[clue-tech] mail works some of the time

[David L. Anselmi]

Greg Knaddison wrote:
[...]
> 1. Mail from wwpna.org server to gmail works fine
> 2. mail from wwpna.org server to several specific domains does not
> work (including my own)

Can you get the logs of one of these non-working domains?  That should 
show why the mail was rejected.  If you can't get the logs, can you 
change the config so you get a copy of all bounces sent?  (And which 
domain is "my own"?  wwpna.org?)

[...]
Let's look at your message more closely:

> X-Gmail-Received: 911ddff42ceb52525191ef0cc0103dc073250ac7
> Delivered-To: greg.knaddison at gmail.com
> Received: by 10.65.100.5 with SMTP id c5cs26479qbm;
>        Thu, 4 May 2006 12:05:37 -0700 (PDT)
> Received: by 10.70.24.6 with SMTP id 6mr547023wxx;
>        Thu, 04 May 2006 12:05:36 -0700 (PDT)
> Return-Path: <westwashpark at clust05-www04.powweb.com>

The return-path is where bounces go.  clust05-www04.powweb.com doesn't 
have an MX record.

The return path is probably set from the envelope sender (the MAIL FROM 
command in the SMTP session).

> Received: from clust05-www04.powweb.com (clust05-www04.powweb.com
> [66.152.98.54])
>        by mx.gmail.com with ESMTP id i10si5154246wxd.2006.05.04.12.05.35;
>        Thu, 04 May 2006 12:05:36 -0700 (PDT)
> Received-SPF: pass (gmail.com: best guess record for domain of
> westwashpark at clust05-www04.powweb.com designates 66.152.98.54 as
> permitted sender)
> Received: by clust05-www04.powweb.com (Postfix, from userid 161044)
>     id C52ACA412B; Thu,  4 May 2006 12:05:34 -0700 (PDT)

These headers look like postfix is invoked locally by drupal and maybe 
westwashpark has a userid of 161044.

So postfix runs and queues the mail and you get no error from the PHP 
mail() function.  This is on your web server, clust05-www04.powweb.com.

clust05-www04.powweb.com delivers the mail to Google and that's fine. 
For the domains that don't work, do they accept the message?

If not, clust05-www04.powweb.com creates a bounce and sticks it in 
westwashpark's mailbox (maybe /var/spool/mail/westwashpark or 
/var/mail/westwashpark).  Maybe you can retrieve that with FTP, or with 
a PHP script.

If the domain accepts the message and then bounces it, you should get 
the bounce in the same place.  Maybe the bounce isn't sent because of 
the missing MX record.  But clust05-www04.powweb.com does accept mail 
for westwashpark (I sent you a test there).

There's a good chance that the mail logs on clust05-www04.powweb.com 
won't show you anything.  You'd get the most info from the logs of a 
mail server that rejects the mail, or a bounce from that server.

Can you have the powweb people set up an alias for westwashpark on 
clust05 that points to an account you can get mail from?  That should 
get you the bounces, or you can add options to your mail() command (like 
-v) that will help you troubleshoot.

Dave