Mail not getting through

[Frank Ch. Eigler]

Hi -

cgf wrote:

> The strange thing is that when I do this:
> 
>   % telnet 208.41.78.163 smtp
>   Trying 208.41.78.163...
>   Connected to 208.41.78.163.
>   Escape character is '^]'.
> 
> It takes a *long* time (around a minute and ten seconds+) to get a
> response when I attempt a connection from sourceware but response is
> instant from my home system.  [...]

Could it be an AUTH issue?  It's slow from my home machine too, but I
reject AUTH connections (TCP RST).  Does your server run identd?  Or
perhaps eyesopen.com runs more IP-address-level tests on incoming
connections than it should?

Another weird thing.  From tcpdump, after I close the smtp telnet, I
get a bunch subsequent packets from eyesopen.com.  It's as if it runs
a firewall that erroneously swallows RST TCP packets.  (That would
explain its initial delay due to AUTH-related RST.)

18:59:08.381100 IP elastic.org.56848 > eyesopen.com.smtp: F 16:16(0) ack 85 win 363 <nop,nop,timestamp 174948571 692539>
18:59:08.580014 IP eyesopen.com.smtp > elastic.org.56848: P 85:136(51) ack 17 win 5792 <nop,nop,timestamp 692797 174948571>
18:59:08.580350 IP elastic.org.56848 > eyesopen.com.smtp: R 2955411070:2955411070(0) win 0
18:59:08.580633 IP eyesopen.com.smtp > elastic.org.56848: F 136:136(0) ack 17 win 5792 <nop,nop,timestamp 692797 174948571>
18:59:08.580781 IP elastic.org.56848 > eyesopen.com.smtp: R 2955411070:2955411070(0) win 0
18:59:09.541882 IP eyesopen.com.smtp > elastic.org.56848: FP 85:136(51) ack 17 win 5792 <nop,nop,timestamp 692894 174948571>
18:59:09.542215 IP elastic.org.56848 > eyesopen.com.smtp: R 2955411070:2955411070(0) win 0
18:59:11.482861 IP eyesopen.com.smtp > elastic.org.56848: FP 85:136(51) ack 17 win 5792 <nop,nop,timestamp 693088 174948571>
18:59:11.483204 IP elastic.org.56848 > eyesopen.com.smtp: R 2955411070:2955411070(0) win 0
18:59:15.363045 IP eyesopen.com.smtp > elastic.org.56848: FP 85:136(51) ack 17 win 5792 <nop,nop,timestamp 693476 174948571>
18:59:15.363100 IP elastic.org.56848 > eyesopen.com.smtp: R 2955411070:2955411070(0) win 0
18:59:23.123033 IP eyesopen.com.smtp > elastic.org.56848: FP 85:136(51) ack 17 win 5792 <nop,nop,timestamp 694252 174948571>
18:59:23.123412 IP elastic.org.56848 > eyesopen.com.smtp: R 2955411070:2955411070(0) win 0
18:59:38.655232 IP eyesopen.com.smtp > elastic.org.56848: FP 85:136(51) ack 17 win 5792 <nop,nop,timestamp 695804 174948571>
18:59:38.655837 IP elastic.org > eyesopen.com: ICMP elastic.org tcp port 56848 unreachable, length 111
19:00:09.708377 IP eyesopen.com.smtp > elastic.org.56848: FP 85:136(51) ack 17 win 5792 <nop,nop,timestamp 698908 174948571>
19:00:09.708896 IP elastic.org > eyesopen.com: ICMP elastic.org tcp port 56848 unreachable, length 111

- FChE