List of outgoing SMTP concurrent connections to another MTA

[RetiredAF]

Our email has be blocked by the service provider Cox since June 2, 2020, oddly just between the hours 05:00 PM and 07:00 AM (Arizona) the next day. They claim that:

While reviewing 7 days logs for the mentioned IP address(IP address removed), we observed that majority of messages are getting deferred due to below reason:​

max_concurrent_cons​

max_concurrent_local_cons​

max_cons_5min​

max_cons_daily​

​

You are overlimiting most of the permitted limits for concurrent connections, max connections limit within 5mins, max connections limits for daily.​

To avoid this issue, kindly keep a check on above mentioned reasons.​

Cox was told that the email has been blocked even on days when only two emails had been sent but since Cox isn’t considering that fact I like to show them all the connection to them (cxr.mx.a.cloudfilter.net), concurrent and not, for the last seven days.

How could I do this? Also any other suggestions on how to solve this would be welcome.

Server Details:
Centos 6.10
CPanel v86.0.22
Exim version 4.93

 

[cPanelLauren]

Can you show me what the output of the following looks like and I or someone on the forums can probably write something for you:

grep cxr.mx.a.cloudfilter.net /var/log/exim_mainlog

Please remove any identifying information from the post (your domain names/IPs can be replaced with alternates)

 

[RetiredAF]

There quite a few lines. here's a sample. Do you need more? Thanks

[email protected] [~]# cat /etc/exim.conf |grep smtp_accept_max

smtp_accept_max = 100
[email protected] [~]# grep cxr.mx.a.cloudfilter.net /var/log/exim_mainlog
2020-06-28 04:21:06 1jpRIJ-000003-5C H=cxr.mx.a.cloudfilter.net [35.162.106.154]: SMTP error from remote mail server after initial connection: 421 cxr-ibgw-6001a.stratus.cloudmark.com cmsmtp 192.168.0.0 blocked. Refer to Error Codes section at Email Error Codes for more information. AUP#CXCNCT
2020-06-28 04:21:08 1jpRIJ-000003-5C H=cxr.mx.a.cloudfilter.net [18.209.118.139]: SMTP error from remote mail server after initial connection: 421 cxr-ibgw-5001a.stratus.cloudmark.com cmsmtp 192.168.0.0 blocked. Refer to Error Codes section at Email Error Codes for more information. AUP#CXCNCT
2020-06-28 04:21:11 1jpRIJ-000003-5C H=cxr.mx.a.cloudfilter.net [34.212.80.54]: SMTP error from remote mail server after initial connection: 421 cxr-ibgw-6002a.stratus.cloudmark.com cmsmtp 192.168.0.0 blocked. Refer to Error Codes section at Email Error Codes for more information. AUP#CXCNCT
2020-06-28 04:21:11 1jpRIJ-000003-5C == [email protected] R=dkim_lookuphost T=dkim_remote_smtp defer (0) H=cxr.mx.a.cloudfilter.net [34.212.80.54]: SMTP error from remote mail server after initial connection: 421 cxr-ibgw-6002a.stratus.cloudmark.com cmsmtp 192.168.0.0 blocked. Refer to Error Codes section at Email Error Codes for more information. AUP#CXCNCT
2020-06-28 06:36:06 1jpRIJ-000003-5C H=cxr.mx.a.cloudfilter.net [52.73.137.222]: SMTP error from remote mail server after initial connection: 421 cxr-ibgw-5008a.stratus.cloudmark.com cmsmtp 192.168.0.0 blocked. Refer to Error Codes section at Email Error Codes for more information. AUP#CXCNCT
2020-06-28 06:36:06 1jpRIJ-000003-5C == [email protected] R=dkim_lookuphost T=dkim_remote_smtp defer (0) H=cxr.mx.a.cloudfilter.net [52.73.137.222]: SMTP error from remote mailserver after initial connection: 421 cxr-ibgw-5008a.stratus.cloudmark.com cmsmtp 192.168.0.0 blocked. Refer to Error Codes section at Email Error Codes for more information. AUP#CXCNCT
2020-06-28 06:54:10 1jpMsh-0004rY-7N H=cxr.mx.a.cloudfilter.net [34.212.80.54]: SMTP error from remote mail server after initial connection: 421 cxr-ibgw-6003a.stratus.cloudmark.com cmsmtp 192.168.0.0 blocked. Refer to Error Codes section at Email Error Codes for more information. AUP#CXCNCT
2020-06-28 06:54:13 1jpMsh-0004rY-7N H=cxr.mx.a.cloudfilter.net [18.209.118.139]: SMTP error from remote mail server after initial connection: 421 cxr-ibgw-5001a.stratus.cloudmark.com cmsmtp 192.168.0.0 blocked. Refer to Error Codes section at Email Error Codes for more information. AUP#CXCNCT
2020-06-28 06:54:15 1jpMsh-0004rY-7N H=cxr.mx.a.cloudfilter.net [35.162.106.154]: SMTP error from remote mail server after initial connection: 421 cxr-ibgw-6004a.stratus.cloudmark.com cmsmtp 192.168.0.0 blocked. Refer to Error Codes section at Email Error Codes for more information. AUP#CXCNCT
2020-06-28 06:54:15 1jpMsh-0004rY-7N == [email protected] <[email protected]> R=dkim_lookuphost T=dkim_remote_smtp defer (0) H=cxr.mx.a.cloudfilter.net [35.162.106.154]: SMTP error from remote mail server after initial connection: 421 cxr-ibgw-6004a.stratus.cloudmark.com cmsmtp 192.168.0.0 blocked. Refer to Error Codes section at Email Error Codes for more information. AUP#CXCNCT
2020-06-28 10:42:32 1jpRIJ-000003-5C => [email protected] R=dkim_lookuphost T=dkim_remote_smtp H=cxr.mx.a.cloudfilter.net [34.212.80.54] X=TLS1.2:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:256 CV=yes C="250 2.0.0 pYVrjAAfk8SP9pYVsjS7pc mail accepted for delivery"

