What IP address are you getting

[Kalvaer]

I've been battling over the last two days with my POP3 mail server. I have been getting time outs and incorrect passwords and blah blah. Of course my boss is all over me because he cant get his mail.

After quiet a bit of checking today, I realised that different ISP's are giving different IP address's for the main link. Some of them work, some of them don't. Unfortunately for me, who just moved the whole office over to Afrihost, its the afrihost ones that aren't working :(

So could I ask if some of you would please ping custom.co.za for me and give me what IP address is returned, and what ISP you are using so I can try track down WTF is going on

[Mal1ce]

Using an Afrihost 5GB account, custom.co.za resolves to 64.69.33.188 for me if that helps?

[Mean_Monster]

Using an MTN Business leased line the custom.co.za resolves to 64.69.33.188

[luketang56]

FNB Internet (http://szablony.freeware.info.pl/mobilna.html) > 64.69.33.188

[Kalvaer]

Thanks so much to all of you.

Now why the hell am I getting 216.71.33.153 some times through Web Africa Unshaped???? It also seems as if my mail is being split in two. Some of it is going to the 216 IP, and some of it going to the 64 IP.

Its causing complete havoc with my mail, and I think is why some people cant send email through to us?

Right now I am not sure which IP is actually the correct one either I have asked my host in the US to let me know, but that will take a while until they get to work and respond.

[Tinuva]

Well I am doing this on a WebAfrica test account and I get the IP 64.69.33.188, I am also certain that is the correct ip because that is what ns[1/2].abcpages.com respond with, which seems to be the official nameservers for that domain according to http://co.za/cgi-bin/whois.sh?Domain=custom&Enter=Enter

Server on that IP seems good too:

wa@dsl-test2:~$ telnet custom.co.za 25
Trying 64.69.33.188...
Connected to custom.co.za.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 abcpages.abcpages.com ESMTP Sendmail 8.13.8/8.13.8; Wed, 31 Mar 2010 08:40:11 -0700
ehlo wa.co.za
250-abcpages.abcpages.com Hello dsl-185-110-206.dynamic.wa.co.za [41.185.110.206], pleased to meet you
250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
250-PIPELINING
250-8BITMIME
250-SIZE
250-DSN
250-ETRN
250-AUTH LOGIN PLAIN
250-DELIVERBY
250 HELP
quit

Do you have any static entries set up on your machine, ie. in the hosts file which is normally C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts or perhaps if you run your own dns server (who knows what your setup is without info)?

[Kalvaer]

I would sometimes get 64.69.33.188 with Web Africa and sometimes 216.71.33.153. Though I also couldn't access MyBB with the unshaped account which was weird.

There shouldn't be any static entries that I know of, and the really weird part is I can actually still get some of my Mail from the 216.71.33.153 IP. Pretty much the mail that disappears. The 64.69.33.188 IP should be the new more secure server my host has moved things over to. The 216.71.33.153 should be the old server. Its still up and running thank goodness, as I seem to have to log in from all different ISP's to try download mail which is going to the old server, though its only clients or friends using WA that are getting the mail sent to the wrong place. Of course on the otherhand. Its the 64.69.X.X server that is giving me time outs. :(

Going to have to contact my host and ask them what's going on. Its also just wierd that WA's servers arn't picking up the IP address yet (or at least not all the time)

[Kalvaer]

OOI: These were the tracert's I was getting earlier:

