Unable to Send Mail

JC1455 · #1 10-17-2006, 04:02 PM

I have a couple of Virtual PC images setup as build machines. One of them works fine. The other one works fine except at the end of the build when it is supposed to send mail it instead fails with "Error connecting to SMTP server: Network connection aborted by local host". Both machines are XP SP2. Both machines are in the domain. Both machines are logged in as the same user. Both machines are running the same VisBuildPro script (and therefore using the same user/pw, server and port when trying to send mail). On the machine that fails I can ping and telnet to the e-mail server on port 25. So I think the connection is there. If there anyway to get more information out of the Send Mail step about what is failing or does anyone have any other suggestions to try. Are there any setup requirements in order for Send Mail to work on a machine? Maybe I need to install something? I checked and saw mapi32.dll is there I assume Send Mail ends up using that. I'm using VisBuildPro 6.1. Thanks for any help you may be able to provide.

kinook · #2 10-17-2006, 05:45 PM

Here is the response from the vendor of the SMTP component we use:

"The error is exactly what's indicated: the server is aborting the connection. It could be a firewall issue, or it could be that something was changed in terms of configuration where it's no longer accepting connections from that client (based on its IP address). The first thing I'd recommend is if they are running any anti-virus or firewall software is to disable it and see if that resolves the problem. Aside from that, there's no way to tell what is causing the problem, it's something that the mail server administrator would have to look into. One other possibility, on the server side of things, is if they're using any kind of "blacklist" service (SpamCop, etc.) that can be used to reject connections from clients based on IP address blocks. If your customer somehow found themselves on one of these lists that the mail server is using, then that could be the problem."

pjaquiery · #3 10-17-2006, 06:12 PM

We see a similar issue to this with one particular build where it often fails to send a build completion email.

I've not had time to look into this yet, but it is on my todo list. My current impression is that there is nothing special about the send mail step compared to any of our other builds.

JC1455 · #4 10-18-2006, 09:57 AM

The vendor of the SMTP component obviously didn't read the error message. It says "Network connection aborted by local host" not aborted by server. Based on the information I previously posted and the fact that the problem is on the build machine not the server (unless the error message is wrong) I fully expect I don't have something setup correctly on this one build machine but I don't know what that could be.

kinook · #5 10-18-2006, 10:13 AM

The error message indicates that the client (VBP) gave up because the server did not respond. The most likely causes are 1) something between VBP and the server (for instance, a firewall or anti-virus software) that is blocking the communication or 2) the server rejecting communication from that machine's IP address. It could be any number of things, none of which VBP (the client) has any control over.

JC1455 · #6 10-18-2006, 11:48 AM

Since I could telnet to the machine on port 25 I was pretty sure that the basic comminications were there. The XP firewall on the build machine was disabled but I was still pretty sure that the problem was on the client. So just for heck of it I added an exception to the XP firewall for port 25. It didn't help....until I rebooted and then I was able to send mail. I went back in and unchecked the exception in the XP firewall for that port and it was still able to commincate. However since it required a reboot after a change before it stands to reason I needed to reboot again. After rebooting I was back to getting the same error. So once more I went to the XP firewall, checked the port 25 exception I added before. I knew I'd need to reboot but I tried to send mail and it failed as I guessed it would. After a reboot it was working again. So somehow the XP firewall is doing stuff even though I've turned it off. Why the telnet worked but sending mail didn't I can't explain, but at least I know how to fix it now.