 

[cPanelLauren]

Thanks for that. What's the output of this? It should give you a numerically sorted count:

grep "H=cxr.mx.a.cloudfilter.net"  /var/log/exim_mainlog |awk '{print -f $1, $7}' |sort -n |uniq -c

 

[RetiredAF]

Thanks. That produced:

56 02020-06-28 error
10 02020-06-28 R=dkim_lookuphost
11 02020-06-28 T=dkim_remote_smtp
48 02020-06-29 error
12 02020-06-29 R=dkim_lookuphost
14 02020-06-29 T=dkim_remote_smtp
39 02020-06-30 error
13 02020-06-30 R=dkim_lookuphost
11 02020-06-30 T=dkim_remote_smtp
24 02020-07-01 error
9 02020-07-01 R=dkim_lookuphost
13 02020-07-01 T=dkim_remote_smtp

which should be useful; however, what I'd like to be able to tell Cox with certainty is that there were no concurrent connections to their server (cxr.mx.a.cloudfilter.net). Do you know how concurrent connections would show up in an exim log?

 

[cPanelLauren]

I actually don't like the fields that printed. I'd say modify it as follows:

grep "H=cxr.mx.a.cloudfilter.net"  /var/log/exim_mainlog |awk '{print -f $1, $2}' |sort -n |uniq -c

Concurrent connections wouldn't necessarily be shown but you could potentially see the time stamps there with this new awk printing the first and second fields

 

[RetiredAF]

Thanks again. This looks like it shows there were no more than 2 at the same time. This should be helpful.

