E-mail does not work properly? (Samuel)

Thu, 16 Jan 2003 21:22:39 GMT

This article has 7 parts:

I enabled email in the admin control panel, but I still don't get any mail from my forum.
Digest subscription failed to send out. Everything else works.
PM subscription failed to send out. Everything else works.
Why does my mail hang out in the queue or pickup folders
Why do messages end up in the badmail folder?
Emails go out without any problem to the majority of users, but AOL users can't get any email from the server?
A small portion of my members can't get subscription notifications, while others can.

Q: I enabled email in the admin control panel, but I still don't get any mail from my forum.

A: The first thing to do is enable email logging in web.config if you haven't done so (see the readme file that comes with the software for more info). Once it is enabled, email activities are logged in

~/upfiles/logs/MailLog.maillog

It is just a text file, with the following info (one email activity per line):

Date In Universal Format|Mail Activity Name Sent To: recipient email address|subject:The subject of the mail|mailCC:if applicable|mailBCC:if applicable|SenderE:sender's email|isAsync:True/False|Success:True/False|Simulated:True/False

The format is pretty self-explanatory. The things you want to look for are:

!!! Whether you see the email activities you are looking for (having trouble with) logged. Look at the Mail Activity Name section to find it.
1. If not, see if there is anything in the admin CP's Error Log section. Make sure you import any un-imported errors first.
  1. If there are just too many errors in the log, first delete all logs, and then try the task that generates the mail again. Immediately after this, check the error log.
What value the Simulated section records; This section exists because in our software we can simulate mail activity (if selected in the admin control panel under Side Wide Option - the Email drop down list)
1. if true, it means the software did not encounter error prior to the actual send command (no error while preparing the email). The software did not send the mail however. So if this section records true, the Success section should record false (see below).
2. if false, the software actually sent the mail. See below for further info.
What value the Success section records
1. if true, it means the mail was sent successfully. This indicates problems beyond our software (your mail server could be accepting but not relaying emails; recipients blocking your email, etc.)
2. if false, it means the mail was not sent. Look for related error in the admin CP's Error Log section

Tip: when you look for an email issue in the log, use your notepad to open the log and search for this phrase:

Success:False|Simulated:False

Whenever you see this, it means the software did try to send an email but failed. Scroll to the left to see what the email activity is.

The hidden content below are some email related info we have for the previous version. Take a look if you wish.

Click here to reveal the hidden content

This is rarely a problem if your forum is on a shared host. If you are hosting the forum at home or on your private network, please check the following and make sure everything is ready:

If you select CDONTS in the admin panel, make sure you have the SMTP service running.
If you are using CDONTS, make sure the pickup directory has the correct permission set for "guest" (you need write access at least). Otherwise you will see this error message: Permission denied . The following message is quoted from: http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/webtech/112298-1.shtml

Getting a Permission Denied Error?
Depending on the security settings on the Web server you may receive a permission denied error when executing the Send method. If this is the case check to make sure that the IUSR_MachineName has Full Control Modify permissions on the mail root Pickup directories (usually C:\InetPub\mailroot\Pickup). (For example, if your Web server' s name is Bob, ensure that IUSR_Bob has these permissions.)

Make sure the internet guest account that you grant permission to is the internet guest account of your local machine, not the one from your active directory. Brian encountered the problem and figured it out:

Just figured out the problem here. The issue was that I was putting in the IUSR and IWAM accounts for the Active Directory domain rather than for the local machine. My local machine is a member server of the domain.
Exchange Server 2000 sp3 w/ CDONTS or CDOSYS problem:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q324037

Use Workaround 2 in the document.
Mail relay rejected when you use CDOSYS:
SMTP Mail Relay May Stop Working When Using IIS/MCIS SMTP Service and Non-RFC EHLO/HELO Command Format
http://www.kbalertz.com/kb_240832.aspx
If you select other components from the list, make sure you install them properly. Otherwise you will see this error: Server.CreateObject Failed .
If you are using IIS 6 (Windows 2003), CDONTS is not available to you, and you will get the Server.CreateObject Failed error. Use CDOSYS instead.
If you select CDOSYS using pickup directory, make sure you enter your pickup directory in the "mail server IP or pickup directory" textbox. It is located under the mail component selection. By default, pickup directory is C:\Inetpub\mailroot\Pickup . You will also have to make sure that the Internet Guest account (IUSR_MachineName) has modify rights to the pickup directory. That means the IUSR account must be able to write files to and delete files from the pickup directory.
Does your e-mail server support SMTP relay? Is the connection between your www server and e-mail server blocked by firewall? Are you sure your mail server setting allows ASP program to send SMTP request?
If you are using a shared host, go to the host's FAQ section and see what the requirements are for sending e-mail with ASP / ASP.NET. See what components they support as well as note down their SMTP server address.

