 Frequently Asked Questions
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General Troubleshooting
If you need assistance
with MX Records you should contact your ISP. If you need
support for your email client, contact the software's
manufacturer (i.e. CE Soft, Eudora, Microsoft, Netscape,
etc.)
Troubleshooting
Connectivity/Sending Mail:
- Try to ping
seattlelab.com from the machine running SLmail.
If this works, go to step 5.
- Try to ping
204.250.145.1 from the machine running SLmail. If
this works, go to step 4.
- You need to properly
install TCP/IP or double check your network
cabling, network settings or your router. The
problem is not within SLmail.
- You need to set your
TCP/IP stack to use a DNS (Domain Name Server).
Contact your ISP for additional assistance.
- Verify your DNS
setting within SLmail. Under CONTROL PANEL /
SLMAIL /SYSTEM. (Field is "Name
Server").
- If you still are
having problems, look through your mail server
log. This is a text file called maillog.txt. Look
for anything that appear to be cyclic or anything
that has the word "error" in it.
Troubleshooting Receiving
Mail:
To receive internet
e-mail you must have an MX record pointing to a relay
(Smart Host) or directly to SLmail. Never point MX
records to a CNAME.
Example:
seattlelab.com MX
10 pop3.seattlelab.com
pop3.seattlelab.com A 204.250.145.6
MX records are vital
in the reception of e-mail.
System Requirements:
Only one program can be an
SMTP or POP3 server per machine. Proxy servers may also
'listen' on SMTP (port 25) or POP3 (110). SLmail will not
be able to function if another program is listening on
these ports.
SLmail requires at least
32MB RAM to run on Windows 95 & NT.
SLmail's files need to be
on a 'local' drive, not a network drive.
The SLmail machine should
have a minimum of 60MB of free disk space at all times.
This free space is for logs, incoming mail, etc.
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Formats and Files:
Import User Format:
- user id,user
name,password,mailbox file
Example:
- george,George
Example,mypassword,C:\SLMAIL\george.mbx
IMPORTANT: Please note
that the USERID must be lowercase!
Import List Format:
email address,name
Example:
george@somedomain.com,George
(Spaces, multiple @
signs, etc. are illegal addresses. Please do not add
those addresses to the import file.)
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SLmail's Working Files:
| WRM |
Temporary File
(Something is being received by SLmail) |
| IN |
Inbound Message |
| OUT |
Outbound Message |
| INR |
Inbound Message
(retry) |
| OUR |
Outbound Message
(retry) |
| ERR |
An Inbound or
Outbound Message encountered a fatal error. This
contains the message data. |
| MBX |
User Mailbox |
| MID |
User Mailbox
Index |
| ISU |
InstallShield
Uninstall File |
| MLA |
Mailing List
(Approved) |
| ML |
Mailing List
Message (pending) |
| MD# |
Mailing List
Digest (# is a numeral between 1 and 9) |
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Why am I having so much
trouble sending to AOL.COM?
Sending mail to America
Online (AOL.COM) is currently very difficult. The problem
is two-fold:
1. AOL's MX records (where
mail servers should send mail to) are pointing to CNAMEs
in violation of RFC1123 (5.2.2).
2. Although AOL lists
nearly a dozen mail servers (MX records), only one
responds at any given time. Worse, that server 'moves'
(changes IP address) every 4 hours.
NOTE: The upcoming
SLmail 2.5 has special software to improve sending to
AOL.
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What issues are being
addresed for the next release of SLmail?
These known issues are
being fixed for the upcoming 2.5 release.
- SLmail currently will
not accept mail with legacy addressing (@someplace:user@otherplace.com)
- SLmail currently will
not accept mail addressed to "null" (MAIL
FROM: <>)
- SLmail has an
unintentional limit of 50 responders/lists
- SLmail has a problem
when connecting to a server and that attempt
times out (i.e. it does not treat it as a
'failure' and move on.)
- If an MBX file
(mailbox) is opened by another process (backup,
virus scanner, etc.) and new mail arrives for
that user, the mailbox will be locked until
SLmail is re-started.
- Due to a change in
the Windows NT Remote Access Service API, our new
RASDial feature will not work correctly on
Windows NT 4.0.
- On some systems the
time (and time zone) may not work properly.
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Why isn't my auto-responder
sending a message back?
Make sure that "Send
on Users Request" is not checked in the responder
configuration.
