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Retry time not reached for any host

keat63
I have a customer who's saying that he's no longer receiving any emails from us. I checked the mail delivery reports and can see 'retry time not reached for any host', so I followed the instructions on this thread thinking the database might be corrupt or something.

Comments

10 comments

Date Votes
  • keat63
    I've delved a little deeper, and I'm now not convinced that running this commands had an effect on the outcome, as I can see similar events from before I ran them. It seems that I'm unable to email NTL World or Virgin Media which are connected. I see this: Remote host closed connection in response to EHLO Then followed throught the day with retry failures.
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  • cPanelMichael
    Hello, I recommend attempting to connect to those remote mail servers from the command line using "telnet". Here's an example:
    telnet remote-mail-server.tld 25
    It's likely a firewall or filter rule on the remote mail server that's blocking access attempts if the connection fails. You should also temporarily disable any firewall rules that affect port 25 to rule that out as the cause of the problem. Thank you.
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  • keat63
    I'm convinced that this is an issue with the Virgin servers. I have no problems emailing anyone else, we send over 300 customer invoices per day to hundreds of domains. The only domains I'm having trouble with are VirginMedia, NTLWorld and BlueYonder, all of which are in the same family. I did briefly drop CSF to see if maybe we were blocking them at our end, but still got the same result when trying to send another email. I've raised a ticket on the VirginMedia forum, and I see that I'm not the only one suffering the same fate. Alas however, I fear as there is no direct contact with any form of technical support, this could go on for quite some time to come.
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  • cPanelMichael
    I've raised a ticket on the VirginMedia forum, and I see that I'm not the only one suffering the same fate. Alas however, I fear as there is no direct contact with any form of technical support, this could go on for quite some time to come.

    I've seen instances where hosting providers purchase an additional IP address and use it for email sending purposes to workaround this type of problem. There's a document on how to do this at:
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  • keat63
    I could accept that if we were inadvertently blacklisted somewhere, but we are not. I go to great lengths to ensure that we don't send spam, the email accounts and server locked down, SPF and DKIM configured etc. On Friday evening, the system sent around 520 customer statements, to probably more than 250 domains. This morning, I have 14 stuck in the queue, all to VirginMedia servers.
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  • keat63
    Although it's only the VM servers which seem to be affected, i thought i'd better post the sending output.
    LOG: MAIN cwd=/usr/local/cpanel/whostmgr/docroot 4 args: /usr/sbin/exim -v -M 1bJy1B-0002Ig-8S delivering 1bJy1B-0002Ig-8S Connecting to mx.tb.ukmail.iss.example.net [212.54.xx.xx]:25 ... connected SMTP<< 220 mx1.tb.ukmail.iss.example.net bizsmtp ESMTP server ready SMTP>> EHLO xxx.xxxxxxx.co.uk LOG: MAIN H=mx.tb.ukmail.iss.example.net [212.54.xx.xx]: Remote host closed connection in response to EHLO xxx.xxxxxxx.co.uk Connecting to mx.mnd.ukmail.iss.example.net [212.54.xx.xx]:25 ... connected SMTP<< 220 mx7.mnd.ukmail.iss.example.net bizsmtp ESMTP server ready SMTP>> EHLO xxx.xxxxxxx.co.uk LOG: MAIN H=mx.mnd.ukmail.iss.example.net [212.54.xx.xx]: Remote host closed connection in response to EHLO xxx.xxxxxxx.co.uk LOG: MAIN == xxx@virginmedia.com R=dkim_lookuphost T=dkim_remote_smtp defer (-18) H=mx.mnd.ukmail.iss.example.net [212.54.xx.xx]: Remote host closed connection in response to EHLO xxx.xxxxxx.co.uk
    Are there any config changes I can do with exim, just to get these emails out.
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  • cPanelMichael
    There are no additional steps you can take if the remote mail server is rejecting the connection for unknown reasons. The issue must be addressed with the remote mail server's support team. Thank you.
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  • keat63
    And that's where the problem lies. There appears to no direct route in to anyone who can investigate this. Just a forum, where it seems no one is listening. A number of others have jumped on to the thread reporting the same problem.
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  • keat63
    I've finally had a reply back from Virgin Media who say: "have you confirmed the EHLO corresponds with the PTR record" how do i check this ?
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  • cPanelMichael
    I've finally had a reply back from Virgin Media who say: "have you confirmed the EHLO corresponds with the PTR record" how do i check this ?

    This is referenced on the following document: How to Configure Exim's Outgoing IP Address - cPanel Knowledge Base - cPanel Documentation In particular, the following sections: The /etc/mailhelo file The /etc/mailips file Check to ensure the RDNS entries for your domain names are created for the IP addresses used for sending email. Thank you.
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