1 02020-06-28 04:21:06
      1 02020-06-28 04:21:08
      2 02020-06-28 04:21:11
      2 02020-06-28 06:36:06
      1 02020-06-28 06:54:10
      1 02020-06-28 06:54:13
      2 02020-06-28 06:54:15
      1 02020-06-28 10:42:32
      1 02020-06-28 10:42:35
      1 02020-06-28 10:42:55
      2 02020-06-28 10:42:59
      1 02020-06-28 10:43:23
      1 02020-06-28 10:43:27
      1 02020-06-28 10:43:31
      2 02020-06-28 10:43:32
      1 02020-06-28 10:43:34
      1 02020-06-28 10:43:38
      1 02020-06-28 10:43:45
      2 02020-06-28 10:43:50
      1 02020-06-28 10:47:41
      1 02020-06-28 10:47:45
      1 02020-06-28 10:47:47
      1 02020-06-28 10:47:49
      1 02020-06-28 11:06:07
      1 02020-06-28 19:00:26
      1 02020-06-28 19:35:08
      1 02020-06-28 20:00:06
      1 02020-06-28 20:00:09
      1 02020-06-28 20:00:12
      2 02020-06-28 20:00:14
      1 02020-06-28 20:02:01
      1 02020-06-28 20:02:04
      1 02020-06-28 20:02:07
      2 02020-06-28 20:02:10
      1 02020-06-28 20:06:51
      1 02020-06-28 20:06:53
      1 02020-06-28 20:06:56
      2 02020-06-28 20:06:58
      1 02020-06-28 20:22:50
      1 02020-06-28 20:22:53
      1 02020-06-28 20:22:55
      2 02020-06-28 20:22:58
      1 02020-06-28 20:51:07
      1 02020-06-28 20:51:09
      1 02020-06-28 20:51:11
      2 02020-06-28 20:51:13
      1 02020-06-28 21:21:06
      1 02020-06-28 21:21:09
      1 02020-06-28 21:21:11
      2 02020-06-28 21:21:13
      1 02020-06-28 21:51:06
      1 02020-06-28 21:51:08
      1 02020-06-28 21:51:11
      2 02020-06-28 21:51:13
      1 02020-06-28 22:21:06
      1 02020-06-28 22:21:08
      1 02020-06-28 22:21:11
      2 02020-06-28 22:21:13
      1 02020-06-28 23:21:26
      1 02020-06-28 23:21:28
      1 02020-06-28 23:21:31
      2 02020-06-28 23:21:33
      1 02020-06-29 01:21:06
      1 02020-06-29 01:21:09
      1 02020-06-29 01:21:11
      2 02020-06-29 01:21:13
      1 02020-06-29 03:51:06
      1 02020-06-29 03:51:09
      1 02020-06-29 03:51:11
      2 02020-06-29 03:51:13
      1 02020-06-29 07:21:07
      1 02020-06-29 07:21:10
      1 02020-06-29 07:21:12
      2 02020-06-29 07:21:15
      1 02020-06-29 10:09:21
      2 02020-06-29 10:09:22
      2 02020-06-29 10:09:35
      1 02020-06-29 10:17:52
      1 02020-06-29 10:17:53
      2 02020-06-29 10:17:54
      1 02020-06-29 10:17:55
      1 02020-06-29 10:17:56
      1 02020-06-29 10:18:05
      1 02020-06-29 10:18:06
      2 02020-06-29 10:18:08
      1 02020-06-29 10:18:10
      1 02020-06-29 10:18:11
      1 02020-06-29 10:18:12
      2 02020-06-29 10:18:14
      1 02020-06-29 10:18:17
      1 02020-06-29 10:18:35
      1 02020-06-29 10:18:37
      2 02020-06-29 10:18:39
      1 02020-06-29 10:28:45
      1 02020-06-29 10:28:49
      1 02020-06-29 10:38:07
      1 02020-06-29 10:51:06
      1 02020-06-29 13:55:13
      1 02020-06-29 13:55:32
      1 02020-06-29 13:56:04
      1 02020-06-29 17:47:58
      1 02020-06-29 18:40:24
      1 02020-06-29 22:00:16
      1 02020-06-29 22:00:19
      1 02020-06-29 22:00:22
      2 02020-06-29 22:00:25
      1 02020-06-29 22:21:07
      1 02020-06-29 22:21:09
