Customer Receipt Emails not working on new dedicated server

[horr80]

Hi

I'm having problems getting email working from a new dedicated server I am planning to migrated to.

I can send emails from the linux command line using sendmail or connect to my server with Outlook and SMTP. Both these methods work fine. When I then put the Email settings in Actinic and test the settings it fails with the follwoing message:
"The computer you specified as your mail server is not a valid mail (SMTP) server. Check the computer name or address and try again. If it fails again, then it is possible, you were locked out by a firewall program, or you don't have network connection to this server."

The settings I am using are the same as Outlook:-
SMTP: mail.doppler-hire.co.uk
User: anna@doppler-hire.co.uk
Password: ***********

I have even used a free online SMTP check with the same login information and is confirms that everything is correct.
I used http://pingability.com/smtptest.jsp

Can anyone help and I'm running out of idea to try?

My Actinic network setting are: (Less passwords!!!)
HTTPPROXYMODE 0
HTTPPROXYADDRESS
HTTPPROXYPORT 80
HTTPPROXYUSER
HTTPPROXYPASSWORD
FTPPROXYMODE 0
FTPPROXYADDRESS
FTPPROXYPORT 21
FTPPROXYUSER
FTPPROXYPASSWORD
SCRIPTID 1
SCRIPTEXT .pl
SMTPHOST mail.doppler-hire.co.uk
WEBSITEURL www.doppler-hire.co.uk
IGNOREPASSIVEERRORS true
USERELATIVECGIURLS false
PATHTOPERL /usr/bin/perl
USEENHANCEFTP true
FTPCLIENTTIMEOUT 15000
FTPRETRYDELAY 3000
FTPSILENT false
FTPMAXRETRIES 3
FTPCONNECTTIMEOUT 25000
SMTPAUTHREQUIRED true
SMTPUSERNAME anna@doppler-hire.co.uk
SMTPPASSWORD ********
CATALOGURL http://www.doppler-hire.co.uk/acatalog/
CGIBINURL http://www.doppler-hire.co.uk/cgi-bin/
PATHFROMCGITOCATALOG ../httpdocs/acatalog/
CODEBASE ./
FTPHOST www.doppler-hire.co.uk
FTPUSERNAME doppler-hire
FTPPASSWORD ********
PATHTOCGIBIN cgi-bin/
USEPASSIVEFTP false
FTPPATHFROMCGITOCATALOG ../httpdocs/acatalog/

[NormanRouxel]

It looks like your server people have configured things so that the Perl scripts that Actinic runs do not have access to your SMTP server.

Try using localhost as the SMTP server (without a username/password) and see if that works.

If it doesn't, you'll have to talk to your server support people.

[horr80]

Hi

I've tried localhost without a password but this does not work. I will contact the server hosting company and ask.

Many thanks for you response

Rich

[horr80]

Hi

I've got perl support activated on the server and the scripts are now executing but I'm getting errors in the error.err log under acatalog saying

HTTP Server = Apache/2.0.52 (Red Hat)
Return code = 999 ,
Error returned from SMTP server (1: SMTP Authentication is not supported by this server!)

This is confusing as I'm able to connect the this server thorugh outlook (details in the oriignal post above).

Can anyone shed any further light for me?

The other thing to mention is that i'm still getting actinic test connect complaining about it not being a SMTP server.
Finally - the only entry in the maillog is
Apr 21 21:48:32 doppler-hire relaylock: /var/qmail/bin/relaylock: mail from 70.85.174.130:32770 (doppler-hire.co.uk)
which does not have any confirmation of success as you would expect.

Thanks to anyone who can help/

Cheers

Rich

[Ginnys Attic]

I had an issue with the emails similar to this when my hosts moved us to a new server and it was there end and a firewall setting so i would suggest you get your hosts to check the firwall settings or the server and that you let them know that it's a CGI script running on the server trying to send the email and failing.

If you go to Help > Troubleshooting > Web Site Analysis this will open your browser with an Actinic test page running on the server which you can then send the URL of to the server people who can see for themselves all the details of whats working and whats not as i recall all the email bits are down the very bottom of the page.

[Ginnys Attic]

Just checked my host support ticket and found my problem was SMTP block was enabled under the firewall on server and they simply had to disable it and everything has been fine since.

[NormanRouxel]

Error returned from SMTP server (1: SMTP Authentication is not supported by this server!)

Try it without a user name and password.

[pinbrook]

i wouldn't worry too much about the message about not being an SMTP server, when you get this message simply retest actinic as you may find the email works despite the message.
we often encounter this error message but it does not stop emails from being sent within actinic. We also investigated why the message occurs and found it was a funny within actinic and not the server.

of course it may be the case that in your case you get this message and the email still doesn't work

[horr80]

I've tried the following and still not success. The real odd thing is that I get the "Actinic Test Message" that is send when you set the network set-up. I'm assuming this does not use the same method as the perl script do from customer receipts.

- I tried the localhost as the SMTP server with no login but this failed.

- I tried the test page under Actinic Help -> Trouble Shooting -> Web Site Analysis and had the following successful results:-


Can anyone else suggest anything?

SMTP Communication

Get host name...

Host name is 'www.doppler-hire.co.uk'
DNS lookup...

OK
Create socket address...

OK
Create socket...

OK
Connecting to socket...

OK
The connect message from the SMTP server...

220 doppler-hire.co.uk ESMTP
Sent: HELO www.doppler-hire.co.uk

250 doppler-hire.co.uk
Sent: MAIL FROM:<anna@doppler-hire.co.uk>

250 ok
Sent: RCPT TO:<anna@doppler-hire.co.uk>

250 ok
Sent: DATA

354 go ahead
Sent: From: anna@doppler-hire.co.uk
Sent: Subject: This is a test email from Actinic Catalog.
Sent: To: anna@doppler-hire.co.uk
Sent: Reply-To: anna@doppler-hire.co.uk
Sent: This is the test message from Actinic Catalog.
Sent: The email address and SMTP server you specified
Sent: in the network preferences are correct.
Sent: .

250 ok 1208890815 qp 5219
QUIT

221 doppler-hire.co.uk
SMTP Test passed
_____ End of SMTP Test ____

[Mike Hughes]

If the email server has been set up to prevent relaying (as they almost all are) then it will send emails that are 'on domain' but won't send them to external domains. This could be why the test emails work without authentication but not any others.

What are your settings in outlook? Do you have smtp authentication turned on or just a username and password? What do your hosts say about accessing the smtp server? Do they say anything about 'localhost' or an IP address?

Actinic will talk to just about any SMTP server there is. You need to know what the settings should be though otherwise it's just a case of trying everything and hoping for the best.

Mike

[pinbrook]

is the address in business settngs on domain ie does it match the domain of the defined SMTP server

[horr80]

Hi

I've got my server settings in Plesk set to "open replay" with "SMTP Auth" ticked. So I think this should only allow users on the domain with passwords to send SMTP.

On outlook I had to select the additional option of Outgoiing SMTP options of "requires Auth" and ticked the "User login details".

The SMTP address the host company said to use is mail.doppler-hire.co.uk which is on my domain of doppler-hire.co.uk so that should all match. I've checked this worked with my login using http://pingability.com/smtptest.jsp which recons everthing is fine. I was thinking it was more to do with Actinic.

Does anyone have a very simple perl script I can try that would be similar to Actinic or can some explain how to call the Actinic email part of the script so I can try and prove / rule out this problem?

Thanks

Rich