Suddenly KMail cannot send mails: “Connection timed out”

English Applications
#1

Suddenly, this morning, in LEAP 15.1, KMail can not send e-mails. It says instead: “Sending e-mail has failed. Connection timed out”.
Receiving e-mails in POP3 is no problem. Sending with SMTP through port 25 to relay.skynet.be without authentification worked until yesterday, for long long years.
ALL my 6 computers have this sudden problem, even the one with Leap 15.1
I tried to change relay.skynet.be into relay.proximus.be, without results.
I tried to introduce authentication, result was the message “Authentification failed”.
I tried to send with STARTTLS through port 587, result was message “you have to start up STARTTLS first”.
All these trials were changes to a situation that worked for more than 15 years now …
I did telnet.proximus.be and telnet.skynet.be , both are normal, access is NOT denied.
I can send mails through the web application of my provider PROXIMUS, though.
Does somebody have an idea how to make KMail send e-mails again?

#2

Sorry, this all happens in LEAP 15.2 !!

#3
  1. Check the documentation of your e-Mail provider – may well be your ISP.
  2. Check that, the e-Mail provider’s SMTP host address is the same as what you have configured.
  3. Check that, the route to the SMTP host is OK – “traceroute --tcp «SMTP host
    »” – you could could also try “traceroute6” but, first check if the SMTP host is supporting IPv6 { dig -t AAAA «SMTP host» }.
#4

This is the response:
traceroute to relay.skynet.be (195.238.22.30), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 mymodem.lan (192.168.1.1) 1.985 ms 1.965 ms 3.305 ms
2 10.24.49.27 (10.24.49.27) 9.049 ms 9.043 ms 9.032 ms
3 * * *
4 ae-64-100.ibrstr6.isp.proximus.be (91.183.241.200) 11.715 ms 11.705 ms 12.510 ms
5 ae-21-1000.idrstr2.isp.proximus.be (91.183.246.107) 13.881 ms 13.865 ms 13.860 ms
6 lag-60-1000.pepfia15mes1.isp.proximus.be (91.183.240.5) 17.419 ms 9.853 ms 10.425 ms
7 * * *
8 * * *
9 * * *
10 * * *
11 * * *
12 * * *
13 * * *
14 * * *
15 * * *
16 * * *
17 * * *
18 * * *
19 * * *
20 * * *
21 * * *
22 * * *
23 * * *
24 * * *
25 * * *
26 * * *
27 * * *
28 * * *
29 * * *
30 * * *

Is that OK or not, I have no idea…

#5

This is the result:

traceroute to relay.skynet.be (195.238.22.30), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  mymodem.lan (192.168.1.1)  1.985 ms  1.965 ms  3.305 ms
 2  10.24.49.27 (10.24.49.27)  9.049 ms  9.043 ms  9.032 ms
 3  * * *
 4  ae-64-100.ibrstr6.isp.proximus.be (91.183.241.200)  11.715 ms  11.705 ms  12.510 ms
 5  ae-21-1000.idrstr2.isp.proximus.be (91.183.246.107)  13.881 ms  13.865 ms  13.860 ms
 6  lag-60-1000.pepfia15mes1.isp.proximus.be (91.183.240.5)  17.419 ms  9.853 ms  10.425 ms
 7  * * *
 8  * * *
 9  * * *
10  * * *
11  * * *
12  * * *
13  * * *
14  * * *
15  * * *
16  * * *
17  * * *
18  * * *
19  * * *
20  * * *
21  * * *
22  * * *
23  * * *
24  * * *
25  * * *
26  * * *
27  * * *
28  * * *
29  * * *
30  * * *

I have no idea what that means …

#6 
traceroute to relay.skynet.be (195.238.22.30), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  mymodem.lan (192.168.1.1)  1.985 ms  1.965 ms  3.305 ms
 2  10.24.49.27 (10.24.49.27)  9.049 ms  9.043 ms  9.032 ms
 3  * * *
 4  ae-64-100.ibrstr6.isp.proximus.be (91.183.241.200)  11.715 ms  11.705 ms  12.510 ms
 5  ae-21-1000.idrstr2.isp.proximus.be (91.183.246.107)  13.881 ms  13.865 ms  13.860 ms
 6  lag-60-1000.pepfia15mes1.isp.proximus.be (91.183.240.5)  17.419 ms  9.853 ms  10.425 ms
 7  * * *
 8  * * *
 9  * * *
10  * * *
11  * * *
12  * * *
13  * * *
14  * * *
15  * * *
16  * * *
17  * * *
18  * * *
19  * * *
20  * * *
21  * * *
22  * * *
23  * * *
24  * * *
25  * * *
26  * * *
27  * * *
28  * * *
29  * * *
30  * * *
#7

It’s not – there should be “«number» relay.skynet.be (195.238.22.30) … ” as the last line.