Using my LAN connection to the router
** First 3 hops were all internal hops **


4 * 97 ms 45 ms vl108.cr.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za [196.220.59.238]
5 * 52 ms 46 ms vl33.er.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za [41.185.0.30]
6 * 55 ms 46 ms upstream.vl102.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za [196.220.59.230]
7 * 205 ms 205 ms lon-ip-dir-telecity-pos-7-0-1.telkom-ipnet.co.za[196.43.18.6]
8 * 212 ms 212 ms 75-126-245-83.packetexchange.net [83.245.126.75]
9 * 296 ms 291 ms te1-3.cr01.iad01.us.mzima.net [69.174.120.97]
10 * 337 ms 310 ms te1-3.cr01.atl01.us.mzima.net [69.174.120.53]
11 * 338 ms 334 ms te0-1.cr01.dfw01.us.mzima.net [69.174.120.49]
12 * 357 ms 358 ms te1-1.cr01.phx01.us.mzima.net [69.174.120.37]
13 * 375 ms 386 ms te1-1.cr01.lax02.us.mzima.net [69.174.120.33]
14 353 ms 351 ms 352 ms ge0-calpop.cust.lax02.mzima.net [72.37.172.90]
15 368 ms 357 ms 382 ms serverfarm23.abcpages.com [64.69.33.188]

Trace complete.

and then dialed in to
WA Unshaped via PPPOE

Tracing route to custom.co.za [216.71.33.153]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 * * * Request timed out.
2 46 ms 46 ms 46 ms vl105.cr.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za [196.220.59.250]
3 46 ms 46 ms 46 ms vl33.er.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za [41.185.0.30]
4 62 ms 46 ms 46 ms upstream.vl102.gw.cpt.za.wa.co.za [196.220.59.230]
5 281 ms 281 ms 281 ms ash-ip-dir-equinix-pos-4-0.telkom-ipnet.co.za [196.43.18.30]
6 390 ms 437 ms 421 ms so-3-0-1.ar1.DCA3.gblx.net [208.49.224.161]
7 281 ms 281 ms 281 ms 162.97.116.246
8 312 ms 312 ms 296 ms vl507.b.trum.fastdns.net [69.94.1.77]
9 296 ms 296 ms 296 ms custom.co.za [216.71.33.153]

Trace complete.

[Kalvaer]

Great.. Finally got this mess sorted out and now I cant send ANY mail with afrihost, while webafrica works fine again.. Does it never end?

[Tinuva]

Just a question, but have you recently or some time ago moved the hosting for custom.co.za from "host4u" to "abcpages" ?

Reason being, the IP that is not working for you has a reverse record for the ip 216.71.33.153 that doesn't work for you, actually resolve to custom.co.za!

There is a slight chance that somewhere there is still a sticky NS record for custom.co.za pointing to the old dns servers of host4u causing this problems. I can tell you now this problem is not going to go away until you fix the root of the problem, which is not any of the ISPs, neither Afrihost/WebAfrica/IS/SAIX can fix this for you, but at times you will experience this problem on all ISPs all over the world.

I did check http://co.za/cgi-bin/whois.sh?Domain=custom&Enter=Enter which looks good, but perhaps you should do an update and add the DNS server IPs in as well to ensure this problem goes away. I doubt host4u will, but try and ask them to remove the OLD dns records from their DNS servers, or if you are lucky, get them to update the domain to point to the same ips that the dns servers of abcpages does.

Good luck in solving this.

[Kalvaer]

You are correct. At least the host4u and abcpages are controlled by the same company so they have resolved most of the problems there and we just had to wait for DNS servers around the world to all update. I'll remember next time to ask you right away.. LOL because it took me forever to trace the problem

My current problem seems to be something to do with Afrihost though. They admitted yesterday that they were having problems with their firewalls to me over the phone and asked me to send them some logs. Which I did. Some mails are now going through, some are still being bounced or held back. I have contacted my Host in the USA and they have said all the logs of the system are all clear on that side

For example here are the logs from my SMTP Server trying to do some tests yesterday.

