SMTP server broken but is it needed for scan to email?

[ronnoco]

Hello all,

 

Started work at a new school yesterday and have inherited a lot of outstanding issues. One of them is a virtual Linux server that has broken and now not working as an SMTP relay. I have never used Linux so trying to resolve will be very difficult.

 

At my old establishment, we simply used smtp.Gmail.com but there were no VLANS in place. All printers are on a a vlan at the new school and the routing is handled by virtual nics on a Smoothwall appliance.

 

If I were to use smtp.Microsoft.com - would it automatically route or is this why there is the need for the Linux vm acting as a relay?

 

We don't scan a huge volume and I just wondered before I tried to work out the settings if its feasible. I haven't got much experience of VLANS.

 

Any help wouid be much appreciated as I'm very busy at the moment!

[MatthewL]

What doesn't work with it? Has the server been rebooted?

 

Does the machine pass a connectivity test to the Linux box if so it could then be either something on the Linux box or something that is stopping it external.

 

If you are using GSuite or O365 for school mail just create an account and get the devices to use that, obviously ensuring the machines can talk to that externally and do away with the Linux box unless its running something else.

 

I'm not up on Linux but would you should be able to interrogate the mail queue to see if there if something stuck causing the issue.

[ronnoco]

Thanks for the reply. I have restarted the server. E-mails scanned on the photocopier are not being received. I can't ping the Linux server from my laptop. I'll try logging into the photocopier tomorrow and seeing if I can do a ping test from within the browser or i'll take my laptop down there and plug the Ethernet cable in and mirror the network settings and do a ping test that way.

 

I suspect you are correct and that it's an issue with the queue. Never even used Linux...and would prefer not to start now if possible!

 

At my previous school, I don't recall even setting up an account, I think we used a fictional email of [email protected] and it just worked perfectly using the standard SMTP.gmail.com settings.

 

Its more a case of will the outside world, i.e. Gmail be reachable when it's on this segregated vlan. I'm trying to ascertain if smoothwall will be able to route.

 

Thanks for the help.

Edited December 3, 2019 by ronnoco

[MatthewL]

Could well be using Postfix, have a look at this article.

 

If you cannot ping the server does it still have the same IP address, try running ifconfig which will bring it up. I had a Linux box loose its gateway and DNS recently so check you can ping out from the Linux box to said mailserver too.

[Davit2005]

Thanks for the reply. I have restarted the server. E-mails scanned on the photocopier are not being received. I can't ping the Linux server from my laptop. I'll try logging into the photocopier tomorrow and seeing if I can do a ping test from within the browser or i'll take my laptop down there and plug the Ethernet cable in and mirror the network settings and do a ping test that way.

 

I suspect you are correct and that it's an issue with the queue. Never even used Linux...and would prefer not to start now if possible!

 

At my previous school, I don't recall even setting up an account, I think we used a fictional email of [email protected] and it just worked perfectly using the standard SMTP.gmail.com settings.

 

Its more a case of will the outside world, i.e. Gmail be reachable when it's on this segregated vlan. I'm trying to ascertain if smoothwall will be able to route.

 

Thanks for the help.

 

Start with real basic connectivity checks as others have said. i.e. ping tests, see if you can telnet to the smtp relay on port 25 etc.

 

If you are using smtp.google.com I'm pretty sure you would need to authenticate to send emails, I have postfix servers running at home and needed to setup the credentials to authenticate to send. NO linux expert either but I needed to do it so just googled when I came up against a problem.

 

There should also be a log file on the postfic server, normally /var/logs/mail.txt this may also pinpoint some errors, monitor the file with a command such as tail -f /var/logs/mail.txt whilst you test send an email from the device.

 

The only issue with using gmail is that you need to set something up on the gmail account to permit the postfix to send email via the account, off the top of my head I cannot remember what this is right now, I stopped using gmail to send emails a few years back.

[ronnoco]

Many thanks for the replies. I'll see if I can work out how to do some of those things as if I could just get this working it would be a quick win. The virtual server has 3 Ethernet connections. I can ping 2 of them but not the one I need for SMTP which is Ethernet 2 on the screenshot attached. Does anything long out of the ordinary on this connection compared to the others?

[fredbayker]

Eth1 doesn’t seem to have an IP address, are they teamed or something?

[caffrey]

Maybe not much help but if the box is an unknown quantity and undocumented - if you are running VMs, just spin up a quick windows smtp server - doesn't take a lot of time. This is how I route a lot of email from legacy devices to gmail

[PotNoodleTech]

If your internet connection is provided by your LEA then they more than likely have an SMTP server you can use. I wouldn't bother with an in house SMTP when you can use the LEA one for free!