[ILUG] Fetchmail Problem

[Chris Higgins]

On Wed, 11 Dec 2002 21:09:02 +0000
Mark Page <mpage at esatclear.ie> wrote:

> Chris Higgins wrote:
> 
> >On Wed, 11 Dec 2002 20:39:19 +0000
> >Mark Page <mpage at esatclear.ie> wrote:
> >
> >Try telnet localhost smtp and see what you get, it looks
> >like your local smtp server isn't running.
> >
> Chris, Just tried and the message I get is
> 
> telnet localhost smtp
> Trying 127.0.0.1...
> telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection timed out

Do you have ipchains / iptables rules on your machine which
drop unwanted traffic.. 

To setup a new TCP connection the client ( your telnet program 
in this case ) sends a packet marked as a SYNCHRONISE ( SYN )
and the server is expected to respond with an ( ACK )[1]
If the local server isn't accepting connections ( because it
doesn't exist, or it is refusing connections ) then you won't
get back an ACK - but you should get back a Reset (RST) .. 

So if your local SMTP server was running we'd expect to see
a connection. If it's not running we'd expect to get 
'connection refused'.

You are getting neither - you are getting a timeout, which
means that the packet ( either your outbound request,
or the response ) is disappearing... and it's disappearing
quietly - so it's being dropped.. 

So I'm guessing at filtering rules - ipchains/iptables etc...


[1] It also sets the SYN flag too, but let's not worry about that.

> 
> Am I missing some package or just purely a config issue?
> 
> >
> >
> >
> >>fetchmail: POP3> QUIT
> >>fetchmail: POP3< Test
> >>fetchmail: SMTP transaction error while fetching from
> >pop.esatclear.ie>fetchmail: 5.9.11 querying pop.esatclear.ie
> >(protocol POP3) at Wed Dec>
> >>11 20:36:57 2002: poll completed
> >>fetchmail: Query status=10 (SMTP)
> >>fetchmail: normal termination, status 10
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>-- 
> >>Irish Linux Users' Group: ilug at linux.ie
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> >>information. List maintainer: listmaster at linux.ie
> >>
> >
> >
> >--
> >
> >Chris Higgins
> >Horizon Technical Services
> >email: chris.higgins at hts.horizon.ie
> >tel: +353-1-6204900
> >fax: +353-1-6204901
> >
> >
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Irish Linux Users' Group: ilug at linux.ie
> http://www.linux.ie/mailman/listinfo/ilug for (un)subscription
> information. List maintainer: listmaster at linux.ie


--

Chris Higgins
Horizon Technical Services
email: chris.higgins at hts.horizon.ie
tel: +353-1-6204900
fax: +353-1-6204901