Bingo – we had this problem with some emails a while ago and if you ran a traceroute from the originating mail server to our mailservers, it turned out that they were never making it past the IPS on the campus border.
In fact, I have an open helpdesk ticket now regarding that, though no one seems to be working on it...
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Jack Kramer
Computer Systems Specialist
University Relations, Michigan State University
517-884-1231
From: Paul Reed <[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Paul Reed <[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:20:52 -0500
To: <[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] Mail Disappearing?
I've had this problem, too. I can see from my server logs that some of these messages get all the way into the "DATA" part of the SMTP dialog and then time out. I'm starting to wonder if maybe an IPS somewhere is dropping packets that shouldn't be dropped.
Paul Reed
Chemistry
From: MSU Network Administrators Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jon Galbreath
Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2009 2:51 PM
To: [log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]
Subject: [MSUNAG] Mail Disappearing?
Has anyone else had any users complaining of mail that never gets delivered? I’ve only had one user so far, but unfortunately, I can kind of confirm his issue, so I have to look into it.
He’s only said that people are calling him because he hasn’t responded to mail that they sent him, but he apparently has never gotten. I should note that this is off-campus mail that is falling into a black hole.
We’re running Exchange here, so mail is forwarded in from MSU’s servers via the standard forwarding in the web interface. Mail within the Exchange org is working fine, as is most mail from the outside.
I did a few tests sending mail to myself from Yahoo and Gmail and they came through instantly. However, when I sent a couple messages to myself from my Exchange server at home, they never showed. But when I replied to a message I’d sent myself yesterday, it showed up instantly here. Per the Exchange logs, the messages have never hit our servers. Nor have I gotten any NDRs sent back to me.
I’m waiting for the user to get back to me with approximate times and domains that he’s missing mail from, but I thought I’d check if anyone else is having issues.
Thanks!
Jon
Jon Galbreath
MCSE/Security+
Systems Administrator
International Studies and Programs
Ph: 517-884-2144
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