Temperamental SMTP connectivity

[jacklidnsay]

Script URL: Internal
Version of script: 2.4.2
Hosting company: Internal
URL of phpinfo.php:
URL of session_test.php:
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Hello,

i've just installed Hesk upon a recommendation from a colleague of mine at another school. Its installed ok, and most things work except the email notification. Its extremely temperamental.

our configuration is this.
Hesk 2.4.2 is hosted on:
Server 2008 R2 IIS 7
mysql server 5.1
php 5.3.6
its been configured to connect to a SMTP server host by microsoft Live@EDU

it has sent a couple of email notifications for test tickets, but most notifications are failing.
I am currently receiving an error message when trying to submit an ticket stating
"Resolving SMTP server domain "pod51007.outlook.com"... Connecting to host address "157.56.249.70" port 587..."
When i click "Test SMTP Connection" i get the following Error
"Error: Could not connect to the host "pod51007.outlook.com": A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond. "

I think that i should mention that this exact same web server is hosting various web applications, one of which is a social networking script. This social networking script also connects to the same SMTP server with the same details (albeit the credentials are different), and can send notifications without any issues.

Does anyone have any further ideas to try and get this resolved, as we're running out.
i can provide any information you need

Thanks in advance
Jack Lindsay

[Klemen]

I tested connection to pod51007.outlook.com from my server and it worked fine (except the login details were wrong of course).

Here are a few things you can check:
- is port 587 (outgoing or incoming) blocked by a firewall on your server?
- not sure what kind of connection the SMTP server requires, try all different combinations of SSL and TLS ON/OFF in HESK settings

[jacklidnsay]

I have tried every variation of TLS and SSL. The web servers firewall is turned off, and our proxy server is configured to allow 587 inbound and out. as i mentioned, another web application is configured exactly the same, and works.

i also tried another smtp server (1and1), to no avail

i will be installing Hesk on a Linux based server this even to test, but at the moment, i'm stumped

[Klemen]

Perhaps fsockopen function is disabled on your server? If you save this code into "test.php", upload to HESK folder and open in browser, what does it say?

Code: Select all

<?php
echo "Testing fsockopen: ";
$fp = fsockopen("www.google.com", 80, $errno, $errstr, 30);
if (!$fp)
{
    echo "Error: $errstr ($errno)<br />\n";
}
else
{
    $out = "GET / HTTP/1.1\r\n";
    $out .= "Host: www.google.com\r\n";
    $out .= "Connection: Close\r\n\r\n";
    fwrite($fp, $out);
    while (!feof($fp))
    {
    	fgets($fp, 128);
        echo '.';
    }
    fclose($fp);
    echo 'Works fine!';
}
?>

Do you get any other error messages if you turn Debug mode to ON in Hesk settings (Admin > Settings > Help Desk tab > under Features set Debug mode to ON)?

Is there an "error_log" file located in your HESK folder or inside the inc/mail folder? If yes, can you open it in Notepad and see what it says?

[jacklidnsay]

my responce was the following

Testing fsockopen: Error: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond. (10060)

i've seemed to get it working at the moment by using one of the IP addresses of the smtp server. This is not ideal, but points me in the direction of a DNS issue?

does that error message help you in any way?

[Klemen]

The problem is on the server - the fsockopen function isn't working properly, the test showed it can't even open www.google.com

After reading a bit it looks like this is a bug in fsockopen function in PHP on some Windows systems:
https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=50953

Can you update PHP to at least 5.3.20 or even better 5.4.10 and see if that helps?

[jacklidnsay]

As the server Hesk is running on is a production server accessed by around 1500 people, i am not currently able to upgrade PHP.

i have however installed php on a windows 7 virtual machine running IIS 7. i put on PHP 5.3.20 and tried fsock, to no avail. I then upgraded THAT to 5.4.10 and tested fsock, and it still doesn't work.

any ideas?

[Klemen]

The problem scenario occurs when the host has both ipv4 and ipv6 addresses, the service is only listening on ipv4 but ipv6 has precedence, which results in:

trying IPv6
time out
fail

instead of:

trying IPv6
connection refused
trying IPv4
success

Looks like the only work-around is to use the SMTP host IPv4 address in the settings rather than the host name.