SMTP Relay/DNS Problem

[Mike_Turner]

I have my own email server, using POSTFIX, on a Ubuntu machine at home. The configuration for this includes a "relayhost" directive:-

relayhost=[mail.btinternet.com]:587

Sometimes, when I send an email, it is delayed, with a log entry including:-

...relay=mail.btinternet.com[65.20.50.nn]:587 ....status=deferred (lost connection with mail.btinternet.com[65.20.50.nn] while performing the EHLO handshake)

A few minutes later, it tries again, and succeeds. This time, the log entry includes:-

...relay=mail.btinternet.com[213.120.69.nn]:587.... mail accepted ...

A "dig" of mail.btinternet.com shows:-

mail.btinternet.com. 877 IN CNAME mail.lb.btinternet.com.

mail.lb.btinternet.com. 20 IN A 65.20.50.nn

And sometimes, the A record is:-

mail.btinternet.com. 25 IN A 213.120.69.nn

A "whois" of 213.120.69.nn shows that it is owned by BT.

A "whois" of 65.20.50.nn shows that it is owned by Openwave messaging Ireland.

My emails always get through, but it appears that something is not working quite as it should. If I get a 213.120.69.nn address, it works fine, but, if I get a 65.20.50.nn address, the message is deferred.

[Mike_Turner]

Can someone tell me if I am doing anything wrong?

None of my emails are getting sent, now, because  DNS is just giving me a 65.20.50.n address.

Everything had been working well for years. Have BT made any changes that I am unaware of?

[jshovelt]

Hi Mike,

Did you manage to resolve this? I do hope so. For the last 24 hours or so, I am getting the following soft bounce message:

65.20.50.207 - SMTP Connection Error: dial tcp :0->10.0.44.50:2525: bind: address already in use

We use a thid-party mail host (based in India) and have had so many problems with BT over the past year that the BT postmaster has whitelisted our sending IP for us. We are not email experts, so I have no idea what this message means.

[Mike_Turner]

Hello.

Yes - I did manage to solve it. However, your message sounds completely different to my symptoms.

I'm not an email expert, either,but it doesn't sound, to me, like a BT problem.

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

Mike.