I am unable to send email. It appears I am being blocked by my ISP (Teksavvy.com). A Wireshark trace shows ICMP type 3 Code 13 - “Administratively filtered”.
It’s important to note that I don’t know exactly when the problem started, because I seldom use my ISP email account, I use Yahoo web mail due to the “throwaway” nature if I get hit with spam. I only discovered the problem when testing the functionality of 11.2. I suspect the problem started several months ago: I restored openSUSE 10.0 and the problem exists there too. I wish I’d sent that last email via 10.0 before the upgrade
The weird thing is that using Windows 2000 box I can get a successful connection using telnet (Telnet also fails on the openSUSE box.)
It appears to me there is something in the Linux TCP stack that Teksavvy doesn’t like.
BTW I am on dial up and I pointed this out to Teksavvy tech support, as I am probably the only person left on dialup and the reason no one else has reported the problem even though the change may have been made weeks ago
It’s often the case that ISPs block home broadband accounts from directly sending mail, due to malware trying to send out spam. The solution is to use the ISP’s relayhost, as you are meant to. You specify the relayhost in /etc/sysconfig/postfix, or in /etc/postfix/main.cf if you have taken over maintenance of main.cf from YaST.
I intended to state that I cannot telnet to port 25 on the Teksavvy SMTP server using either 10.0 or 11.2 openSUSE.
As stated, I can successfully telnet to port 25 using a Windows 2000 box.
Regarding the reply from ken_yap:
It’s often the case that ISPs block home broadband accounts from directly sending mail, due to malware trying to send out spam. The solution is to use the ISP’s relayhost, as you are meant to. You specify the relayhost in /etc/sysconfig/postfix, or in /etc/postfix/main.cf if you have taken over maintenance of main.cf from YaST.
I have received no information from Teksavvy regarding configuration of a “relay host”. My email client(s) are set up as they always have been, using the SMTP server name specified by Teksavvy. This is the only configuration required (as per their website instructions) and it has always worked in the past. I also wonder how the Windows 2000 box works - it can connect to port 25 no problem. The mind boggles.
That said I did stumble on this today: a thread on url=http://www.broadbandreports.com by a TSI person “TSI Marc” dated Nov 30 2009, the first lie which states:
Just a heads up that we’ll start filtering outbound port 25 for dynamic IPs.
A subsequent post in the thread by TSI Marc dated Dec 01 2009 says:
It’s rolled out now. the network hasn’t gone banana yet. knock on wood
The timing coincides with when I believe my problem started (November/December).
I have already reported this to Teksavvy asking for ideas, but felt stupid for commenting it only affects Linux. If Windows works…
kmzsuse wrote:
>> Telnet also fails on the openSUSE box.
> I intended to state that I cannot telnet to port 25 on the Teksavvy
> SMTP server using either 10.0 or 11.2 openSUSE.
what is the exact command you are using to try to telnet their smtp
server?
but, why are you trying to telnet in anyway? have you ever telnetted
into an smtp server? if so, then you know it will not prompt for
either ID or password…right?
> My email client(s) are set up as they always have been,
> using the SMTP server name specified by Teksavvy. This is the only
> configuration required (as per their website instructions) and it has
> always worked in the past.
really? i see on the linked pages above that you have to provide an ID
and password…
On Sun, 03 Jan 2010 19:06:02 +0000, kmzsuse wrote:
>> Telnet also fails on the openSUSE box.
>
> I intended to state that I cannot telnet to port 25 on the Teksavvy SMTP
> server using either 10.0 or 11.2 openSUSE.
“Administratively filtered” tells me that the ISP deliberately blocked it
It’s the openSUSE on my box (versions 10 and 11.2).
I booted up a December 9 2003 version of Mandrake Move, configured Kmail and it works perfectly. Whatever changed at Teksavvy with blocking port 25 seems to be preventing my configuration of openSUSE 10 and 11.2 from accessing the Teksavvy SMTP server.
In response to the question as to why I was trying to telnet, it’s because it’s the simplest way to find out if the SMTP port is open.
As expected the above command worked on Mandrake Move.
I doubt it’s anything (stupid) that I did during the (several) OS installation attempts (one was a restore of version 10 which was working) - I’ve been running various flavours of Linux for 10 years and did network support for 10 years, so this stuff is pretty much old hat. I tries basic installations - the KISS principle
I am expecting to receive (my first) Ubuntu any day now. If it works, it may be time for a change rather than spend time chasing this any further.
You’ve only found one of the conditions that may be contributing to the problem. A solution explains the reason for the problem. There is no explanation here. Also reinstallation is a rather blunt debugging technique.
If it works, it may be time for a change rather than spend time chasing this any further.
That’s a shame, but it’s your time, and understandable.
kmzsuse wrote:
> I am expecting to receive (my first) Ubuntu any day now. If it works,
> it may be time for a change rather than spend time chasing this any
> further.
Agreed… for testing ports drop telnet as it’s crap:
netcat -zv ipAddressHere 25
Post the output. Also ‘No Route to Host’ is usually a problem due to
network configuration. I would be very suspicious of seeing that on one
host but not another because of differences in the TCP stack. Possible?
Perhaps. Likely? No. Post the LAN trace of a working and broken box:
sudo /usr/sbin/tcpdump -s 0 -w /tmp/cap0.cap
<do test in another shell, then ctrl+c to close this and post the
/tmp/cap0.cap files>
Good luck.
ken yap wrote:
> kmzsuse;2097662 Wrote:
>> I have located the source of the problem.
>>
>> It’s the openSUSE on my box (versions 10 and 11.2).
>
> You’ve only found one of the conditions that may be contributing to the
> problem. A solution explains the reason for the problem. There is no
> explanation here. Also reinstallation is a rather blunt debugging
> technique.
>
>> If it works, it may be time for a change rather than spend time chasing
>> this any further.
>
> That’s a shame, but it’s your time, and understandable.
>
>
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