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problem with SMTP server

Having problem using local SMTP to email invoices to customers

         

SEhunter

7:48 am on Jan 13, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I am using local smtp server to email the invoices to customers. I tried it with my account at msn and yahoo and they both work.

The client that I have a problem with is name@cox.com (I have a few customers that use cox.com) the invoices are emailed to them but they are not getting them. I get no error message on my end. No error in any log file. I don’t know where the problem is…

string body = "<HTML><BODY>";

body += db.UShowLogox(type);

body += db.UInvoiceSummary(cust_ref, inv_str);

body += "</HTML></BODY>";

MailMessage msg = new MailMessage();

msg.BodyFormat = MailFormat.Html;

msg.From = "customerservice@#*$!#*$!x.com";

//msg.To = "faxadmin@xxxxxxx.com";

msg.To = email_name;

//msg.Bcc = "info@yyyy.net";

msg.Subject = "Your invoice is ready";

msg.Body = body;

//SmtpMail.SmtpServer = "mail.yyyy.net"; // DNS server

//SmtpMail.SmtpServer = "mmm.mmm.mmm.mmm"; // DNS server

SmtpMail.Send(msg);

I tried it with assigning SmtpServer and without but still it doesn’t work. Mind you that since I upgraded from 2000 server to 2003 server this future doesn’t work for this customer.

Maybe I am lacking a piece of code or I have to setup something on my 2003 server or

Maybe I need a software component to do this. Can you experts find out please?

Zaphod Beeblebrox

9:25 am on Jan 13, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Two observations:
- your code is no ASP or .NET, maybe you found the wrong forum
- if your emails reach most customers, except those on cox.net, it's not your code that's failing

raywood

3:58 pm on Jan 14, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Looks like a perfectly good piece of jsp code to me. If it works sending to your own accounts but not to cox, I'd think your code and your server are working fine.

You say it worked on Server 2000, but not on 2003. Is the new server on the same ip? If you're on a different ip, it might be blacklisted or filtered by cox. I'd try assigning a different smtp server on a different ip to see what happens.

SEhunter

8:48 pm on Jan 14, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



The problem is that when you are setting up
your email to be sent
SmtpMail.SmtpServer = "mail.cox.com";
You will get an error (CDO, ...) and the email won't be sent.

One reason may be a reverse lookup. ISPs are checking for validity of
the emails by doing a reverse lookup. Maybe that's where it fails. Since
I am using internal IP addresses (192.168.1.10)

Other reason maybe the SMTP server. Since local SMTP server is (zdsrv2
-- name of my DNS server) and the IP address is internal (192.168.1.10),
then it can't resolve the name or/and the IP address.

On windows 2000 server I didn't have this problem (so that's what they
tell me anyway) I am not sure if this is a coincidence or windows 2003
server is diff than windows 2000 server or the ISPs just changed this.
Or maybe since I was using public IP addresses before I wasn't running
into this problem.

The solution may be an asp.net SMTP component (but I am not sure if this
will solve the problem either)

mattglet

9:30 pm on Jan 14, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I'm pretty sure Cox's mail server isn't mail.cox.com.

Isn't it something like pop.east.cox.com for POP3, and smtp.east.cox.com?

(Server names are for east coast locations. It will vary depending on your location)

tomasz

11:30 pm on Jan 14, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



It looks like you need to ad domain to your smtp server in IIS control panel, select add -> domain => remote and you can use any remote smtp server account
then u can assign smtp server name in your code,

Xoc

11:53 pm on Jan 14, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I know very well that Cox's mail servers are at cox.net. Every stupid dyslexic cox.net subscriber causes email to be sent to my domain, where I very quietly dump it in a black hole where it is never seen again! :)

raywood

1:12 am on Jan 15, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



So, you had public addresses before, and now you're using internal addesses? That's a good place to start looking for the problem. But why would it be unique to a cox address? If your isp does a reverse lookup it seems to me it would call back to your router's address, and it would see your mail server just fine. If it got a "helo" message from your smtp server I don't know why it would do a reverse lookup, though.

Sorry, but you've got me stumped.

Here us just side note. I've had some trouble with CDO in jsp before. Had a site that wouldn't send mail anywhere. I just built one file in VBScript to send the mail with CDO, and called it from jsp pages. Everything then worked fine.

SEhunter

7:59 am on Jan 15, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I don't think we should touch the asp code. we can't change the code for every ISP.

we should fix the problem with the SMTP server...we should be able to easily add these names (cox.com, ...) to our SMTP server which is our
DNS server as well.

I feel like either I am not adding the right name or adding it in the wrong place. That's why I think that
we need the component to send emails through.

So you are saying that I should add the domain name (cox.com or does it have to be something else like mail.cox.com?) in the remote domain name and then use the same name in my asp code?

By the way I have already done this:(

tomasz

5:03 pm on Jan 15, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



if you have properly configured smtp server, then you should not to have to use mailserver name in your code,

also, you need to check your remote server properties

[microsoft.com...]

raywood

6:07 pm on Jan 15, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Well, SEHunter, I don't know what the problem is, but this is an interesting challenge. Back up a few posts. You said you get a CDO error, but you didn't list the error. What error is it? Do you get a number or a message?

SEhunter

7:54 am on Jan 16, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



The problem is that they are doing some kind of authentication that we are not doing.

1 - Reverse lookup
2 - Trace the mail to its root to check if it is not a spam

I think the problem is that I am using internal IP addresses. Now, what I want you to do is:

1 - How to setup the DNS or IIS to pass reverse lookups
2 - Check Cox.com or any documentation available to us regarding Cox.comto fulfill their requirements.
3 - Check if Internal IP addresses are the problem when they do a reverse lookup.

Thank you