Using Afrihost and my SMTP:
[2010-04-21 14:32:42] INTERNET send mail from <AA@BB.CC> to <AA@BB.CC> via ISP SMTP custom.co.za ...
[2010-04-21 14:33:03] INTERNET send mail [1 times] from <AA@BB.CC> to <AA@BB.CC> FAILED: connect timeout, cannot connect to destination mail server: wakesa.com(mx) -mail.wakesa.com 10

Using Afrihosts and their SMTP:
[2010-04-21 14:35:24] INTERNET send mail from <AA@BB.CC> to <AA@BB.CC> via ISP SMTP smtp.afrihost.co.za ...
[2010-04-21 14:35:24] SMTP POP3Remote mail from custom.co.za to AA@BB.CC successfully
[2010-04-21 14:35:25] INTERNET send mail [2 times] from <AA@BB.CC> to <AA@BB.CC> FAILED: connect timeout, cannot connect to destination mail server: wakesa.com(mx) - mail.wakesa.com 10

As you can see the POP server is working, But the SMTP was being rejected. Now changing to Web Africa.

WebAfrica and my SMTP:
[2010-04-21 14:47:13] INTERNET send mail [7 times] from <AA@BB.CC> to <AA@BB.CC> ...
[2010-04-21 14:47:13] INTERNET send mail [7 times] from <AA@BB.CC> to <AA@BB.CC> SUCCESSFULLY!



Today things are a bit better, but certain mails are still being held back, but with a different problem.

Using Afrihost and my SMTP:
[2010-04-22 10:31:13] INTERNET send mail [1 times] from <cAA@BB.CC> to <AA@BB.CC> ...
[2010-04-22 10:31:28] INTERNET send mail from <AA@BB.CC> to <AA@BB.CC> via ISP SMTP custom.co.za ...
[2010-04-22 10:31:34] INTERNET send mail from <AA@BB.CC> to <AA@BB.CC> via ISP SMTP custom.co.za FAILED!
[2010-04-22 10:31:34] INTERNET send mail [1 times] from <AA@BB.CC> to <AA@BB.CC> FAILED: removed by admin

Switch to Web Africa:
[2010-04-22 10:32:46] INTERNET send mail [2 times] from <AA@BB.CC> to <AA@BB.CC> ...
[2010-04-22 10:33:05] INTERNET send mail from <AA@BB.CC> to <AA@BB.CC> via ISP SMTP custom.co.za ...
[2010-04-22 10:33:12] INTERNET send mail from <AA@BB.CC> to <AA@BB.CC> via ISP SMTP custom.co.za SUCCESSFULLY!
[2010-04-22 10:33:12] INTERNET send mail [2 times] from <AA@BB.CC> to <AA@BB.CC> SUCCESSFULLY!

My last problem is since the original server being kept on the host4u domain was unsecure. My companies domain has been listed on certain black lists. Most have been cleared now. Except for mimecast.co.za who are unresponsive with regards to letting me know how to remove the listing. It also happens to be 80% of the mines who are using mimecast and most of our work is to the mines in SA :(

PS: I'll change all the correct email addresses in this post at a later date to make sure they dont get mined by bots. But left as is now to show that they are in fact legit

[CodeMaster]

I can tell you now, your employee/associate "Chris Lee" isn't going to be happy with all the spam he/she receives thanks to you... :D

[Kalvaer]

That would be me... Guess its going to be a good test to see how our new anti-spam server works as well :D

[erhardt]

try checking your dns settings?

[Kalvaer]

I have, and I cant see anything wrong. The router side is set to automatically get the DNS given by the host. My internal DNS server pushes all ip ranges outside of my subnets to the gateway. Oh and my internal SMTP server is using a.root-servers.net and B.root-servers.net to check. Everything works perfectly for WA, and Telkom ADSL, but not Afrihost? Unless its a problem that is on IS' side?

Things have also changed and some started working without me doing anything, yet Afrihost have on their side? Which again leads me to believe its a problem with them.

[HavocXphere]

Bad dns record somewhere. Set DNS server to saix/google dns & try everything again.

Or as a temp fix just use the resolved IP addr instead of the address itself.

Maybe also flush the dns cache for good measure after changing the dns server.

[Kalvaer]

Afrihost is IS, can you still set it to use SAIX DNS?

Still doesn't make sense to me why WA and Telkom work, and not afrihost. Also why some work since afrihost made changes yesterday? Also wouldn't it be dropped after 24 hours? This problem has been going on for about 2 weeks?

