SMTP problems

[zabque]

I am attempting to use Wingate (6.2.1 trial vers) on a small lan with a single internet connection. The clients can access the internet and receive email without a problem. The clients CANNOT send email. I am trying to use third party SMTP servers (from my web hosting company), with no luck.

Outloox XP (which the clients are using) indicates that it can't log on to the SMTP server.

I have read the Mail Server 6 Scenarios and Configurations pdf document, but find it very confusing and of no help in resolving the problem. Since the third party severs are NOT internal servers I have been trying to follow the instructions for Scenario 1.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

TE

[MattP]

Hi,

When you say "third party SMTP servers" do you mean that you're connecting to an SMTP server on the Internet?

If so then you have two options, you can configure your LAN clients to bypass the WinGate server and connect directly to the external SMTP server, or you can have your LAN clients connect to the WinGate email server and use that to send/receive mail.

If you want to bypass the WinGate mail server then open the mail services in WinGate and set the startup type to SERVICE IS DISABLED. Now just configure your clients to connect directly to the external mail server.

If you want to use the WinGate email server then you'll be looking at scenario 3 where you are connecting to an external mail server.

Regards,

Matt

[zabque]

Matt, thanks for the response. I tried your suggestion and was unable to resolve my problem. I decided to give up on WinGate and try something else. Well, after testing several other software packages I’m convinced that WinGate will be the best solution IF I can figure out how to get it working. Therefore, I’m going to explain my situation in detail in the hopes that you, or someone can help me configure WinGate correctly.

Hardware/Software:
1. Three (3) IBM Z60m ThinPads - with 2gb ram each, and 100gb hard disk on each.
2. Windows XP Pro, SP2 on all three
3. ZoneAlarm Pro 5.5, in which WinGate is given ALL permissions.
4. Norton AV with outgoing email scanning turned OFF. During installation, Norton AutoProtect is turned OFF.

Network/Internet
1. Linksys WRT54G wireless router
2. DSL Modem with USB connection ONLY
3. ISP does not offer networkable modems.

ISP/Mail Servers
1. ISP does NOT allow the use of 3rd party SMTP servers. All outgoing mail must use ISP’s SMTP server, which is not very reliable.
2. All of the mailboxes I use (6 at the moment) are from various web sites I run, each with it’s own POP3 and SMTP server.
3. ISP allows incoming mail from web site POP3 servers
4. ISP rejects outgoing mail using web site SMTP servers
5. ISP does NOT block port 25

Email Software
1. WinGate server uses Eudora 7.1
2. Wingate client uses Outloox 2002 (XP)
3. Client email accounts are set to use the WinGate server as both the incoming and outgoing mail servers.

Therefore:
1. I require a proxy server to provide internet access for all computers
2. I require an SMTP proxy to bypass the ISP SMTP and use my web site SMTP servers.

When I install and configure WinGate I can provide internet access to all computers. All computers can receive mail from my web site POP3 servers. I can send email from the WinGate server using my web site SMTP servers. I CANNOT send email from the WinGate clients using my web site SMTP servers.

I have tried the scenarios 1 and 3 in the email configuration pdf supplied by WinGate, but without success. I have tried adjusting a multitude of settings in both WinGate and in Outlook. No matter what I do, the problem remains.

If anyone can help me resolve the problem I'm ready to purchase a license.

TE

[Nev]

Hi,

Just some thoughts which might help.

* Disable all resident A/v scanning on the Wingate folder
* Unlikely, but is your link a PPP, have you tried lowering the MTU?
* No doubt you have tried different Auth' methods [if required] in the SMTP server
* Enable Wingate's firewall and disable / remove the other
* Definitely enable full debug logging in the SMTP server and post back how far it goes with the transaction to the remote gateway

Here is a sample log extract with debug enabled:

127.0.0.2 <system> 0000000413 Debug: ==== Attempting connection to mail.gateway.smtp.com[xx.xxx.x.xxx]
127.0.0.2 <system> 0000000413 Debug: mail.gateway.smtp.com <=S: 220 ESMTP Exim Sat, 17 Mar 2007 02:22:25 +0000
127.0.0.2 <system> 0000000413 Debug: mail.gateway.smtp.com C=>: EHLO WINGATE
127.0.0.2 <system> 0000000413 Debug: mail.gateway.smtp.com <=S: 250-mail.isp.co.uk Hello userhost.com
127.0.0.2 <system> 0000000413 Debug: mail.gateway.smtp.com <=S: 250-SIZE 52428800
127.0.0.2 <system> 0000000413 Debug: mail.gateway.smtp.com <=S: 250-PIPELINING
127.0.0.2 <system> 0000000413 Debug: mail.gateway.smtp.com <=S: 250-AUTH PLAIN LOGIN CRAM-MD5
127.0.0.2 <system> 0000000413 Debug: mail.gateway.smtp.com <=S: 250 HELP
127.0.0.2 <system> 0000000413 Debug: mail.gateway.smtp.com C=>: AUTH PLAIN qw3r9pasucq9aufda9009hna9087poaoxvq90389q2
127.0.0.2 <system> 0000000413 Debug: mail.gateway.smtp.com <=S: 235 Authentication succeeded
127.0.0.2 <system> 0000000413 Debug: mail.gateway.smtp.com C=>: MAIL FROM:<myemailaddress@mydomain.com.au> SIZE=857
127.0.0.2 <system> 0000000413 Debug: mail.gateway.smtp.com <=S: 250 OK
127.0.0.2 <system> 0000000413 Debug: mail.gateway.smtp.com C=>: RCPT TO:<customer@their.domain.com.au>
127.0.0.2 <system> 0000000413 Debug: mail.gateway.smtp.com <=S: 250 Accepted
127.0.0.2 <system> 0000000413 Debug: mail.gateway.smtp.com C=>: DATA
127.0.0.2 <system> 0000000413 Debug: mail.gateway.smtp.com <=S: 354 Enter message, ending with "." on a line by itself
127.0.0.2 <system> 0000000413 Debug: mail.gateway.smtp.com <=S: 250 OK id=1HSOZ2-0004Rq-BS
127.0.0.2 <system> 0000000413 Debug: mail.gateway.smtp.com C=>: RSET
127.0.0.2 <system> 0000000413 Debug: mail.gateway.smtp.com <=S: 250 Reset OK
127.0.0.2 <system> 0000000413 Debug: mail.gateway.smtp.com C=>: QUIT
127.0.0.2 <system> 0000000413 Debug: ==== Server mail.gateway.smtp.com closed connection
127.0.0.2 <system> 0000000413 Traffic 1031 366 0 0 25s
127.0.0.2 <system> 0000000413 Terminated exit code 0

You can find the logs under C:\Program Files\WinGate\Logs\SMTP Server Server or thereabouts.