On Tue, 13 Aug 2002, Jeremy C. Reed wrote:
> The logged message "SMTP data timeout (message abandoned) on connection
> from" is unclear.
You talk below about connecting *to*, but this message clearly says
connection *from* (eg, this is an INBOUND connection)
Whats not clear about it? Some host connected to yours, went thru the
HELO/MAIL/RCPT stages, and then started the DATA stage.. At some point
it stopped or paused sending, for a period of time as long as the smtp
timeout setting. So exim closed the connection, and abandoned the
message. Possibile causes include the sending host crashing or losing
power, or losing connectivity. Or maybe it was overloaded relaying spam
and cant send fast enough..
> 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).
They do not.
> 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 never assigned a message id, becuase it never accepted the message.
> 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).
It does say when.. 'data'
If it happened while it was waiting for a command, it would have said
"SMTP command timeout"
How is your exim supposed to know why the remote host stopped sending
data?
>
> 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
> http://www.isp-faq.com/ -- find answers to your questions
>
>
>
> --
>
> ## List details at http://www.exim.org/mailman/listinfo/exim-users Exim details at http://www.exim.org/ ##
>
>
