Re: [exim] host lookup did not complete

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Author: Ian Eiloart
Date:  
To: Neal Becker, exim-users
Subject: Re: [exim] host lookup did not complete


--On 15 July 2009 08:37:04 -0400 Neal Becker <ndbecker2@???> wrote:

> Ian Eiloart wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> --On 15 July 2009 07:28:57 -0400 Neal Becker <ndbecker2@???> wrote:
>>
>>> On Wednesday 15 July 2009, Ian Eiloart wrote:
>>>> --On 14 July 2009 08:36:49 -0400 Neal Becker <ndbecker2@???>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> > What's wrong here:
>>>> >
>>>> > 2009-07-13 14:35:32 H=(localhost.localdomain) [127.0.0.1] sender
>>>> > verify defer for <ndbecker2@???>: host lookup for smtp.hns.com
>>>> > did not complete (DNS timeout?)
>>>>
>>>> Beats me. Why would a sender verification callout for
>>>> "ndbecker2@???" care about "smtp.hns.com"? Have you changed
>>>> anything here, or do you have some strange routing for gmail, or is
>>>> smtp.hns.com a smart router?
>>>
>>> Yes, smtp.hns.com is a smarthost
>>
>> OK, so it's relaying your callouts? Otherwise there's no point doing
>> them.
>
> OK, I turned of sender verify.
>
>>
>> Was your name server up 14:35 on 13/7/2009 ? Was smtp.hns.com up?
>
> I have no way to know - but it seemed to fail repeatedly over some time
> (it was not just a single log message).
>


If you got consistent failure over an extended period, and were also unable
to relay mail through the smart host, then probably the smart host was
down. If the failure was inconsistent, but you also got some message
delivery failures (as well as callout failures), then perhaps the smart
host was overloaded and refusing some connections.

If it's only the callouts that failed, but deliveries through the smart
host were OK, then perhaps you had a DNS problem. The DNS entry for the
smart host would have been cached, but callouts for fresh sender domains
would require fresh DNS lookups.

--
Ian Eiloart
IT Services, University of Sussex
01273-873148 x3148
For new support requests, see http://www.sussex.ac.uk/its/help/