[cobalt-users] Can't Send to Hotmail

["Andrew M. Danneffel" <adanneffel@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

After further investigation/research I've learned a little more about the email problem I posted on
this list earlier in the week.  I'll try posting one more time :)

***

Over the past week or so my RaQ4 clients have had trouble sending email to hotmail accounts. Mail
requests either time out or are _very_slow_ in reaching their recipients (by far most time out).
People trying to send mail to hotmail accounts from MS Outlook receive timeout errors which
ultimately lock their account for a while. The server is also backed up with sendmail processes to
hotmail accounts. Strangely enough, this ONLY seems to be a problem when sending to Hotmail
accounts; all other email seems to get through nice and fast.
Here is an example of the sendmail listings in ps -aux:

sendmail: accepting connections
sendmail: g222Saw13714 f249.law8.hotmail.com [216.33.241.249]: MAIL FROM
sendmail: server f225.law7.hotmail.com [216.33.237.225] child wait
sendmail: g222W1w14052 f225.law7.hotmail.com [216.33.237.225]: MAIL FROM
sendmail: server oe56.law10.hotmail.com [64.4.14.191] child wait
sendmail: g222WTw14104 oe56.law10.hotmail.com [64.4.14.191]: MAIL FROM
sendmail: server f8.law4.hotmail.com [216.33.149.8] child wait
sendmail: g222Zcw14452 f8.law4.hotmail.com [216.33.149.8]: MAIL FROM
sendmail: server f134.law12.hotmail.com [64.4.19.134] child wait
sendmail: g222anw14600 f134.law12.hotmail.com [64.4.19.134]: MAIL FROM
sendmail: server f263.law11.hotmail.com [64.4.16.138] child wait
sendmail: server f33.law12.hotmail.com [64.4.19.33] child wait
sendmail: g222b5w14617 f263.law11.hotmail.com [64.4.16.138]: MAIL FROM
sendmail: g222b9w14620 f33.law12.hotmail.com [64.4.19.33]: MAIL FROM
sendmail: server f80.law12.hotmail.com [64.4.19.80] child wait
sendmail: server oe69.law8.hotmail.com [216.33.240.204] child wait
sendmail: g222brw14700 f80.law12.hotmail.com [64.4.19.80]: MAIL FROM
sendmail: g222btw14708 oe69.law8.hotmail.com [216.33.240.204]: MAIL FROM
sendmail: server f102.law12.hotmail.com [64.4.19.102] child wait
sendmail: g222cOw14762 f102.law12.hotmail.com [64.4.19.102]: MAIL FROM
sendmail: server f239.law10.hotmail.com [64.4.15.239] child wait
sendmail: server f125.law12.hotmail.com [64.4.19.125] child wait
sendmail: g222eTw14987 f239.law10.hotmail.com [64.4.15.239]: MAIL FROM
sendmail: g222eWw14990 f125.law12.hotmail.com [64.4.19.125]: MAIL FROM
sendmail: server oe57.law8.hotmail.com [216.33.240.192] child wait
sendmail: g222fvw15128 oe57.law8.hotmail.com [216.33.240.192]: MAIL FROM
sendmail: server oe13.pav2.hotmail.com [64.4.36.117] child wait
sendmail: g222gvw15251 oe13.pav2.hotmail.com [64.4.36.117]: MAIL FROM
sendmail: server h24-77-236-38.vf.shawcable.net [24.77.236.38] child wait
sendmail: g222h7w15263 h24-77-236-38.vf.shawcable.net [24.77.236.38] : MAIL FROM

Associated with most of these processes is an error in the error log. It would appear that after
these processes hang around for a while, i.e. if they are not delivered, they are killed and an
error is written to the log:

Feb 25 17:54:30 www sendmail[4636]: g1Q1SCF04636: lost input channel from f6.law7.hotmail.com
[216.33.237.6] to MTA after mail
Feb 25 17:54:30 www sendmail[4636]: g1Q1SCF04636: from=<user_email>, size=1781, class=0, nrcpts=0,
proto=ESMTP, daemon=MTA, relay=f6.law7.hotmail.com [216.33.237.6]

I've ran a bunch of google searches on the "lost input channel - to MTA after mail" error but
outside of the article at the following URL re: troubles with port 53 I haven't really come across
anything valuable:

http://www.cm.nu/~shane/lists/comp.mail.sendmail/2001-09/0959.html

I don't recall making any changes to the server's configuration that would have caused this problem;
the server was running fine for half a year and suddenly this problem. I have the pop before smtp
protocol enabled, but am relaying for hotmail.com. My ISP has run some tests and has assured me that
other servers on my network can send mail to Hotmail, so it seems it is an issue localized to my
box.

Any ideas on how to fix this would be appreciated!

Andrew