SWM seeks nerd for casual diagnostic encounters
I used to hang out with lots of tech support-type people who were very well versed in the ebb and flow of the internet. Both from a service-provider standpoint and also the technical side, these nerds were able to help me with whatever issues I might have had. Kyle Hodgson and Jeff Crowe, sysadmin heroes of the late nineties, where are you now? 
Here’s what’s been causing mild arrhythmia just recently: incoming e-mail messages that are never received, in one physical location only.
Picture, if you will, an office of people, all having erratic mail issues, where messages sometimes never arrive to them, without error messages when they check their mail, and also without bounce messages for the sender – no indication anywhere that anything is wrong. Mail simply never gets received.
However! This occurs only at one location, which is the office where everyone works. Those of us who ply the company trade from elsewhere and check their e-mail have no problem. Messages received, A-OK! On top of this, the problem is wishy-washy, sometimes showing up and sometimes not. Last week: no problem. Today? Fahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhk.
Now, I’m no slouch when it comes to this series of tubes we call the informatrix cyberspaceway. This seems like the ISP for the office location, which is seperate from the mail hosting provider, is somehow blocking access to the messages, because it works everywhere else. Right? But if that’s the case, then:
- Where do these lost messages go?
- Why is it such a sporadic problem?
- Whither the lack of error message?
- Why?
Of course, the e-mail host blames the ISP or the users. The ISP will blame the e-mail host. There is no winner. We all just lose.
So, wtf. I don’t know what to do. What I need is someone with the wherewithal to step in and provide a real understanding of where the problem is occurring – I’m certain I can fix it, by uprooting the service provider or whatever, but I can’t do that unless I know the cause.
Any serious nerds out there who’d care to take a crack at this? I have a dozen blank CD-Rs, my trusty Clairetown paper bookmark and a busted Roku Soundbridge remote ready as a reward. No kidding!
Are you sure you’re putting enough postage on the envelopes? Bwa ha ha ha ha!!!
Seriously though, the price of stamps went up a while ago. Get with it.
First thing I’d to is talk to the email host:
1) What anti-spam software they’re using.
2) What the default behaviour is for messages rejected as spam. Lots of the tools can be configured to dump messages silently. This is done to save bandwidth at high-volume sites, and also to mask information about which accounts are valid/invalid.
3) Ask which, if any blacklists their servers are configured to use. The same behaviour can occur if a host is blacklisted.
4) Check the various spam blacklists (spamhaus, etc.) and search for your hosts servers.
5) Ask your email host what the policy is for relayed mail. Some ISPs refuse to relay mail through any servers but their own. Conversely, most email servers (should!) be configured to drop mail relayed through other servers. Catch 22 if you rely on relaying. I know for a fact that Bell residential and Rogers do this.
The answers to those questions should get you onto the right path. If not, feel free to drop me a line.