Hosting POP3 Server - Something Strange

[slaikan]

Hi All

We have a Telkom ADSL POTS router, white one, installed about a month ago. We're able to port forward any traffic we want, with the exception of POP3.

The strange thing is if we telnet into either the LAN or dynamic IP of the router at any time, we get a response +OK Mini Mail POP3 server ready.

Something we find even more strange is that if we disconnect (physically unplug) the router from the ADSL line, telnet into the LAN ip of the router, we still get +OK Mini Mail POP3 Server Ready??

Okay, routers arent supposed to be POP3 servers, whats going on? The only way we can get it to work as expected is to get the client to connect on a unused port forwarded to port 110 on the server.

Anyone seen this before?
Thanks

 

[filip]

I'm getting something which might be related.
I'm trying to set up port forwarding for my newly installed line and no amount of reconfiguring or cajoling on the router side is helping. I've done this before without any problems on a similar router on another line, and the config is fairly idiot-proof.
What I'm finding is that the only port that responds to anything on the outside IP address 165.165.xxx.xxx is FTP. When I try and connect to it, I get an FTP console which is clearly NOT for the machine I'm forwarding the port to NOR for the ADSL router itself - the prompts, etc look totally different.
It almost looks like something is hijacking my IP address for inbound traffic. I'm beginning to suspect Telkom may be messing around with the regular subscriptions to try and sell more of their unshaped services...
Curious to see if you find a solution!

___________
filip _at_ telkomsa.net