Weird email problem

[snap]

I have a user that if connected via a datacard and sends email to specific addresses via smtp the email never arrives, no errors, no spamblock and doesn’t bounce just vanishes.
If they then disconnect and connect via dialup (in this case mweb) and resend without changing any settings the email arrives everytime.

In both cases they are sending to the same smtp setup which is neither vodacoms or mwebs mail server. It seems to happen to about 1 in 20 email addresses but the same addresses everytime. Problem is they never know if the emails they send are arriving if its a new customer.

Why does this email vanish if its sent via the data card? Any ideas?

 

[Tazz_Tux]

Hey snap,

Someone out of pure spite could be "silently" discarding message from the vodacom network - or - and this is the reason I think. The anti-spam software is set to such that it doesn't notify the sender or recp. of the blocked message. Many E-Mail admins have this theory that even the "your mail has been blocked" still counts as spam which is a waste of resources.

Personally, I flag spam as ship it to a SPAM folder on my servers, the reason is simple - to try and block a message before it's wasted any resource will be a waste of more resources, so flag it, and ship it away. That way - you also avoid this from happening since the user can go and look at the spam folder and see the message.

Can you get the logs of what happens to the message from the server that the user is sending it thru ?

I have a user that if connected via a datacard and sends email to specific addresses via smtp the email never arrives, no errors, no spamblock and doesn’t bounce just vanishes.
If they then disconnect and connect via dialup (in this case mweb) and resend without changing any settings the email arrives everytime.

In both cases they are sending to the same smtp setup which is neither vodacoms or mwebs mail server. It seems to happen to about 1 in 20 email addresses but the same addresses everytime. Problem is they never know if the emails they send are arriving if its a new customer.

Why does this email vanish if its sent via the data card? Any ideas?

 

[snap]

Hi Tazz

Thanx for your reply. I am trying to get logs to find out what happens to the email. I though of it being spam blocked but then I thought it would be spam blocked from the dial up connection to as it is going through the same smtp server.

Very weird.

 

[vodacom3g]

If you use smtp.vodacom.co.za, does it work?

If so, why not use the vodacom relay? (Outside of the shlep of changing settings all the time)

Sometimes smtp servers want to know the originating network and if you use a SMTP server that does not know the Vodacom data network, it might not forward the mail.

but the 1 in 20 is weird, normally it's either broken or not.

 

[Tazz_Tux]

Hey,

Not always - since the IP's might be flagged - quite a common problem for "Dial Up" ISPs - Vodacom included. Anycase - the log will show all !

Hi Tazz

Thanx for your reply. I am trying to get logs to find out what happens to the email. I though of it being spam blocked but then I thought it would be spam blocked from the dial up connection to as it is going through the same smtp server.

Very weird.