SMTP server timeouts

[lsutiger]

Hi all! I have been scouring the net loooking for some help with a problem our company is having.
We have our own smtp/pop3 server setup in house. We are using Dyndns' mailhop service in order to control spam, and it works! When someone sends our domain an email, it is forwarded to their servers, scanned and then forwarded to our server.

But lately we have been receiving our emails anywhere from one to several hours late. I looked at the headers for a bunch of messages and they are getting from point a to point b in a timely fashion, but from point b to c is the problem.

When I contacted Dyndns' tech support, they stated that their logs show that there were connection timeouts when trying to contact our server.

My question is how to troubleshoot this problem and find the point of failure.

Thanx in advance!

 

[err]

you might want to check on several things:

1. verify that your Internet connection is stable. do a pingsweep test from outside your network to any devices on your network that will reply to ICMP
2. verify that your SMTP server is not busy (see processor, logs, queue of your smtp server software)
3. monitor SMTP from within (or outside) your network. Use tools such as IPsentry .... there's a free trial out there... Make sure your SMTP server respond in fashionable time.

Good luck...