exim Advanced Editor adds to rather than replaces section. Why?
I need to add a configuration line to both the remote_smtp & dkim_remote_smtp sections in the TRANSPORTMIDDLE part of the exim configuration. When I copy the text of the current TRANSPORTMIDDLE section into the text box from above it and try to save the configuration (even without adding my changes), I get an error because of a duplicate "mailman_virtual_transport" section. If I look at the generated configuration in the scrollable text box above the error I find that the entire TRANSPORTMIDDLE section has been duplicated instead of replacing the original.
What am I not understanding about how to edit the TRANSPORTMIDDLE section (or any section for which the current content is shown above an empty text box when the Advanced Editor is opened)?
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Hey there! I'm not seeing a good way to change this using the Advanced Editor option in the Exim Configuration editor, so we may need to find an alternative workaround. Can you let me know specifically what you are trying to change with the mailman_virtual_transport setting so I can look into this a bit more?
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Technically we are trying to add "hosts_max_try_hardlimit = 1" to the remote_smtp and dkim_remote_smtp configuration sections in the "TRANSPORTMIDDLE" group per the recommendation in this article which describes the situation we are in with Yahoo's blacklist, even though we are not spamming and all messages are SPF/DKIM/DMARC authenticated. Given that around half of our mailing list has addresses in domains for which email is handled through Yahoo and no email has been delivered to them for several weeks now, the pressure to fix this is quite high. I'm not an exim expert and our hosting company through which we license cPanel has been of no help. So thanks in advance for any guidance you can offer.
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Thanks for the additional details. I'm not sure that is the best article to follow as they recommend editing the Exim configuration directly, which has never been an option in cPanel, even in 2019 when it was written.
Have you tried reaching out to Yahoo support directly to get that resolved? Even if you had a hard limit on the retry values, that isn't going to unblock you from their network if you are currently blocked. What is the error you receive when you try and message then at this time?
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Here is a sample exim_mainlog entry from when I tried to send a message while we are blocked:
2024-09-27 12:49:07.669 [4282] 1suF5X-000172-1y Sender identification U=cathouse D=cathouseonthekings.com S=via@cathouseonthek
ings.com
2024-09-27 12:49:07.671 [4282] 1suF5X-000172-1y SMTP connection outbound 1727459347 1suF5X-000172-1y cathouseonthekings.com iv
ordurham@yahoo.com
2024-09-27 12:49:08.364 [4285] 1suF5X-000172-1y H=mta7.am0.yahoodns.net [67.195.228.110]:25: SMTP error from remote mail serve
r after pipelined MAIL FROM:<bounces@cathouseonthekings.com> SIZE=60553: 421 4.7.0 [TSS04] Messages from 162.214.227.138 tempo
rarily deferred due to unexpected volume or user complaints - 4.16.55.1; see https://postmaster.yahooinc.com/error-codes
2024-09-27 12:49:08.556 [4285] 1suF5X-000172-1y H=mta7.am0.yahoodns.net [98.136.96.91]:25: SMTP error from remote mail server
after pipelined MAIL FROM:<bounces@cathouseonthekings.com> SIZE=60553: 421 4.7.0 [TSS04] Messages from 162.214.227.138 tempora
rily deferred due to unexpected volume or user complaints - 4.16.55.1; see https://postmaster.yahooinc.com/error-codes
2024-09-27 12:49:09.065 [4285] 1suF5X-000172-1y H=mta7.am0.yahoodns.net [67.195.204.79]:25: SMTP error from remote mail server
after pipelined MAIL FROM:<bounces@cathouseonthekings.com> SIZE=60553: 421 4.7.0 [TSS04] Messages from 162.214.227.138 tempor
arily deferred due to unexpected volume or user complaints - 4.16.55.1; see https://postmaster.yahooinc.com/error-codes
2024-09-27 12:49:09.378 [4285] 1suF5X-000172-1y H=mta7.am0.yahoodns.net [98.136.96.77]:25: SMTP error from remote mail server
after pipelined MAIL FROM:<bounces@cathouseonthekings.com> SIZE=60553: 421 4.7.0 [TSS04] Messages from 162.214.227.138 tempora
rily deferred due to unexpected volume or user complaints - 4.16.55.1; see https://postmaster.yahooinc.com/error-codes
2024-09-27 12:49:09.854 [4285] 1suF5X-000172-1y H=mta7.am0.yahoodns.net [67.195.204.74]:25: SMTP error from remote mail server
after pipelined MAIL FROM:<bounces@cathouseonthekings.com> SIZE=60553: 421 4.7.0 [TSS04] Messages from 162.214.227.138 tempor
