Vodacom SMTP problem

threegee

threegee

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Vodacom SMTP/Port 25 problem

Since this morning I have been having a nightmare sending mail to a number of different mail servers outside of Vodacom's network. All I keep getting is "Server too busy" not matter which server I try and these are all mail servers under my control and definitely NOT busy whatsoever.

I have isolated the problem to something in Vodacom's network as it is physically impossible for the same thing to be happening across 3 different servers all hosted on different networks both locally and internationally. This is also happening across both the "Internet" and "Unrestricted" APN's and quite clearly something in Vodacom's network is filtering SMTP transactions and corrupting them. I have also had a number of other strange messages appear in my server logs this morning such as "What I don't understand that" and "The authentication methods supported by your client is not supported by this server". Assitionally when I get the "What I don't understand that" message I see garbled information appear in the server logs prior to that message.

Anyone else having this problem this morning :confused::confused:
 
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threegee said:
Since this morning I have been having a nightmare sending mail to a number of different mail servers outside of Vodacom's network. All I keep getting is "Server too busy" not matter which server I try and these are all mail servers under my control and definitely NOT busy whatsoever.

I have isolated the problem to something in Vodacom's network as it is physically impossible for the same thing to be happening across 3 different servers all hosted on different networks both locally and internationally. This is also happening across both the "Internet" and "Unrestricted" APN's and quite clearly something in Vodacom's network is filtering SMTP transactions and corrupting them. I have also had a number of other strange messages appear in my server logs this morning such as "What I don't understand that" and "The authentication methods supported by your client is not supported by this server". Assitionally when I get the "What I don't understand that" message I see garbled information appear in the server logs prior to that message.

Anyone else having this problem this morning :confused::confused:
Click to expand...

Are you sending from a 3G card? If so you're probably using the Vodacom SMTP Server to send?
 
Hi V3G, nope I only send through my own servers and not Vodacom's SMTP. Have been doing it this way for 5 years now and this problem only started this morning. So my problem is more related to something interfering with port 25 transactions going "out" of your network. I've never ever used Vodacom's smtp and do not intend to start either. I've done the usual disconnect/reconnect and rebooted the pc to make sure it is not localised and the problem still continues unabated.
 
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threegee said:
Hi V3G, nope I only send through my own servers and not Vodacom's SMTP. Have been doing it this way for 5 years now and this problem only started this morning. So my problem is more related to something interfering with port 25 transactions going "out" of your network. I've never ever used Vodacom's smtp and do not intend to start either. I've done the usual disconnect/reconnect and rebooted the pc to make sure it is not localised and the problem still continues unabated.
Click to expand...

What data card are you using? Did you change data cards by any chance?

I'm advocating a block on outgoing port-25, BTW. Not in place yet though.
 
Hi Jannie, same data card I have been using for the last 4 months. Huawei E272.

I would not be happy with a block on port 25. I have been doing it this way for well over 5 years now and I send mail through my own SMTP servers for very valid reasons. Why the change now? And blocking port 25 on an "unrestricted" APN would make it "restricted". I sincerely hope Vodacom will not change what has been working fine for years now.
 
I have done some further testing and it is definitely something exclusively happening on Port 25. I switched port on one server and the mail goes through perfectly OK.
 
threegee said:
Hi Jannie, same data card I have been using for the last 4 months. Huawei E272.

I would not be happy with a block on port 25. I have been doing it this way for well over 5 years now and I send mail through my own SMTP servers for very valid reasons. Why the change now? And blocking port 25 on an "unrestricted" APN would make it "restricted". I sincerely hope Vodacom will not change what has been working fine for years now.
Click to expand...

The problem is the amount of Spam being generated on the network by people using their own mail servers and sending out directly on port-25. Their IP's then get blacklisted by the Spam Houses and, as they are part of the Vodacom ranges, the whole Vodacom block gets a bad rating.

I agree though that unrestricted should be open. Or at least, I need to think a bit about it.
 
Hi V3G, well Vodacom definitely needs to rethink this for their responsible users who have been loyal customers since the onset and never sent a single spam message through your network ever.

Perhaps a separate network segment "super-unrestricted" ??? or dedicated IP's for the clients who require this.

Without port 25 access to my servers you will be effectively crippling my business and my ability to run, test and support mail servers which I've been running for almost 18 years. This would not bode well for progress but I do understand your reasoning for blocking port 25 from 99.9% of your users.
 
threegee said:
Hi V3G, well Vodacom definitely needs to rethink this for their responsible users who have been loyal customers since the onset and never sent a single spam message through your network ever.

Perhaps a separate network segment "super-unrestricted" ??? or dedicated IP's for the clients who require this.

Without port 25 access to my servers you will be effectively crippling my business and my ability to run, test and support mail servers which I've been running for almost 18 years. This would not bode well for progress but I do understand your reasoning for blocking port 25 from 99.9% of your users.
Click to expand...

Do you need incoming or outgoing port-25 access?
 
Unfortunately due to the way I have been running mail servers for 18 years I do not allow this, all mail to and from a domain must be sent using my own servers, many reasons for this. If I open up my security to allow other networks as "authorised" servers for sending mail to/from my domains, I open up all those domains and my servers for abuse. I run a tight ship and have always done so, never ever had any of my ip's or servers blacklisted or rbl'd in all this time and I am very serious about security. I have dealt with and still do deal with many international ISP's, almost all that I know of block "incoming" port 25 effectively preventing all home users from running a mail server on their ADLS or wireless connection, none I know of that block outgoing port 25. For those that require both incoming and outgoing Port 25 they request a dedicated IP allowing them to do that and pay a small extra fee for that convenience.
 
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It's not just port 25, port 587 to smtp.gmail.com is also nerfed down to impossible to use.
If you want to use Voda for data during office hours ... use port 80 or give up.
 
Hi Stoke, yes I did report that to V3G also this morning as I was experiencing erratic behavior when emailing through Gmail too.

use port 80 or give up
Click to expand...

Until someone decides one night to just block port 80 too :)
 
Hi Threegee

There was a change implemented last night to apply spam and virus filtering to outgoing smtp traffic.
The service has been tweaked and the server busy errors should be gone now ?
For the error "The authentication methods supported by your client is not supported by this server"
What authentication method are you using (not TLS i presume ?) Is it SSL ?
Also what servers you having trouble with ?
 
Hi cbark, why filter any of my SMTP between me and my servers? I will check to see if the errors are gone but I am rather uncomfortable with Vodacom intervening on a mail transaction that has nothing to do with Vodacom?? If I am on an unrestricted apn I expect it to be unrestricted. By all means filter for spam and viruses on your smtp.vodacom.co.za and avoid intervening in mail sessions as clearly this caused me a major headache today and I lost almost 7 hours of my work day trying to track down the problem (and it is still not resolved either .... see my post below). It irks me that nobody is ever notified of such changes, they get implemented and cause people downtime.

To answer another question yes I do use TLS and SSL and have been doing so for many years now.

Lastly, the mail servers are my own servers which I've been running for almost 18 years, 3 in SA and 3 in Canada, unfortunately cannot give any IP's here but nothing is wrong with the servers anyway.

Hope that helps.
 
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stoke said:
Lol, at least then the outcry will include the "we only browse" users, who seem to get all the available bandwidth, or perhaps we should start calling it browsewidth.
Click to expand...

We don't do port shaping.

But certain protocols pass through different engines and these could cause delays. In this case the in-line virus scanners on port-25, in this specific area, had high utilisation and it caused the problems seen.

threegee, won't you test again?
 
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