earthlink mail through one of those systems. I also thought I might put in a backup route going that way for all messages in case of some other failure.
As for black / grey lists that are internal to Earthlink... I suppose that's certainly possible but I haven't been able to find any information from them on such a system
Thank you uemurad and exchangegeek both for your insight on this issue. I really appreciate it.
< Message edited by Telarian -- 1.Oct.2008 5:52:43 PM >
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