Weird SMTP timeouts

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

On Tuesday 13 June 2006 12:20 pm, John Abreau wrote:
> I'm getting reports of mail failing to certain addresses, and I found
> that my mail server is getting a timeout trying to connect to the
> recipient's smtp server. But when I telnet to it, it connects just fine.
>
> > % sudo sendmail -v -q
> > Running /var/spool/mqueue/k58KLgHx006896 (sequence 10 of 11)
> > <lmurray at HelmsBriscoe.com>... Deferred: Connection timed out with
> > smtp.helmsbriscoe.com.
> >
> >
> > % telnet smtp.helmsbriscoe.com 25
> > Trying 64.16.17.140...
> > Connected to smtp.helmsbriscoe.com (64.16.17.140).
> > Escape character is '^]'.
> > 220 hbweb01.helmsbriscoe.com ESMTP SonicWALL (4.6.0.7527)
>
> If telnet to port 25 works, why would sendmail be unable to connect to
> port 25?  This makes no sense to me.
I've seen this a number of times. Kevin had one suggestion, but it simply 
could be that the helmsbriscoe server is currently overloaded, or that the 
file you are sending is very large. In many cases it takes care of itself 
over time. 
-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9
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