  • On the other hand, I get the same result here – “relay.skynet.be
    ” isn’t reachable … - A “ping” is dead – also …

 > ping relay.skynet.be
PING relay.glb.proximus.be (195.238.22.30) 56(84) bytes of data.
^C
--- relay.glb.proximus.be ping statistics ---
34 packets transmitted, 0 received, **100% packet loss**, time 33786ms

 >

Looking for the real reason –


 > dig relay.skynet.be

; <<>> DiG 9.16.6 <<>> relay.skynet.be
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: **NOERROR**, id: 3429
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;relay.skynet.be.               IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
relay.skynet.be.        300     IN      CNAME   **relay.glb.proximus.be**.
relay.glb.proximus.be.  300     IN      A       **195.238.22.30**

;; Query time: 63 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.178.1#53(192.168.178.1)
;; WHEN: Di Mär 23 15:04:26 CET 2021
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 93

 >

Your e-Mail provider is dead –


 > ping relay.glb.proximus.be.
PING relay.glb.proximus.be (195.238.22.30) 56(84) bytes of data.
^C
--- relay.glb.proximus.be ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 0 received, **100% packet loss**, time 3051ms

 > ping 195.238.22.30
PING 195.238.22.30 (195.238.22.30) 56(84) bytes of data.
^C
--- 195.238.22.30 ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 0 received, **100% packet loss**, time 3066ms

 >

As in –

A dead parrot – “is no more”, “has ceased to be”, “bereft of life, it rests in peace”, and “this is an ex-parrot” …

#8

@PolderPenguin:

BTW, you may have to, eventually, change the SMTP server name – <https://www.getmailbird.com/setup/access-skynet-be-via-imap-smtp> …

  • The new name, may, possibly, be “relay.proximus.be
    ” …

Currently, doesn’t help much – that server name is currently also dead …

#9

No the server relay.skynet is not dead it does not answer ICMP echo requsets. It rejects connections on port 25 form me but port 587 and STARTTLS works.
You can check this with the command:

> openssl s_client -starttls smtp -connect relay.skynet.be:587

There are several reasons why a negative traceroute result is not reliable.

#10

A simple SMTP server test is to see if you get any response by trying a telnet connection to the appropriate smtp port. As in:

telnet relay.glb.proximus.be 25

or

telnet relay.glb.proximus.be 587

My ISP responds with:

220 sa-prd-rgout-002.btmx-prd.synchronoss.net ESMTP Service ready
#11

@PolderPenguin:

Have you checked the KMail SMTP setup with port 587 and SSL/TLS in place of STARTTLS?

#12

I did that, and my ISP’s response was shorter than yours:
for port 25:

220 relay.proximus.be ESMTP

for port 587:

220-smtp.skynet.be ESMTP
220 Belgacom relay service - authentication required!

What should I do now?

#13

I have tried all these things, with no result.

Last week, in the evening suddenly everything went fine again. This morning also, but since noon today it is again impossible to send …

#14

That is OK AFAICS. You should set the outgoing server to use STARTTLS on port 587. It’s in the advanced part of the outgoing server for your account.
FYI many ISPs block port 25.

#15

I did that, and got a long response that ended so:

 Start Time: 1617025592
    Timeout   : 7200 (sec)
    Verify return code: 0 (ok)
    Extended master secret: no
---
250 STARTTLS

And what should I do now?

#16

I already told you. It’s in Kmail’s settings

#17
  1. How should I authenticate? Standard it has always been on “LOGIN”, but that seems not enough. Do I need to do “PLAIN”? or what?
  2. Do I need a pre-command?
#18

I restarted my computer and it worked again, like a charm.
I begin to suspect that the culprit is some update. Maybe better restart after every update? I hear they’re working at openSUSE on updates that are only applied with restarting of the computer.
Maybe my computer gets some new “identity mark” with some updates, and thus is not longer recognized by my ISP as the machine that had logged in before?
I’ll try to systematically report on that aspect: which updates are causing trouble.

Today’s updates were few, only two:

[2021-03-29 06:03:34|install|libunwind|1.5.0-lp152.5.6.1|x86_64||repo-update|c7cc6619577925f01d2af39e19ce630a9ee59a5877a467705b7455cea779c21b|
2021-03-29 06:03:34|install|libunwind-32bit|1.5.0-lp152.5.6.1|x86_64||repo-update|c3e0d8294841fdf5c7db67e1ed34490821b4688ccce0d1a4f1005a9335be80f9|
2021-03-29 06:03:34|install|psmisc|23.0-lp152.9.3.1|x86_64||repo-update|4cd6de9c8c14a301d7161c64c1712b3e1750d1a1d38d1a07ceb7f45097f8aaeb|
2021-03-29 06:03:34|install|psmisc-lang|23.0-lp152.9.3.1|noarch||repo-update|2fd3bdbfc47d97080ded018866dd4b3a6ad6a12a133891358b4f4d37a07aeac8|
2021-03-29 06:03:34|patch  |openSUSE-2021-483|1|noarch|repo-update|moderate|recommended|needed|applied|
2021-03-29 06:03:34|patch  |openSUSE-2021-484|1|noarch|repo-update|moderate|recommended|needed|applied|/CODE]

As for my sendings, it is still working with these age-old settings:
relay.skynet.be
no authentication required
no encryption
port 25
authentication: LOGIN 

Thanks to all of you who helped me in the search ! ...