Mailforward to Lotus Notes

[Kirsten Knüttel]

Hello,

I work normally with Lotus Notes and so I want to forward my OpenVMS-Mails to Lotus. But there is a little problem with this forward.

E.g.: Let's call my OpenVMS-user VMSUSER, my LotusNotes mail adress LOTUSUSER@EXTERN.COM
The VMS-machine where I send the mails is the one who can send mails to external adresses

at VMS-Mail I've made a set forward to LOTUSUSER@EXTERN.COM

When I send now a mail to VMSUSER it will be forwarded to my Lotus Notes. When I send a mail to VMSMACHINE::USER I will receive a returned mail:
550 %TCPIP-E-SMTP_NOSUCHUSER, no such user, USER@EXTERN

Is there a trick? I must send mails from other machines to the machine with the SMTP-Mail and I don't want to configure all my machines that they can mail to external adresses
Regards,

Kirsten

[Ian Miller.]

Is this a cluster or a standalone system?

[Kirsten Knüttel]

It's a cluster, but we have more than 1 cluster and I must send mails from every machine in every cluster

Regards,

Kirsten

[Dale A. Marcy]

Was the syntax used for the set forward command like the following:

MAIL> set forward smtp%"LOTUSUSER@EXTERN.COM"

Also what version of VMS as the syntax is different on older VMS versions.

[Kirsten Knüttel]

Yes, the syntax is right for the set forward. Sorry, I forgot the OpenVMS-Version: it's 7.3-1, Tcpip 5.3 Eco2 and all machines are Alpha servers

[John Gillings]

Kirsten,

Please post the exact text of

MAIL> SHOW FORWARD

Also the exact text of the error message (I realise you're trying to obscure actual mail addresses... what I'm looking for is comparing the exact cases of the reported address)

[Volker Halle · Accepted solution]

Kirsten,

you can trace the SMTP messages exchanged between your OpenVMS Alpha SMTP client and your SMTP server in the following way:

$ DEF/SYS/EXEC TCPIP$SMTP_SYMB_TRACE 1
$ @SYS$MANAGER:TCPIP$CONFIG
2 - Client components
6 - SMTP
Stop service
Start service

Then send the failing mail and check the SMTP trace in the file:

sys$sysroot:tcpip$smtp_logfile.log

The trace will show you the SMTP command exchange between your SMTP client and the SMTP server.

To disable tracing, DEASS/SYS/EXEC the logical and restart SMTP.

Volker.

PS: For TCPIP SMTP documentation, see chapter 18 in TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS Management Guide:
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/732final/6526/6526pro_contents_004.html#toc_chapter_18

[Don Braffitt]

Try this

MAIL> set forw smtp%"""LOTUSUSER@EXTERN.COM"""

- Don Braffitt

[Joseph Huber_1]

Kirsten, was it just a typo to show the forward forVMSUSER, but the error returned is for USER, what does Mail> show forward/user=USER show ?

And the fact (as a previous answer suggests) that the forward is not specified as SMTP%"..." doesn't matter with VMS 7.*, except if the following logicals are defined to point to something other than SMTP:

logical MAIL$INTERNET_MODE should be SMTP
logical MAIL$INTERNET_TRANSPORT should be SMTP.

[Kirsten Knüttel]

Hi,
Thank you for your help and sorry for the late reply. Here the answers:

John:
MAIL> show forward/user=knuettel
KNUETTEL has mail forwarded to SMTP%"knuetteldeibmcom"

in the returned mail stands:
550 %TCPIP-E-SMTP_NOSUCHUSER, no such user, knuetteldeibmcom

Volker:
I will try the tracing tomorrow, thank you for the idea

Don:
with this SET FORWARD all mails will return

Joseph:
I've looked, but these logicals are not set on the machine. I can try it with the logicals, perhaps this can help.

[John Gillings]

Kirsten,
Dumb questions...

What happens if you send a message to the target address?

Does forwarding to any external address fail, or just lotus notes addresses?

[Peter Quodling]

My previous experience of interfacing with Lotus notes, was that it had it's own unique interpretation of the RFC's on mail handling... (We would forward mail, via several intermediary machines - the end (lotus) machine, would reject for some reason I like message too large, but rather than rejecting the smtp from the machine that had just passed it a message, it rejected all the way back to the Originating VMS box. Which, would politely keep a log, and attempt a resend. Because of one overly large email message, we ended up with several hundred queued messages, and a couple of gig of disk eaten in the process (of course, mail gateways, are store and forward) so are never configured with a lot of disk...

q

[Volker Halle]

Kirsten,

from looking at some pages found in google when searching for '%TCPIP-E-SMTP_NOSUCHUSER', this error message may be quite generic and may indicate that the receiving SMTP server has rejected the message due to anti-spam mechanisms.

The from address resulting from a forwarded mail addressed using vmsmachine::user may at least look 'unusual' for a non-VMS SMTP server (othernode::otheruser@vmsmachine.domain)

Volker.

[Kirsten Knüttel]

Hi,

John, your mail has arrived.

Thanks for the test.

Regards,

Kirsten

[Kirsten Knüttel]

Hi,

Volker:
I've now traced the SMTP and I've attached the output.
The main message is: Relaying is prohibited
I've looked in the configuration and I've tried mailing with the option RELAY and with NORELAY and the effect is both time the same (I've restarted SMTP after changing the configuration). The mails are returning.

Regards,

Kirsten

[Volker Halle]

Kirsten,

I'm not an anti-spam expert, but I believe your SMTP server fiespexi0002 (not your VMS system) is configured to NOT relay SMTP messages.

The RCPT address is different from your local host name - this seems to be the problem.

Does the trace look any different, if you send mail to VMSUSER locally (from the same VMS node) - which is what you claim is working.

Volker.

[John Gillings]

Kirsten,

>John, your mail has arrived.
>Thanks for the test.

Send from VMSMAIL on a system running OpenVMS V7.3-2. I SET FORWARD to your email address and sent the message to myself.

If it arrived, that proves it's not a VMSMAIL issue.

Check your logical name TCPIP$SMTP_FROM if it's set to an address other than your "real" address, some systems may think you're spoofing and will reject the mail.

Try changing your forwarding address to send to me. (johngillingshpcom) I'll see if there's anything unusual in the headers.

[Kirsten Knüttel]

John, I think too, that this is not an OpenVMS problem. I would think so if all mails are returning. But here, the mails I send to KNUETTEL are forwarded to Lotus and the mails I send to SELLA2::KNUETTEL are returning.
And there are some other funny things: there are days, like today, both ways don't function. The mails from the night arrived, and at the moment, nothing happens. When I can send mails (I hope next monday) I will trace again the way that is O.K..
Perhaps there is a problem between the Exchange Server and the Lotus Notes, nobody knows.

regards,

Kirsten

[Kirsten Knüttel]

Hi all,

Thanks for your help. The mail forwarding is still very strange. I've heard today, that some weeks ago somebody has installed a Spam mail guard on the 1st mailserver. So I think there is my problem.
But I've learned much about mail and I've found a solution: the node SELLA2 is a POP-Server and now I configured my lotus that it fetches the mail from the pop server. And this helps.

Regards,

Kirsten