[exim] [Exim] Exim4 trying to talk to GMAIL

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Author: Mark Fletcher
Date:  
To: exim-users
Subject: [exim] [Exim] Exim4 trying to talk to GMAIL
Hello The List!

I'm having problems getting exim 4.63 to talk to Gmail. What I have done
is set up Exim4 on my Debian GNU/Linux laptop to use smtp.gmail.com as a
smarthost for sending email. This is to avoid narking off my ISP by
trying to send out mail directly from my own machine... ;-)

I initially had problems getting connected to Gmail as I was getting
errors returned by gnutls_handshake() (A TLS packet with unexpected
length was received) which was prompting exim4 to try to connect without
TLS, which Gmail wasn't having any of. The Debian exim4 package (Debian
etch) ships using GNUTLS, and Googling around (ironically enough) I
found that almost everyone who has faced this problem in a similar
situation to me has been told to switch to OpenSSL, so I rebuilt the
exim package from source, having modified the configuration to use
OpenSSL instead of GNUTLS. Now I am getting the below error when I
submit an email to exim4 for delivery to the outside world (my mobile
phone email, on the ezweb.ne.jp domain):

2007-11-07 23:05:02 1IplWg-0002Qp-Uo <= mark@satellite U=mark P=local
S=370
2007-11-07 23:06:44 1IplWg-0002Qp-Uo TLS error on connection to
gmail-smtp.l.google.com [64.233.179.109] (SSL_connect):
error:00000000:lib(0):func(0):reason(0)
2007-11-07 23:06:44 1IplWg-0002Qp-Uo TLS session failure: delivering
unencrypted to gmail-smtp.l.google.com [64.233.179.109] (not in
hosts_require_tls)
2007-11-07 23:06:45 1IplWg-0002Qp-Uo ** <deleted_user_name>@ezweb.ne.jp
R=smarthost T=remote_smtp_smarthost: SMTP error from remote mail server
after MAIL FROM:<mark@???> SIZE=1404: host gmail-smtp.l.google.com
[64.233.179.109]: 530 5.7.0 Must issue a STARTTLS command first
23sm6356717hsd
2007-11-07 23:06:45 1IplYL-0002Qs-Mv <= <> R=1IplWg-0002Qp-Uo
U=Debian-exim P=local S=1328
2007-11-07 23:06:45 1IplWg-0002Qp-Uo Completed
2007-11-07 23:06:45 1IplYL-0002Qs-Mv => mark <mark@satellite>
R=local_user T=mail_spool
2007-11-07 23:06:45 1IplYL-0002Qs-Mv Completed


I briefly got very excited when I saw this thread on this list -->
http://lists.exim.org/lurker/message/20010612.130811.9c23d3c7.en.html#exim-users

as it describes the same problem I am having since recompiling exim from
source. However, the solution offered there is that the other end is
broken, which patently isn't the case in my case because A) If Gmail
wasn't doing TLS properly it would cause a stupendous stink, B) I have
Evolution set up to use my Gmail account from the same machine, and I
don't know if Evolution is using GNUTLS or OpenSSL, but whatever it's
using, it's working -- as evidenced by the fact I am using it to send
this message, C) I did a telnet smtp.gmail.com 25 and was able to send a
HELO, then a STARTTLS, without having the other end drop the connection.

Now that actually has got me thinking -- is exim4 trying to do a
STARTTLS without first doing a HELO??? Is that configurable?

I am using libssl0.9.8 (Debian package name, to those to whom this means
anything) which is what is in the Debian etch (stable) distribution.

And before anyone asks, I have checked I can send an email using my
Gmail account from Evolution on the same machine, to my mobile phone
email, so this should definitely work... That's why I think it's an exim
config issue and not a local OpenSSL or other networking issue -- if it
were I'd expect Evolution also not to work.

Finally, the reason I'm trying to do this is I want to be able to send
emails to my cellphone from batch scripts running on this machine so I
can run batch jobs and have it email my phone when it's done so I don't
have to stand over it but know when to go check results etc.

Any help from anyone who's wrestled with this before, would be
appreciated.

Mark

(Pls CC me on replies to List if that doesn't breach list etiquette --
I'm a newbie here and not yet subscribed)