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How can I tell if my
mailing list is going out to all users?
Ensure that all local
users on the mailing list also exist in SLmail. If not,
SLmail will immediately stop processing the list to
prevent looping errors. To correct, remove users from the
list that no longer exists.
TIP: If you happen to
catch the .OUT/.OUR file load it up in a text viewer
and see when the case for the To: lines changes
(to:/To:). The shift marks sent messages v.s. unsent
messages.
EXAMPLE:
In the envelope portion of the header below (from the
.in/.ou?) file we see that everyone except for
"user@badaddress1.com" and "user@badaddress2.com" received the message. (Note
the "to:" vs. "To:", the upper
case "To:" indicates that the message was
not delivered.
Received: by mail.seattlelab.com from localhost
(mail daemon,SLmailNT V2.4); Wed, 09 Apr 1997 22:05:25 PDT
From: owner-mylist-l@seattlelab.com
to: user@place13.com
to: user@place12.com
to: user@place11.com
to: user@place10.com
to: user@place9.com
to: user@place8.com
to: user@place7.com
to: user@place6.com
to: user@place5.com
to: user@place4.com
To: user@badaddress1.com
To: user@badaddress2.com
to: user@place1.com
to: user@place2.com
to: user@place3.com
Received: by mail.seattlelab.com
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A user tried to access
his/her mailbox and all of a sudden the server
disappeared (no error messages etc.), what caused this?
The .mbx file for the user
(mailbox file) contains a line with more than 256
characters. You will need to edit the file and insert
proper carriage returns. Mail clients should do this for
you before the mail is actually sent but some do not.
NOTE: SLmail 2.2 and
greater will take care of this for you.
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I've created a new
list but when I use it - I get an error message
indicating that SLmail could not determine list
characteristics. What do I do?
Upgrade to SLmailNT 2.2 or
greater.
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The SLmailNT service will
not start. What could be the problem?
Use Correct
Registration Key
SLmail 2.0 keys may
not be used in a 2.2+ product. SLmail95 keys may not
be used in SLmailNT.
Verify that you are
running SLmailNT with the appropriate SLMail key. To
verify, go to SLmail's control panel. Near the bottom
of the registration tab it will tell you if you are
running SLmail95 or SLmailNT.
If you are running
with the incorrect key or you do not have one,
contact Seattle Lab's ordering department at
(425)402-6003.
Unable to bind to
socket
This can also be due
to some type of network error such as unable to bind
to socket. Verify that TCP/IP and the mail server are
running. Also, consult MAILLOG.TXT for some possible
clues.
Invalid registry
entries for Secondary Domains.
Use the SLmail
Registry Verification tool to find out if your
registry is valid.
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I am having trouble
installing SLmail. What could the problem be?
- If you are running on
Windows NT, try running the installer in separate
memory space.
- Make sure you are
installing the program to a regular folder.
Sometimes it can detect a previous version in the
recycle bin or on the desktop. If this occurs,
over-ride the path.
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Sometimes POP3 just stops
responding, what's should I do?
Upgrade to SLmailNT 2.2 or
greater.
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What should be in 'node
name', 'Smart Host', 'incoming alias', 'outgoing alias'
or 'name server'?
Example: 'mydomain.com'
Node Name:
mail.mydomain.com
Smart Host:
IP address or name of a relaying SMTP mail server. If
unused set to 'dontchangethis.com' or 'uu.net' or
some other non-existent name.
Incoming/Outgoing
Alias: mydomain.com
Name Server:
IP address of a valid DNS (Domain Name Service).
Contact your ISP or Network Administrator for
details.
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Mail is coming in to my
computer but it never seems to be placed into a mailbox.
How do I fix this?
This problem usually
indicates that what you think is the node name and what
the computer thinks is the node name are different.
This is very often caused
by a single computer receiving mail for a multiple
computer network. In this case, you want to use system
aliases to tell the daemon that you want your computer to
do some extra checking for other names. (i.e. set
incoming alias to *.domain.com or
*.domain1.com;*.domain2.com.)
Note that Secondary
Virtual Domains should *not* be included in incoming
aliases.
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When installing SLmail on
Windows NT, it (incorrectly) complains about not having a
TCP/IP stack installed. What do I do?
You may need to reinstall
the TCP/IP stack.
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Does SLmail handle MIME?
Yes. MIME (Multiple Input
Method Encoding) is one way to map 8-bit
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