The logged message "SMTP data timeout (message abandoned) on connection
from" is unclear.
I was unable to find it mentioned in the FAQ or spec for version 3.3 or
version 4. (Although, I did read about timeouts in the FAQ and
smtp_receive_timeout in the spec.)
I did find some mentions of it the mailing list archives.
But the mailing list postings I read seem to indicate that this issue may
be caused when trying to connect to a remote host (like a hotmail server)
that has problems (versus a remote host that is sending to your own
server).
I have many of these in a log file. Some correlate to the five minute
default smtp_receive_timeout. But others have multiple of these log
messages and it is hard to tell what is what.
For example, I have 246 of these entries for the same IP spread out over
11 hours without any corresponding message reception log entry. (The only
previous logged message of a connection from that same IP is 21 hours
earlier.)
It would be useful if the log message indicated the Exim-assigned message
ID (for cross-referencing). (On this particular system I am using
exim-3.22-14.1 RPM.)
It would be useful if the FAQ or log message indicated why and when this
"SMTP data timeout (message abandoned) on connection from" happens (like
during or after RCPT TO or DATA for example).
And it would be good if the spec or FAQ clearly said if
smtp_receive_timeout actual relates to logged "SMTP data timeout (message
abandoned) on connection from ..." message.
Please consider adding a FAQ entry for "SMTP data timeout (message
abandoned) on connection from ...".
Anyways, I boosted it to 20 minutes and that doesn't seem to work. So I
will enable further debugging and use tcpdump to watch connections.
(Philip: as always, thanks for your excellent software.)
Jeremy C. Reed
http://bsd.reedmedia.net/ -- BSD news and resources
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