[blackystrat]

Okay, so first of all, let me confess that I am not a server admin and pretty novice when it comes to configuring mail servers and everything and that's why I have come here looking for some help, I'd really need some hand holding but I am willing to learn

We are running a mail server on QMAIL and have found that several emails sent through email blasts are completely going missing, they are not being delivered either to the inboxes or to the SPAM, they just vanish.

This is our current QMAIL settings

[root@222089 ~]# /var/qmail/bin/qmail-showctl
qmail home directory: /var/qmail.
user-ext delimiter: -.
paternalism (in decimal): 2.
silent concurrency limit: 1000.
subdirectory split: 23.
user ids: 2021, 2020, 2022, 0, 2023, 2520, 2521, 2522.
group ids: 2020, 2520.

badmailfrom: (Default.) Any MAIL FROM is allowed.

bouncefrom: (Default.) Bounce user name is MAILER-DAEMON.

bouncehost: (Default.) Bounce host name is example.com.

concurrencylocal: Local concurrency is 20.

concurrencyremote: Remote concurrency is 40.

databytes: SMTP DATA limit is 0 bytes.

defaultdomain: (Default.) Default domain name is example.com.

defaulthost: (Default.) Default host name is example.com.

doublebouncehost: (Default.) 2B recipient host: example.com.

doublebounceto: (Default.) 2B recipient user: postmaster.

envnoathost: (Default.) Presumed domain name is example.com.

helohost: (Default.) SMTP client HELO host name is example.com.

idhost: (Default.) Message-ID host name is example.com.

localiphost: (Default.) Local IP address becomes example.com.

locals:
Messages for localhost are delivered locally.
Messages for localhost.localdomain are delivered locally.

me: My name is example.com.

percenthack: (Default.) The percent hack is not allowed.

plusdomain: (Default.) Plus domain name is example.com.

qmqpservers: (Default.) No QMQP servers.

queuelifetime: (Default.) Message lifetime in the queue is 604800 seconds.

rcpthosts:
SMTP clients may send messages to recipients at example.com.
SMTP clients may send messages to recipients at turbo.example.com.

morercpthosts: (Default.) No effect.

morercpthosts.cdb: (Default.) No effect.

smtpgreeting: (Default.) SMTP greeting: 220 example.com.

smtproutes: (Default.) No artificial SMTP routes.

timeoutconnect: (Default.) SMTP client connection timeout is 60 seconds.

timeoutremote: SMTP client data timeout is 600 seconds.

timeoutsmtpd: SMTP server data timeout is 600 seconds.

virtualdomains:
Virtual domain: example.com:1

dhparam1024.pem: I have no idea what this file does.

servercert.pem: I have no idea what this file does.

rejectnonexist: I have no idea what this file does.

defaultdelivery: I have no idea what this file does.

rsa512.pem: I have no idea what this file does.

smtpplugins: I have no idea what this file does.

clientcert.pem: I have no idea what this file does.

dhparam512.pem: I have no idea what this file does.

I looked up the QMAIL log and found several entries like

Apr 14 03:00:45 222089 qmail: 1334390445.803003 delivery 1263775: deferral: Sorry,_I_wasn't_able_to_establish_an_SMTP_connection._(#4.4.1)/

So I am guessing this has to do something with those missing emails.

We are on an unmanaged VPS, so I am not getting much help from the server admins anyways.

Please look into it and advise what's wrong and how to get it fixed.

Again, I am extremely novice at all this, so please pardon me if and when I ask dumb questions, I am really trying to learn all this.

Thanks a ton in advance

EDIT: Another thing worth mentioning here is that I've found our server sending emails too fast, yes that's right, too fast. I mean it sends off like 600,000 emails in about 16 hrs. So is the high sending rate a probable reason for the above issue and if yes, then how can I slow it down. Thanks again!

[blackystrat]

anyone?

I am desperately looking for a solution to this one.

Thanks

[spek]

deferral: Sorry,_I_wasn't_able_to_establish_an_SMTP_connection

Your mail server can't reach the remote server you are trying to send to/through.

Get the mail server name that one of these emails are trying to be sent to, and on your command line type:

telnet servername.domain.com 25

...whilst on your mail server. You'll either see a bunch of connection details, or you'll see failure. The emails should still be in the local mail queue though, as they are just being deferred, not dropped.

Note that it is quite possible that the remote server(s) are tarpitting you if you are crossing a rate limit of some sort.

[blackystrat]

Thanks so much spek for the reply

I did a telnet on some of those mail addresses and I got some connected and some of the following

Name or service not known
Temporary failure in name resolution

So is this okay, I mean is there I can do on my server end to ensure that mails don't just go missing altogether.

Is sending speed a factor here? I would like to slow down the sending a bit, how can I do that?

Thanks

[spek]

With the errors you provide, it is impossible to know if speed is a factor. To test this out, hop on a machine that is on a network separate from your own.

If you post the servername here we can test it. Feel free to privately respond to me a couple server names and I'll privately test them out from at least five networks I run.

If I get the same connection problems you do after having sent no mail, we know this isn't the problem.

This problem could even be internal to YOUR network where your vps is hosted. Supply a name (publicly or privately), and I'll check it out so that we can at least half the problem for you.

Only tests will tell.

-spek

[Doug G]

My guess is your mailserver has gotten on some rbl lists and some servers are rejecting your mail. Or your mailserver isn't properly configured, i.e., no reverse DNS, no spf or domain key, etc.

[spek]

Originally Posted by Doug G

My guess is your mailserver has gotten on some rbl lists and some servers are rejecting your mail. Or your mailserver isn't properly configured, i.e., no reverse DNS, no spf or domain key, etc.

Indeed possible, but without further data from the OP, there's no way to know.

[blackystrat]

Thanks for stepping in Doug.

Our mail server was not listed on any RBL before we sent out this large campaign of 600,000 emails but the issue with missing emails was there even before it was listed. After the campaign, it got listed on 4 RBLs and I have unblocked them all. So the IP is clean now.

As for SPF, PTR records, DomainKeys - they are all in place. The only thing we don't have is DKIM.

Let me know if you need any further information from me to help resolve this issue.

P.S - Could you please let me know how I can throttle the sending speed of the server, I'd like to slow down the sending and see if that helps.

[blackystrat]

hi friends...I am still awaiting a response to my previous query.

Could you please tell me how I can slow down the sending speed of the server, I tried reducing the concurrencyremote down to 10 but I guess that didn't help with much.

Advise please

Thanks

[Doug G]

Maybe you need to find a qmail support board somewhere? I haven't used qmail since about 2000 myself. There is http://www.lifewithqmail.com if it's still around.