Topic: Really bizarre behavior between SME mail server and Hotmail

[hamdodger]

I have a completely pristing SME 7.2 server install, with qmail running fine.  It properly sends/receives email from any domain I try, except I am having the weirdest issue with Hotmail.

If I try and send a mail from scratch to my Hotmail address, it never appears to get there.  However, if I initiate an email from Hotmail, it arrives in my spool almost immediately.  And if I reply to the mail that's initiated from Hotmail, it arrives instantaneously in my Hotmail Inbox.

And yes, I've made absolutely sure that I'm spelling my Hotmail email address correctly.

Any ideas as to what is going on?

P.S. On a seperate note, how to I flush my qmail outbound spool?  This is just for my own knowledge, for future reference.

[shawnbishop]

The hotmail issue...???

But to flush your qmail queue, install and rpm called smeserver-saco-qmHandle, just search for it....

gives you options via command line to control qmail

[ldkeen]

I had to end up sending any mail destined for hotmail through my ISP:
mkdir -p /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/var/qmail/control/smtproutes
cd /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/var/qmail/control/smtproutes
touch 40hotmail
echo "hotmail.com:you_ISP_goes_here" > 40hotmail
expand-template /var/qmail/control/smtproutes
signal-event email-update
Regards, Lloyd

[MSmith]

Doesn't sound bizarre at all to me; sounds as though Hotmail is silently dropping your SMTP traffic.  Or do you have your email routed through your ISP's SMTP server in the appropriate server manager panel?  If that is the case then you *do* have a problem.

[hamdodger]

When I send mails to Hotmail using my ISP's SMTP relay, it arrives with no issues.  

But it still doesn't explain why the Hotmail emails that I reply to go straight through, but ones that I compose from scratch get dropped?  Logs from my server show that all emails

Log files show that the emails being sent to Hotmail are definitely making it out of my server.   It also shows that some outbound emails to Yahoo are being deferred with a 421 error (not enough resources), which also doesn't make any sense to me.    They eventually arrive, but always with a delay.  And again when I immediately reply to Yahoo emails, they arrive in my Yahoo Inbox instantaneously.

 Mails to all other external SMTP servers (Gmail, other corporate mail severs, etc.) are also instantaenous.

sbytes  mess  tries  xdelay  recipient
  8127    10     10   17.02  remote.mytestaccount@gmail.com
 19354    22     22    4.61  remote.mytestaccount@hotmail.com
 11891    15     54   97.89  remote.mytestaccount@yahoo.com

[CharlieBrady]

Log files show that the emails being sent to Hotmail are definitely making it out of my server.

Hotmail loses (or deletes) lots of mail:

http://www.theregister.com/2007/05/01/hotmail_friendly_fire/
http://hubpages.com/hub/Hotmail_Fails_To_Deliver_Up_To_81_Of_All_Attachment_Emails

Do you have reason not to use your ISP's relay?

[hamdodger]

Yeah I wound up using my ISP's SMTP relay, and that was definitely the fix.

[pfloor]

If you have control of your DNS record, you can also try to create an SPF record int the TXT area.  This worked for me for sending email to both hotmail and msn.

I believe there are other methods for setting an SPF record but the easiest for me was to update my DNS record.

Check here http://www.openspf.org/

[crazybob]

Paul, Could you give a short example of this?

Thanks

Bob

[pfloor]

Your DNS record must be complete including a proper MX record.  Then you add a TXT record something like this:

Code: [Select]


Host                    TTL     Type        Data
domain.com              600     TXT     "v=spf1 mx ~all"
hostname.domain.com     600     TXT     "v=spf1 mx ~all"

If you go to the link above, they have a tool that you answer questions about your domain and it gives you the TXT record syntax.

-Paul

[Normando]

Hello pfloor

If I have one primary domain domain1.com, and also a few virtual domains, as domain2.com and so on, how I can configure the TXT records for domains? One for domain, or only for primary domain?

Thank you

[cactus]

Hello pfloor

If I have one primary domain domain1.com, and also a few virtual domains, as domain2.com and so on, how I can configure the TXT records for domains? One for domain, or only for primary domain?

Thank you

You will have to go to your DNS provider (probably your ISP) for that. Most ISP's do not support TXT fields by default, but do as an extra service.