[SOLVED] Re: [OT] Error sending mail from off-network... (details inside)

[Eric Crist]

On Oct 13, 2004, at 10:05 AM, Ed Budd wrote:

> Eric Crist wrote:
>> On Oct 13, 2004, at 7:00 AM, Subhro wrote:
>>> Are you authenticating yourself before attempting to send out mail to
>>> the ISP SMTP. To prevent spammers, almost all ISPs allow the use of
>>> their SMTPs only after you prove them that you are really a 
>>> legitimate
>>> customer. Also many ISPs wont allow you to use their mailservers
>>> unless the IP which you are using (rather which had been assigned to
>>> you) belongs to their own pool.
>>>
>>> Regards
>>> S.
>> I am trying to use my own SMTP server, not my ISPs.  Not only that, 
>> but I AM trying to authenticate.  As I said in my previous post, I 
>> can send when dialing in to the 'net, but not when connecting from 
>> the ghetto network I'm on here.  Only SMTP traffic seems to be 
>> stopping/timing out.  I can receive mail just fine.
>
> I had this problem once at a hotel. Turned out the hotel was 
> transparently intercepting smtp traffic and funnelling it through 
> their own relays. T-Bird's CRAM-MD5 auth was failing because their 
> relays didn't support it. Try telnetting to what you think is your 
> smtp server and see if your own banner comes up or something else -- 
> that's how I discovered what was happening. It was a little unnerving 
> until I figured it out.
>
> Out of spite I just tunnelled everything through ssh. How dare they 
> f**k with my mail!
>
> EB


Yeah.  Shortly after sending my last email, I did just that.  Their 
server responds that it _is_ my server, but AUTH and other things don't 
work.  I'm staying at a hotel, but I just so happen to be installing 
new access-control hardware for this casino, which owns the hotel.  
Their MIS/IT staff aren't the brightest, and I've come to learn that 
there is not SMTP server setup to handle the funneling.  Kinda ironic - 
they funnel to their non-existent mail server.

To fix this, I opened a non-standard port on my mail server and was 
using that.  What I realized was they aren't blocking 465, which is 
open for SSL, which I had just forgotten to setup on this new laptop 
(bought it two days before going out of town).

Long story short - their IT staff aren't the brightest.

Thanks!
-----
Eric F Crist
Secure Computing Networks
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