lost while reading message data (header)

testtubebaby

Member
Jul 28, 2007
16
0
51
Hello,

I am unable to recieve emails from a mailserver .. keep getting the error......



2007-08-06 18:30:46 SMTP connection from <remote mail servername> [x.x.x.x]:2149 I=[y.y.y.y]:25 lost while reading message data (header)



x.x.x.x = remote mail server IP
y.y.y.y = my mailserverIP


Spamassasin is turned of for the domain that needs to recieve ....mail scanne runinstalled .... exim reset to defaults,... x.x.x.x added to /etc/rblwhitelist ... sender verify callout disabled.


Please advise.


Thanks.
 

furquan

Well-Known Member
Jul 27, 2002
473
4
168
apologies to bump this old thread, but since my search turned vein, i am updating an old ticket,

I am also seeing this in my logs and the customer complaining about not being able to connect to our server to send mails, I have NO hard firewall or any such restrictions but i see this in the exim_mainlog

list matching forced to fail: failed to find host name for

What could this mean ...any one ?
 

jack01

Well-Known Member
Jul 21, 2004
200
0
166
Yes, we need to know what this means too please in /var/log/exim-mainlog:

list matching forced to fail: failed to find host name for
Also seeing

unexpected disconnection while reading SMTP command from (pc) [xx.xx.xx.xx]
the IP of which is a hosting client who cannot send emails out
 

jack01

Well-Known Member
Jul 21, 2004
200
0
166
Yes, reverse dns is in place for the server IP, and has been for years.
 

jack01

Well-Known Member
Jul 21, 2004
200
0
166
OK, there does seem to be a known issue with Orange Internet connections currently where 3rd pary SMTP connections are being blocked. Orange have confirmed this by telephone.

Our current workaround is to simply ask the clients (assuming they are indeed with Orange) to use smtp.orangehome.co.uk as the outgoing mail server and make sure they use port 25 and disable 'server requires authentication'.

Hope this helps anyone.
 

cPanelTristan

Quality Assurance Analyst
Staff member
Oct 2, 2010
7,607
43
348
somewhere over the rainbow
cPanel Access Level
Root Administrator
Hello Varada,

Port 26 is not opened by default on cPanel machines unless the following has been set in WHM > Service Manager:

exim on another port

Allow exim to listen on port
Here you would have had to place 26 into the field and then click "Save" to change the setting. Now, port 587 is also another alternate port you could add in that area rather than 26, since many ISPs block port 26 as well (but do not block 587).

465 is the TLS on connect port, so that one is opened by default. It's a secure port for exim actually.

You can see which ports are opened for mail and being used by running the following (I've used port 465 as the example):

Code:
[[email protected]:~] # egrep 465 /etc/exim.conf
daemon_smtp_ports = 25 : 465
tls_on_connect_ports = 465

[[email protected]:~] # lsof -i :465
COMMAND   PID     USER   FD   TYPE    DEVICE SIZE NODE NAME
exim    16160 mailnull    5u  IPv6 198945326       TCP *:smtps (LISTEN)
exim    16160 mailnull    6u  IPv4 198945327       TCP *:smtps (LISTEN)
If you run the same commands to check port 26 and/or 587, you will not receive a return unless you've set one of those as the alternate exim port in WHM's Service Manager as previously mentioned.

Thanks!
 

LinuxTechie

Well-Known Member
Jan 22, 2011
502
14
68
cPanel Access Level
Root Administrator
Hello Tristan,

Yes, I was exactly mentioning to set the port 26 in Service Manager. Some ISP's blocks port 25 and now a days most of the hosts opens an extra port for smtp to resolve this issue.

Thanks.