VMS Mailing issue.

[Kenneth Rudgers]

Ok guys and gals,

I am stumped. I have an old COMPAQ Alpha 2100 running Open VMS 6.2. I am having trouble mailing from one server to another whether its a UNIX box or a VMS box. However if I mail out to an email address it has no problem. Any ideas on how to rectify this problem? Am I missing some sort of config file. Any info or insight would be greatly appreciated. I am sure I have probably not provided enough info here but its a good starting spot.

THank you!!

[Robert Gezelter]

Kenneth,

For a start, which IP stack are you running? What commands have you tried?

If things are properly configured, then you should be able to send TCP/IP SMTP mail using the address syntax SMTP%"username@domainname" from within the MAIL utility.

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com

[Kenneth Rudgers]

IP stack is TCPWare.

The mail command that works is as follows:

mail/subject="test" output.txt "krudgers@us.ibm.com"

The one that doesnt is below... I am mailing to a T64 unix server

mail/subject="test" output.txt "krudgers@ike.bostednt.com"

Thanks for your response.

Ken

[Robert Brooks_1 · Accepted solution]

What exactly do you mean by "doesn't work"? Is some specific error message returned?

Are there any problems using other TCP/IP applications (FTP, NFS, etc . . .)?

What does Process Software (the developers and maintainers of TCPware) have to say?

-- Rob

[Kenneth Rudgers]

When I say doesnt work it doesnt not send the mail to that server. No error message comes back or anything. no I have not sought support from process software as of yet since I have no problem mailing to the outside world. It just seems to be when I try to mail to server within the customer segment.

Ken

[Jim_McKinney]

Is there some reason that you believe the problem lies with the sender as opposed to the receiver?

What happens if you telnet on port 25 to ike.bostednt.com ? Does it respond? If it does, what happens if you enter the following


helo
mail from:
rcpt to:
data:
...your message here...
.
quit


replacing your-fqdn with the fully qualified domain name of the system that you're sending from?

A TCPDUMP of an attempted email exchange would, perhaps, be more informative.

[Robert Gezelter]

Kenneth,

Your subsequent postings clarify things a bit.

If SMTP mail works to the outside network, but not to addresses within the network, you likely have a problem with your DNS name resolution.

Check with your network managers as to what are the correct DNS nameservers and verify that you are using them. The Internal addresses may contain components that are not resolveable from external nameservers.

Alternatively, you may need to route email through a gateway. Again, the network management should be able to answer the question.

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com

[Geoff Bryant.]

The suggestions provided are all good ones.

You can also see if you have connectivity to the host in question.

You can check routes with NETCU SHOW/ROUTE.
You can try NETCU PING to the host both by
name and by IP address or with NETCU TRACEROUTE.

Support would help out as well I'm sure.

[Kenneth Rudgers]

Yes I have connectivity to all the hosts... I can ssh and telnet into the hosts as well as ping them... I am wondering if its some sort of difficulty of VMS handling SMTP traffic. Thanks.

[Robert Gezelter]

Kenneth,

More likely there is some form of network restriction.

Try connecting to the destination machine using telnet on the SMTP port.

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com