[HavocXphere]

Afrihost is IS, can you still set it to use SAIX DNS?
Should work. If not then google dns server will: 8.8.8.8

[Tinuva]

Wait a second, you are running your own smtp server on a ADSL line?


I highly suggest you set your smtp server to relay through the ISP's smtp server (smtp.afrihost.co.za / smtp.wa.co.za depending on ISP). While it is very possible to send mail from a smtp server hosted on a ADSL line, you never know when that IP is blocked on any RBL lists, especially UCEprotect who definitely have IS's (Afrihost is on IS) ADSL IP ranges listed.

[Kalvaer]

Not entirely. I am running Cmail server. Its configured in such a way that all internal mail never leaves the network. Which saves some bandwidth. The server itself downloads the mail from my mail server hosted in the USA, keeps it in each users account and they then just download it from the server, instead of the the POP3 account in the USA.

I tried relaying through afrihost and 99% of my emails bounced back stating that afrihost (is) had been blocked as an open relay. So now I am forced to "relay" all my mail back through to my SMTP hosted in the USA, which at least requires authentication and isn't blocked. Its been running perfectly for about 2 years now.... Until I switched over to afrihost. WA was perfect. Guess the old saying of you get what you pay for comes to mind.

I did get a ticket response back from Afrihost saying they are looking into the problem, But if its not cleared soon I am going to have to move back to WA, even if it does cost more as currently I'm just using my own personal accounts at work anyway

[erhardt]

Afrihost is IS, can you still set it to use SAIX DNS?

No dont do that, first make double sure your using an IS connection

do a tracert to www.google.com
if you get something like this it means your on the IS connection

Tracing route to www.l.google.com [209.85.227.103]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 27 ms 11 ms 2 ms adminroute.vinternetsolutions.co.za [10.5.
50.1]
2 3 ms 5 ms 3 ms 171.10.0.1
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 359 ms 321 ms 116 ms cdsl2-rba-vl2663.ip.isnet.net [196.38.73.*-*]
5 66 ms 63 ms 64 ms cdsl1-rba-vl11.ip.isnet.net [196.38.73.37]
6 65 ms 65 ms 80 ms cdsl1-rba-vl150.ip.isnet.net [196.38.73.17]
7 62 ms 86 ms 70 ms core2b-rba-te2-0-0.ip.isnet.net [196.26.0.182]
8 404 ms 419 ms 397 ms mi-za-rba-p6-gi3-0-2-110.ip.isnet.net [168.209.1
64.79]
9 418 ms 398 ms 394 ms mi-uk-dock-p2-po3-0-1.ip.isnet.net [168.209.224.
67]
10 404 ms 361 ms 406 ms core2a-dock-gi1-0-19-110.ip.isnet.net [168.209.1
64.32]
11 366 ms 345 ms 360 ms 168.209.246.66
12 384 ms 416 ms 392 ms 195.66.226.125
13 568 ms 445 ms 404 ms 209.85.252.76
14 425 ms 427 ms 417 ms 72.14.232.134
15 411 ms 417 ms 414 ms 216.239.49.45
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 471 ms 420 ms 405 ms wy-in-f103.1e100.net [209.85.227.103]
Trace complete.

now if thhis is true, make sure your dns is set to
168.210.2.2
196.14.239.2

and set your mail relay to point to smtp.isdsl.net

[erhardt]

Not entirely. I am running Cmail server. Its configured in such a way that all internal mail never leaves the network. Which saves some bandwidth. The server itself downloads the mail from my mail server hosted in the USA, keeps it in each users account and they then just download it from the server, instead of the the POP3 account in the USA.

I tried relaying through afrihost and 99% of my emails bounced back stating that afrihost (is) had been blocked as an open relay. So now I am forced to "relay" all my mail back through to my SMTP hosted in the USA, which at least requires authentication and isn't blocked. Its been running perfectly for about 2 years now.... Until I switched over to afrihost. WA was perfect. Guess the old saying of you get what you pay for comes to mind.

