[thelist] OT - Network/Email problem

[Anthony Baratta]

Two things:

One - The ISP might be blocking all outgoing (out of their network) access
to Port 110 where POP3 lives. That is a nasty thing to do, so I don't think
they are.

Two - check the reverse name lookups for the Office Internet Connection.
Whatever IP address they are using to connect to the mail server will be
"looked up in reverse", in search of a valid host name. It's possible that
the reverse lookup settings for the IP address are not configured correctly.

Get someone from the office on the phone, have them visit browserhawk.com (
http://www.browserhawk.com/showbrow.asp?bhcp=1 , click on the "more" near
the top right of the page). Get them to tell you the IP address reported.
(Look for IPAddr about halfway down the page.) Have them do this one two or
three machines. If they all report the same IP, you are in luck. If not,
you'll need to know all the IPs to test.

The from a UNIX command prompt type "dig -x <IP ADDDESS>" you should get
something like this:

;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 15236
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;123.123.123.123.in-addr.arpa.     IN      PTR

;; ANSWER SECTION:
123.123.123.123.in-addr.arpa. 3600 IN      PTR     domain.com.

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
123.123.123.in-addr.arpa. 3600    IN      NS      ns.otherdomain.com.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns.otherdomain.com.         300     IN      A       222.222.222.222

;; Query time: 4 msec
;; SERVER: 209.142.0.2#53(209.142.0.2)
;; WHEN: Thu Aug 29 16:49:53 2002
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 114


If you don't or it times out, then reverse DNS is not working correctly.

Hope this helps.
--
Anthony Baratta
President
Keyboard Jockeys

"Conformity is the refuge of the unimaginative."