Topic: Help! my multidrop email is stuffed .....

[David Hardy]

Hi Guys,

I've spent the last few days trawling around the Forums looking for possible solutions to the problem I'm having.

Basically, mail is piling up in the ISP's pop box (visable using telnet). My SME server won't connect and download it. I've run Fetchmail manually once with the following parameters:

fetchmail -u username -p pop3 -v --auth password pop3.isp.co.uk

This gathers the mail and drops it into my mailbox, where all the admin mail is supposed to go. None of the other users get there email, it all comes to me.

I've made a custom template for Crontab and replaced 'startmail' with 'fetchmail' and expanded the template, (as per somebody else's post I found) but this hasn't helped.

And there's a load of this stuff in the messages log:

Jun 19 14:15:11 mungo ntpd[685]: recvfrom() fd=6: Connection refused
Jun 19 14:16:14 mungo ntpd[685]: recvfrom() fd=6: Connection refused
Jun 19 14:17:19 mungo ntpd[685]: recvfrom() fd=6: Connection refused
Jun 19 14:18:22 mungo ntpd[685]: recvfrom() fd=6: Connection refused
Jun 19 14:19:26 mungo ntpd[685]: recvfrom() fd=6: Connection refused
Jun 19 14:20:31 mungo ntpd[685]: recvfrom() fd=6: Connection refused
Jun 19 14:21:34 mungo ntpd[685]: recvfrom() fd=6: Connection refused
Jun 19 14:22:37 mungo ntpd[685]: recvfrom() fd=6: Connection refused
Jun 19 14:23:42 mungo ntpd[685]: recvfrom() fd=6: Connection refused
Jun 19 14:24:46 mungo ntpd[685]: recvfrom() fd=6: Connection refused
Jun 19 14:25:11 mungo su(pam_unix)[4742]: session opened for user qmailr by root(uid=0)
Jun 19 14:25:12 mungo su(pam_unix)[4742]: session closed for user qmailr
Jun 19 14:25:51 mungo ntpd[685]: recvfrom() fd=6: Connection refused
Jun 19 14:26:57 mungo ntpd[685]: recvfrom() fd=6: Connection refused
Jun 19 14:28:01 mungo ntpd[685]: recvfrom() fd=6: Connection refused
Jun 19 14:29:06 mungo ntpd[685]: recvfrom() fd=6: Connection refused

Finally, I've checked the headers of some of the new email versus the old and found that where there is now a (single-drop) note in the received headers where before there was (multi-drop).

Any ideas anybody?

TIA

David.

[guestHH]

Hi,

Take a look at the /etc/fetchmail script, this is where it all happens.

Regards,
RequestedDeletion

ps. Undo your startmail -> fetchmail changes. That's not the issue and remove the custom template

[David Hardy]

Thanks,

I've re-expanded the standard crontab template and checked the fetchmail script the salient bits of which are reproduced below:

# multi-drop configuration; fetchmail retrieves all mail from a remote POP mailbox:

/usr/bin/fetchmail --syslog --silent --fetchmailrc - <
set postmaster "postmaster"
set bouncmail
set properties ""

poll pop3.isp.co.uk
   protocol POP3
   no dns
   localdomains millfarm.net hardy.it
      username millfarm password oohaahno! to * here
      smtphost localhost
      smtpaddress millfarm.net
      fetchall
      forcecr

EOF

My e-smith doesn't connect directly to the Internet but uses my router at 192.168.xxx.254. The router (Draytek Vigor 2200 USB from www.draytek.co.uk) is configured to do DNS and NAT - the SME is set up as a DMZ host and handles all non blocked requests at my public IP.

The no dns entry looks a bit odd, is it correct?

Thanks,

David.

[David Hardy]

OK,

I resorted to ringing the SME partners over here in the UK. Many thanks to LinuxIT who put me straight through to technical support and talked me through a few things.

Ultimately there was something wrong with Fetchmail which caused a problem with my ISPs mail server - I added the line:

$OUT .= "    auth password\n";

to a custom template, expanded the template and now everything works fine!

I'm going to post a possible bug report as this has really only happened since my ISP upgraded their mail server. It seems Fetchmail was trying to use CRAM-MD5 authentication or something.......

Cheers

David Hardy.

[guestHH]

Great David,

But _NEVER_ post real usernames and passwords!!!!

Change them right now! the whole world is reading with us.

Regards,
guestHH

[David Hardy]

Point noted, however the following extract:

>username millfarm password oohaahno! to * here

was not real user names and passwords - ooh aah no user names and password revealed here!

And furthermore, the extract:

>poll pop3.isp.co.uk

isn't my real ISP.

Granted someone could find my ISP multidrop account if they could be bothered - but they haven't got the u/name and password to get any further ....

Thanks, though, for your help, advice and concern!

Regards


David Hardy.

[guestHH]

Pfffffff, I can go to sleep now knowing that David is safe

[Clive]

Hi David,

I have the same problem.

Can you send me more info regarding your fix from the tech support.

Ie. can you explain custom template and expand the template.

Please can you forward me some more information, regading your fix.

Ie. $OUT .= " auth password\n"

Regards

Clive Prescott