I did get a ticket response back from Afrihost saying they are looking into the problem, But if its not cleared soon I am going to have to move back to WA, even if it does cost more as currently I'm just using my own personal accounts at work anyway

ok, i know exacly what you are doing here, im doing it myself on our side. got one mail account using it as a catch all account and mail gets split inside my network. im on the IS network and got my repay set to smtp.isdsl.net

if you have other problems pm me and ill try to help.

[milomak]

mweb uncapped



$ traceroute custom.co.za
traceroute to custom.co.za (64.69.33.188), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 upstairs (192.168.1.1) 2.449 ms 1.382 ms 1.282 ms
2 41-133-84-1.dsl.mweb.co.za (41.133.84.1) 9.618 ms 8.887 ms 9.053 ms
3 tengig-0-0-0-110.vic-ipc-1.mweb.co.za (196.22.169.170) 9.610 ms 9.305 ms 9.614 ms
4 vl-92.vic-hscore-2.mweb.co.za (196.22.189.3) 9.425 ms 9.815 ms 9.379 ms
5 tengig-0-0-0-0-12.vic-up-1.mweb.co.za (196.22.169.241) 38.474 ms 26.313 ms 40.627 ms
6 tengig-0-2-0-0.mid-1.mweb.co.za (196.22.169.219) 12.040 ms 15.750 ms 10.784 ms
7 ap2522-1-s7-smg.mweb.net (196.22.163.230) 232.851 ms 232.584 ms 300.573 ms
8 79.141.38.37.available.above.net (79.141.38.37) 307.198 ms 289.585 ms 307.160 ms
9 xe-1-1-0.mpr1.lhr1.uk.above.net (64.125.27.150) 307.122 ms 306.536 ms 307.158 ms
10 linx.ge1-0.cr01.lhr01.mzima.net (195.66.225.15) 307.088 ms 238.968 ms 272.987 ms
11 te1-3.cr01.iad01.us.mzima.net (69.174.120.97) 409.408 ms 354.584 ms 361.788 ms
12 te1-3.cr01.atl01.us.mzima.net (69.174.120.53) 409.470 ms 409.384 ms 317.824 ms
13 te0-1.cr01.dfw01.us.mzima.net (69.174.120.49) 359.237 ms 353.597 ms 360.263 ms
14 te1-1.cr01.phx01.us.mzima.net (69.174.120.37) 374.276 ms 409.358 ms 409.570 ms
15 te1-1.cr01.lax02.us.mzima.net (69.174.120.33) 409.541 ms 408.918 ms 365.872 ms
16 ge0-calpop.cust.lax02.mzima.net (72.37.172.90) 377.317 ms 408.227 ms 370.243 ms
17 serverfarm23.abcpages.com (64.69.33.188) 374.192 ms 409.414 ms 409.527 ms

[Kalvaer]

No dont do that, first make double sure your using an IS connectionThat part is easy.. When the mails bounce back they come back with the following details:
Afrihost: "Received-From-MTA: DNS; 196-215-31-170.dynamic.isadsl.co.za"
Web Africa: Received-From-MTA: DNS; smtp-proxy1.wa.co.za




ok, i know exacly what you are doing here, im doing it myself on our side. got one mail account using it as a catch all account and mail gets split inside my network. im on the IS network and got my repay set to smtp.isdsl.net

if you have other problems pm me and ill try to help.The Afrihost smtp kept on getting blocked for me by any people using mimecast as a spam filter stating that the IS SMTP was an open proxy and it refused to accept emails from it. I'll try again though and try set it up as the isdsl.net one and check what happens.

Once my coffee kicks in this morning as well, I'll try switch ISP's and see if Afrihost fixed anything in the last 24 hours

[Kalvaer]

Well so far so good this morning. All the mail seems to be going through with AH

[Kalvaer]

Me and my Big mouth.. Had to switch back to WA as again Afrihost fails to send any mail to my Remote SMTP

PS: Yes I did flush the DNS cache in between the changes