      1 02020-06-29 22:21:11
      2 02020-06-29 22:21:14
      1 02020-06-29 22:47:09
      1 02020-06-29 22:47:11
      1 02020-06-29 22:47:14
      2 02020-06-29 22:47:16
      1 02020-06-29 23:06:06
      1 02020-06-29 23:06:08
      1 02020-06-29 23:06:11
      2 02020-06-29 23:06:14
      1 02020-06-29 23:36:06
      1 02020-06-29 23:36:09
      1 02020-06-29 23:36:11
      2 02020-06-29 23:36:13
      1 02020-06-30 00:06:07
      1 02020-06-30 00:06:09
      1 02020-06-30 00:06:11
      2 02020-06-30 00:06:13
      1 02020-06-30 01:51:06
      1 02020-06-30 01:51:09
      1 02020-06-30 01:51:11
      2 02020-06-30 01:51:13
      1 02020-06-30 03:36:27
      1 02020-06-30 03:36:29
      1 02020-06-30 03:36:32
      2 02020-06-30 03:36:34
      1 02020-06-30 05:53:45
      1 02020-06-30 05:53:47
      1 02020-06-30 05:53:49
      2 02020-06-30 05:53:52
      1 02020-06-30 09:36:24
      1 02020-06-30 09:36:36
      1 02020-06-30 09:36:39
      2 02020-06-30 09:36:48
      1 02020-06-30 10:03:27
      1 02020-06-30 10:04:01
      1 02020-06-30 10:04:19
      2 02020-06-30 10:04:37
      1 02020-06-30 10:10:33
      1 02020-06-30 10:10:44
      3 02020-06-30 10:10:59
      1 02020-06-30 10:38:19
      1 02020-06-30 10:38:33
      1 02020-06-30 11:04:34
      1 02020-06-30 11:05:34
      1 02020-06-30 11:07:09
      1 02020-06-30 11:22:15
      1 02020-06-30 13:00:24
      1 02020-06-30 14:37:18
      1 02020-06-30 14:37:34
      1 02020-06-30 14:51:08
      1 02020-06-30 15:01:22
      1 02020-06-30 16:23:30
      1 02020-06-30 16:45:52
      1 02020-06-30 17:06:08
      1 02020-06-30 17:21:26
      1 02020-06-30 23:00:15
      1 02020-06-30 23:00:18
      1 02020-06-30 23:00:20
      2 02020-06-30 23:00:23
      1 02020-06-30 23:21:06
      1 02020-06-30 23:21:08
      2 02020-06-30 23:21:11
      1 02020-06-30 23:51:06
      1 02020-06-30 23:51:09
      2 02020-06-30 23:51:11
      1 02020-07-01 00:06:06
      1 02020-07-01 00:06:07
      1 02020-07-01 00:21:06
      1 02020-07-01 00:21:09
      2 02020-07-01 00:21:11
      1 02020-07-01 00:51:06
      1 02020-07-01 00:51:09
      2 02020-07-01 00:51:11
      1 02020-07-01 01:21:07
      1 02020-07-01 01:21:10
      2 02020-07-01 01:21:12
      1 02020-07-01 02:51:07
      1 02020-07-01 02:51:09
      1 02020-07-01 02:51:11
      2 02020-07-01 02:51:13
      1 02020-07-01 04:36:06
      1 02020-07-01 04:36:08
      2 02020-07-01 04:36:11
      2 02020-07-01 05:21:07
      1 02020-07-01 07:36:13
      1 02020-07-01 07:40:53
      1 02020-07-01 07:40:54
      1 02020-07-01 07:40:56
      2 02020-07-01 07:40:58
      1 02020-07-01 09:06:38
      2 02020-07-01 09:06:42
      2 02020-07-01 09:36:08
      1 02020-07-01 11:21:59
      1 02020-07-01 15:00:28
      1 02020-07-01 15:34:37
      1 02020-07-01 15:51:07
      1 02020-07-01 15:51:10
      1 02020-07-01 16:00:21
      1 02020-07-01 16:07:03
      1 02020-07-01 16:09:56
      1 02020-07-01 17:03:02
      1 02020-07-01 17:25:27
      1 02020-07-01 19:36:44
      1 02020-07-01 19:41:07

 

[cPanelLauren]

Awesome! - Let me know what they say and if you need a better command.