[IMail Forum] Swbell.net mail system Screwed??????

[Jason Newland]

Hello everyone,   I have a customer that also has Swbell DSL, and is using their mail system while he is at his office....   He is now constantly complaining that many of our customers can't send him e-mail.   Here is what I have found, but I need verification that I am not missing something, or off base.  I also don't know what else to do to convice the customer that MA BELL is screwed!     < From what I can tell from our log files, swbell's mail system is broken.  Here is what I see in our logs.... < < 09:09 12:38 SMTP-(00000508) >MAIL FROM:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> < 09:09 12:38 SMTP-(00000508) 250 2.1.0 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>... Sender ok < 09:09 12:38 SMTP-(00000508) Trying swbell.net (0) < 09:09 12:38 SMTP-(00000508) Connect swbell.net [207.115.63.25:25] (1) < 09:09 12:38 SMTP-(00000508) s: s < 09:09 12:38 SMTP-(00000508) < 09:09 12:38 SMTP-(00000508) SMTP_DELIV_FAILED < 09:09 12:38 SMTP-(00000508) >QUIT < < The s:s indicates a socket failed connection.  I also did a MX lookup (MX=Mail Exchanger) on swbell.net, and here is what I get..... < < swbell.net      MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = sbcmail6.prodigy.net < swbell.net      MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = sbcmail7.prodigy.net < swbell.net      MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = sbcmail1.prodigy.net < swbell.net      MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = sbcmail2.prodigy.net < swbell.net      MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = sbcmail3.prodigy.net < swbell.net      MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = sbcmail4.prodigy.net < swbell.net      MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = sbcmail5.prodigy.net < < The preference of 10 (repeated) indicates that these systems will do a "round robin" approach to load balancing.  The problem comes in when I try to telnet to port 25 of each of these servers. < They should all report a welcome tag at the top, and be ready to accept mail at that point.  Here is what I get trying to connect to these mail servers.... < < C:\>telnet sbcmail1.prodigy.net 25 < Connecting To sbcmail1.prodigy.net... < 220 homebase3-int.prodigy.net ESMTP Sendmail 8.12.3 da nor stuldap/8.12.3; Mon, 9 Sep 2002 17:32:18 -0400   ( This is the welcome screen) (This is good) < < C:\>telnet sbcmail2.prodigy.net 25                      (This is bad!) < Connecting to sbcmail2.prodigy.net... < Connection to host lost. < C:\> < < C:\>telnet sbcmail3.prodigy.net 25 < Connecting To sbcmail3.prodigy.net...Could not open a connection to host on port 25 : Connect failed                (This is bad!) < c:\> < < C:\>telnet sbcmail4.prodigy.net 25 < Connecting To sbcmail4.prodigy.net...Could not open a connection to host on port 25 : Connect failed                (This is bad!) < c:\> < < C:\>telnet sbcmail5.prodigy.net 25 < Connecting To sbcmail5.prodigy.net... < 220 homebase3-int.prodigy.net ESMTP Sendmail 8.12.3 da nor stuldap/8.12.3; Mon, 9 Sep 2002 17:32:18 -0400   (This is good) < < C:\>telnet sbcmail6.prodigy.net 25 < Connecting To sbcmail6.prodigy.net...Could not open a connection to host on port 25 : Connect failed                (This is bad!) < c:\> < < C:\>telnet sbcmail7.prodigy.net 25                      (This is bad!) < Connecting to sbcmail7.prodigy.net... < Connection to host lost. < C:\> < The above indicates that their system is seriously broken.  ALL MX records listed in a domain are supposed to accept inbound port 25 traffic, but as you can see they are having trouble with that.  To rule out them blocking AreaTech's mail system(or subnet), I have done this from 2 completely different networks, 1 being AreaTech, and the other being a banking system in St. Louis.  Feel free to send this info. on to SBC, but in my experience, they are pretty unresponsive.  Chad has SBC DSL at his home, and constantly had trouble with his mail on their system as well.  He just doesn't use it anymore.         Thanks   Jason