for the past few days my customers cannot send any emails through outlook or any other windows based programs. To be more specific, i get error: 0x800CCC0B in outlook express.
My current smtp doesn’t need to authenticate.
I have tried to add the smtp in white list so users can access it without even log in.
i have also tried to redirect all port 25 traffic through that specific smtp.
i know about the hotfix. now i get different messages. i can telnet the smtp through the wifi system but i cannot reach it. i will post the message later that i get now.
you need to post your firewall and nat configuration, so we can see what could be causing problems. are there any other problems with websites, or just the SMTP doesn’t work? is it the same for all customers, or only for some ?
But if you are using the hotspot, does the end user need to authenticate against their server to send out messages? You can try having them turn off authentication on their machines and see if it works.
If your users need to authenticate themselves against their server to be able to send out messages, then you have a couple of choices:
1.) Anyone that needs to send out e-mails needs to turn off authentication if not already done. (Generates tech support calls)
2.) Depending on your relay server, you might be able to hack it to accept any and all user names and passwords. I managed to do it with Postfix, SASL, and FreeRadius. It required a fair amount of tinkering to get it going though and much trial and error. You’ll also want to be sure that your server will only accept connections from known IP addresses (i.e. your hotspots) or you will become an open relay with that method.
3.) Turn off the SMTP option on the MikroTik so they use their own servers to send out e-mails (Can general support calls due to peoples relay servers not accepting connections from outside their network and can get your location black listed from a user sending spam)
Do you redirect your client’s email to a local server for delivery? If not, that is probably the problem.
SMTP is tricky. It is a 2-part challenge.
Most email servers will not relay email for an untrusted ip or domain. So because of this reason, I use the smtp-server setting in the hotspot profile to redirect smtp to my email server for delivery. That way if my customer does not have secure email, they can send email.
Some clients have secure email. This requires the client to go directly to his email server to send email with the client’s current setting. But because of the smtp redirect setting above, they can’t do that. I set up a second hotspot on a VAP for that.
Maybe someone else has a better solution for both of us.
Hello again. When i connect my laptop directly to my fiber connection with a real ip all the messages go through. When my laptop is connected to the hotspot i get a variety of error messages. so the problem must be from the hotspot configuration.
It is possible to set up your relay server to accept all usernames and passwords so an end user can send their “secured” mail, it is tricky though. It works with the PLAN and LOGIN mechanisms, but the others don’t appear to work right with this method. It’s enough however that we rarely see a call about it now.
Basically I have Postfix set to used SASL auth if the end user asks for authentication, and it set to use PAM as the method. PAM is then set to use Radius to authenticate the request. The FreeRadius server is hard coded to accept everything (running on the local machine and only accepts connections from localhost). This way no matter what the end user has for their username or password it is accepted and they can relay their e-mail.
Could you tell us more in detail about hardcode freeradius to accept all authentication request ?
Which part in the configuration file of freeradius need to be added or removed due to this purpose ?
@Feklar: It is not the user/password I have trouble with. It is the secure email that has a “key” that does not match my email server secure key. How did you correct that?
ADD: I can’t remember exactly verbatim what it shows, but in the sendmail log shows something like this:
send failed: domain key mismatch.
I think it is the receiving email server misconfiguration. Most SSL/TTLS servers use a port other than 25, like gmail does. That causes no problem at all. They use port 587. It is not redirected like port 25.
Edit /etc/freeradius/users and place this near the top.
DEFAULT Auth-Type := Accept
Then it will just accept anything you feed it for a user name and password. The tricky part is getting your mail server to use Radius in the first place, hard coding it to accept is easy .
@SurferTim, like you said, this doesn’t work for everything. However if they have a more secured system they usually use a different port, or must connect to a VPN to send/receive e-mails. In those cases it’s out of your control and usually isn’t a problem. This setup doesn’t cover every case, in fact it only works for the PLAN and LOGIN mechanisms if I remember correctly, but it increases the number of clients you can support without them having to make setting changes to their e-mail clients.