In addition, make sure you know the components we support in our ASP versions, and they are:

ASPMail
ASPQMail (message queuing)
JMail (version 3 & 4)
ASPEMail
CDOSYS (both pickup directory & external SMTP)
CDONTS
SoftArtisans SMTPMail

Please note that by default, the forum subscription e-mail is sent via BCC, not TO. If your users cannot get subscription messages, make sure you check your e-mail server's BCC setting, or you can change the preference in the admin control panel to use "TO" to send mail instead.

Here is a list of e-mail related FAQs http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/webtech/LearnMore/Email.asp . Most of the time the problem is with your mail server configuration.

** .NET version (2.x) debugger
We put together a error logging feature in the tutorial forum (must be a license holder to access the message). Use the error logger to show what's wrong with your email setting.

Q: Digest subscription failed to send out. Everything else works.

A: Make sure you set the permission for the ~/upfiles folder correctly. See here for help.
Also, make sure you have forum subscription enabled for that forum. The setting is inside the forum management interface for each individual forum.

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Q: PM subscription failed to send out. Everything else works.

A: PM notification will not send if you are the sender of the PM. It will only send if someone else sends you a PM.

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Q: Why does my mail hang out in the queue or pickup folders?

A: Here are some suggestions for resolving this issue:

if your mail is not leaving the queue folder, check out Q273644
if your mail is not leaving the pickup folder, and you are getting smtpsvc Event ID: 535 ("Virtual Server :The drop directory , for * could not be created.") in your event log, see Q288538
make sure SMTP Virtual Server is running in Internet Services Manager
check the event log for SMTP Service events
turn on logging for your SMTP server, to see if the mail is even being attempted to be sent to the server
make sure your smarthost and FQDN are configured correctly
make sure your smarthost allows you to relay unconditionally (some require authentication)
make sure your server can resolve the ip of your smarthost name - try using the IP of your smarthost to see if this is the issue
restart the SMTP Service (or IIS altogether), and if that fails reboot the server, to see if this clears up the backlog
make sure you are sending from / to a valid address / domain
check any .rtr files in the queue folder - these can be caused by various mistakes in code or config
check the server itself by setting up outlook express on the machine, using the same settings, and attempting to send mail
if the machine is behind a firewall/router, make sure it has access to port 53

Q: Why do messages end up in the badmail folder?

A: If you are getting .bdr files in the badmail folder, this means the mail could not be sent for some reason. You might see an error like this, if you open up one of the .bdr files:

Unable to deliver this message because the following error was encountered:
This message is a delivery status notification that cannot be delivered.
Specific error code was 0xC00402C7

The most common cause is that you've either omitted the address in the From or To properties, or included an invalid e-mail address (see KB #267859 - fixed in Windows 2000 Service Pack 2)
Or, you've reinstalled the IIS SMTP service (see KB #290290), or your SMTP service isn't properly configured (see KB#265621)
Or, you are using Smart Host and a DNS server that does not support TCP queries (see KB #276347)
Or, you are attempting to run Microsoft Commercial Internet System on Windows 2000 (see KB #258918)

Q: Emails go out without any problem to the majority of users, but AOL users can't get any email from the server?

A: If the email problem only happens to users from a very limited number of domains, this indicates two things:

The forum software works
The DNS server responsible for managing Reverse DNS record for your machine is not configured properly

This problem usually happens to dedicated / colo server users. You need to make sure that the mail server machine IP has a PTR record on your own DNS server OR your network provider's DNS server.

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Q: A small portion of my members can't get subscription notifications, while others can.
A: It comes down to one of the following reasons:

Their SPAM filters on their email servers are actively blocking mails from you
Their SPAM filters on their email clients are actively blocking mails from you
Their mail servers check for SPF record / reverse DNS entry (e.g. AOL users) which your mail server doesn't have (See this Q above)
Your mail server blocks emails sent to certain domain