arily deferred due to unexpected volume or user complaints - 4.16.55.1; see https://postmaster.yahooinc.com/error-codes
2024-09-27 12:49:09.856 [4282] 1suF5X-000172-1y == ivordurham@yahoo.com R=dkim_lookuphost T=dkim_remote_smtp defer (-45) H=mta
7.am0.yahoodns.net [67.195.204.74]:25 I=[162.214.227.138]:41706 DT=0.474s: SMTP error from remote mail server after pipelined
MAIL FROM:<bounces@cathouseonthekings.com> SIZE=60553: 421 4.7.0 [TSS04] Messages from 162.214.227.138 temporarily deferred du
e to unexpected volume or user complaints - 4.16.55.1; see https://postmaster.yahooinc.com/error-codesAs you can see, when the first attempt fails there are four more immediate attempts to additional IP addresses within the same second because Yahoo advertises three MTA names with about a dozen different IP addresses each. When the mailing list contains thousands of addresses handled by Yahoo (which we're filtering out of deliveries until this is resolved), the number of attempted deliveries grows very rapidly.
We haven't attempted delivery for mailing list messages to Yahoo addresses in a several weeks and there was only one normal business Yahoo message in the queue this morning, but that is still being blocked.
We got a canned response from Yahoo which was "follow our guidelines" which we believe we are, including their feedback loop from which we see hardly any reports. So my conclusion is that the relevant part of the error message is the "unexpected volume" part of the error message. I even went through all of their documentation, direct and linked, to create a checklist of every recommendation/requirement to make sure I hadn't missed anything significant. The only thing I haven't done is send a "do you still want to hear from us" message to people who haven't obviously opened a message from us in a while, which is pointless while we are blocked. Again, all messages are authenticated. But from their end they just sees this storm of connection attempts from our exim. That's why the article I found seemed to explain the our situation and why I was attempting the suggested "fix". At least it would lower the volume of attempted connections to Yahoo's MTAs.
Our domain is not on any RBL, although our IP address is part of a block of addresses from HostGator which has been on a handful for a while and about which we can do nothing. And it's only Yahoo blocking us. No problem with Gmail or Hotmail etc. Curiously email to AT&T domains is accessed via Yahoo and our messages to those domains are now being deposited in the user's Junk mail folder directly despite this never being a problem before.
I'm stumped.
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I've asked around, and everyone I am talked too also seems to be stumped as to why it's trying four different deliveries within the same second. That indicates that it isn't speaking to Yahoo, getting a failure, and then trying again, as the messages are simply being sent too quickly for that.
Could you create a ticket about this issue so this can be investigated directly on the machine?
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I don't think I'm permitted to create a ticket. When I tried initially, the license says we must get support through NewFold Digital (their HostGator subsidiary is where we have our VPS; IP=162.214.227.138). The exim user group seemed to think that the five attempts are normal when I questioned it. See here. I can try asking HostGator escalated support to see if they will create a ticket if you like, but they have not been very helpful so far and my last response from them washed their hands of my problem entirely. (Their current model is that a different agent, usually from India, responds to each interaction and they often respond off keywords in the text instead of reading the ticket notes so don't respond to the right thing.)
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Thanks for that feedback - could you send a message about that experience to cs@cpanel.net? We do track those, and they'd like to hear about those experiences from customers.
As far as the transport, i confirmed with the team that editing the value of an existing transport isn't something that is possible in cPanel.
My best recommendation would be to ensure that mail is being sent with the correct authentication, and if not, contacting Yahoo to see specifically why they are blocking those messages. Since its working with other mail providers it would seem that is the core of the issue and not something on the server.
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