Any IOL/NS/€ircon users with mail/posting problems?

#1 · 13-09-2003 1:49am #1

A few of us UTV BB people are having problems sending mail and posting to various forums, including boards.ie. Initially, I put it down to some teething problems with my connection, but it persists, and a number of users have posted about it on the UTV NG. WHen I finish writing this, I will have to terminate my BB connection and go to analogue dial-up to post it. I have to do the same to send mail, and ironically, to post to the UTV NG!

I'm curious to know if any non-UTV people have had this problem. So far, UTV Support are mystified.

Repli · 13-09-2003 1:53am

Im onn IOL broadband.. never had a problem looking at boards.ie or checking my mail..

tomk · 13-09-2003 2:24am

Thanks Repli. Just to be clear, I don't have a problem looking at boards.ie or checking my mail, either - i just can't post to boards.ie or reply to/send mail.

Snaga · 13-09-2003 2:42am

Well for the mail side of things try the following, at the very least you may get some more information for utv support.

Find the name of your mail server, I have an iol gold account so ill do this example with the iol settings, just use the utv details and your own email address instead.

This will be easier if you have win2k, xp or linux (no horrible seperate telnet client).

Open a command prompt (dos box) and type the following series of commands....(any line with a number before it is generated by the mail server, the others are typed in by yourself).

> telnet mail.iol.ie 25
220 mail2.mail.iol.ie ESMTP Sat, 13 Sep 2003 03:30:51 +0100
helo mail.iol.ie (use utv mail server here, though its not really important)
250 mail2.mail.iol.ie Hello [ip address]
mail from:<youremail@address.com>
250 <youremail@address.com> is syntactically correct
rcpt to:<youremail@address.com>
250 <youremail@address.com> verified
data
354 Enter message, ending with "." on a line by itself
Test mail
.
250 OK id=<email id>

The above shows a successfull mail being sent directly through a mail server, from yourself, to your self.

If this fails at any point, take a copy and paste of the results and mail them to utv support.

Tenshot · 13-09-2003 11:09am

This sounds like it might be an MTU issue of some sort? Essentially, you're having problem sending large (> a few hundred bytes) worth of data to the Internet, but no problems receiving. Can you download files via FTP but not upload? If so, that would more or less confirm it.

A simple fix worth trying is to reduce the MTU on your PC to around 1400 or so. This will reduce the size of packets sent, hopefully by enough to avoid exceeding whatever threshhold you're running into. You'll want to download a suitable utility for this.

(Are you using a USB modem or separate Ethernet router? It sounds like a problem that might also be fixed by a firmware update.)

tomk · 13-09-2003 10:41pm

Tenshot - you're the man. Short posts (like this) work!

tomk · 13-09-2003 10:42pm

And so do short outgoing mails - thanks Snaga.

tomk · 13-09-2003 10:54pm

Tenshot - re changing the MTU - the modem (ZyXEL USB) is connected to a Win98 box set up as a router/firewall. There are two other PCs on the network - a Win98 laptop and a Linux desktop. Do i change the MTU on all of them, or just the router box?

Tenshot · 14-09-2003 1:25am

Change the MTU on one of the PCs (doesn't really matter which one) first, and check to see if it fixes the problem for that PC. If so, then you'll need to change it on the other PCs as well.

(This isn't an ideal solution, but I'm assuming that at this stage you'll be happy with anything that works!)

Jorinn · 14-09-2003 2:09am

I haven't been able to receive mail from my utv account since about july, which was about 2 months after I switched from them *shrug*

tomk · 15-09-2003 9:37am

DIfferent issue, Jorinn, I think - if UTV are no longer your ISP, they would probably not be too keen on you continuing to use their email. If it took them two months to close you down, that was a bonus for you, that's all.

nellieswellies · 15-09-2003 9:50am

This is quite handy for changing your MTU size etc

tomk · 15-09-2003 11:47am

Thanks nw. I found that over the weekend alright - haven't had a chance to try it out yet.

eth0_ · 15-09-2003 2:15pm

Originally posted by tomk
DIfferent issue, Jorinn, I think - if UTV are no longer your ISP, they would probably not be too keen on you continuing to use their email. If it took them two months to close you down, that was a bonus for you, that's all.

Nah you don't have your email address taken off you once you cancel your utv account. Even free users get an @utvinternet.com email address.

tomk · 15-09-2003 10:28pm

Originally posted by Tenshot
A simple fix worth trying is to reduce the MTU on your PC to around 1400 or so. This will reduce the size of packets sent, hopefully by enough to avoid exceeding whatever threshhold you're running into. You'll want to download a suitable utility for this.

Originally posted by nellieswellies
This is quite handy for changing your MTU size etc

Thanks for all the advice, folks. I used ping with -l and -f set to find my MTU (1470 + 28 = 1498) and then ran DRTCP to set that value for the DSL interface on my gateway machine. If this posts, I'll be all set......

(Two attempts later....)

Actually, I had to change the MTU on my laptop as well. But I'm posting, and it may be my imagination, but pages seem to be loading quicker as well. Now I just need to make sure I can send mail.....

blorg · 16-09-2003 4:56pm

Most ISPs will not let you use their SMTP server if you are trying to do so from another ISP. This called 'relaying' and it is prevented to stop spammers from using the server to send spam. Some ISPs will let you use their SMTP server from another ISP if you check your POP account beforehand.

Note: I don't think this is tomk's problem, as it would not affect posting to boards, but it is worth bearing in mind for others.

Any IOL/NS/€ircon users with mail/posting problems?

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