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Question

Wordpress email trouble

Posted August 10, 2019 3.1k views
NginxPHPWordPressEmailUbuntu 16.04

Hi, guys

My website is not sending emails / notifications anymore.

Can someone give me a hand to just configure my site back to its basic functioning?

There is no connectivity at all. All the ports with no connection.

Thanks!!

Transport   Socket  Status* Service Available   Server ID   Authentication
None    Login   Plain   CRAM-MD5    OAuth 2.0
SMTP    localhost:25    Closed  No  -   -   -   -   -   -
SMTP    localhost:465   Closed  Checking..  -   -   -   -   -   -
SMTP    localhost:587   Checking..  -   -   -   -   -   -   -
Mandrill API    mandrillapp.com:443 Checking..  -   -   n/a
SendGrid API    api.sendgrid.com:443    Checking..  -   -   n/a
Mailgun API api.mailgun.net:443 Checking..  -   -   n/a
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Areku
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Areku

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9 answers
bobbyiliev August 10, 2019

Hello,

What I could suggest here is using an SMTP plugin for your Wordpress site.

That way you will be able to specify an SMTP server with authentication which your emails would be going through. You could for example use Gmail’s SMTP settings. This would drastically increase the delivery rate of your emails as well compared to using plain PHP mail.

I’ve been using this plugin for a while now and it works very well: Easy WP SMTP

Hope that this helps!
Regards,
Bobby

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  • Areku August 10, 2019

    Hi, @bobbyiliev

    Thanks.
    I am using the Post SMTP, but nothing is happening. I have not tried Gmail settings though. There is no connectivity at all. I have posted in the plugin’s forum, but no answer up to now.

    Reply Report
    • bobbyiliev August 10, 2019

      Hello,

      What are the SMTP settings that you are using at the moment? Note that if you want to use your local server from SMTP, you should have a mail agent like Postfix or Exim running and configured. If you don’t have that you could use an external SMTP service like Gmail for example.

      Note that if you have an active firewall on your server, you would need to open outgoing tcp traffic for port 24, 465 and 587 so that your server could communicate with your SMTP sever.

      Hope that this helps!
      Bobby

      Reply Report
      • Areku August 10, 2019

        smtp.migadu.com port 587 STARTTLS

        Working fine outside my wp site, but when wp site tries to connect does not succeed.

        SMTP    smtp.migadu.com:25  Closed  No  -   -   -   -   -   -
SMTP    smtp.migadu.com:465 Closed  Checking..  -   -   -   -   -   -
SMTP    smtp.migadu.com:587 Closed  Checking..
        Reply Report
      • Areku August 10, 2019
        [deleted]
        Reply Report
Areku August 10, 2019

@bobbyiliev

I allowed ports 25 and 587 for smtp via putty, but still the connectivity test is giving me a negative result.

SMTP    smtp.migadu.com:25  Closed  Checking..  -   -   -   -   -   -
SMTP    smtp.migadu.com:465 Closed  No  -   -   -   -   -   -
SMTP    smtp.migadu.com:587 Closed  Checking..
Reply Report
  • bobbyiliev August 10, 2019

    Hello,

    What you could try is via putty to connect on port 25 to this site to check if the problem is at your end:

    telnet portquiz.net 25

    If you are not able to connect, then the problem is most likely at your end and you need to cross check your firewall rules again.

    If you are able to connect then the problem is at migadu’s end. Maybe they are blocking your IP. What you could do is get in touch with them so that they could provide you with more information.

    Let me know how it goes!
    Bobby

    Reply Report
Areku August 10, 2019
[deleted]
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Areku August 10, 2019

In both ports, 25 and 587, it was not able to connect.


To                         Action      From
--                         ------      ----
OpenSSH                    ALLOW       Anywhere
Nginx Full                 ALLOW       Anywhere
22                         ALLOW       Anywhere
80                         ALLOW       Anywhere
587                        ALLOW       Anywhere
25                         ALLOW       Anywhere
OpenSSH (v6)               ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)
Nginx Full (v6)            ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)
22 (v6)                    ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)
80 (v6)                    ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)
587 (v6)                   ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)
25 (v6)                    ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)
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Areku August 10, 2019
[deleted]
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Areku August 10, 2019

@bobbyiliev

right… thank you…
let’s test the connectivity then

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Areku August 10, 2019

@bobbyiliev

test negativ.

Ports closed. 

To                         Action      From
--                         ------      ----
80,443/tcp (Nginx Full)    ALLOW IN    Anywhere
22                         ALLOW IN    Anywhere
80                         ALLOW IN    Anywhere
80,443/tcp (Nginx Full (v6)) ALLOW IN    Anywhere (v6)
22 (v6)                    ALLOW IN    Anywhere (v6)
80 (v6)                    ALLOW IN    Anywhere (v6)

25                         ALLOW OUT   Anywhere
465                        ALLOW OUT   Anywhere
587                        ALLOW OUT   Anywhere
25 (v6)                    ALLOW OUT   Anywhere (v6)
465 (v6)                   ALLOW OUT   Anywhere (v6)
587 (v6)                   ALLOW OUT   Anywhere (v6)

I am so sorry.
:(
Thanks for helping.

SMTP    smtp.migadu.com:25  Closed  No  -   -   -   -   -   -
SMTP    smtp.migadu.com:465 Closed  Checking..  -   -   -   -   -   -
SMTP    smtp.migadu.com:587 Closed  Checking..  -   -   -   -   -   -
Mandrill API    mandrillapp.com:443 Open    Checking..  -   n/a
SendGrid API    api.sendgrid.com:443    Checking..  -   -   n/a
Mailgun API api.mailgun.net:443 Open    Checking.
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Areku August 10, 2019

How to run a treaceroute?

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  • KFSys August 11, 2019

    Open your terminal.

    Run the following to install in Ubuntu:

    sudo apt-get install traceroute

    Once completed run 

    traceroute portquiz.net

    Traceroute will show you where you are going through in order to get to portquiz.net. Once you have the results, provide them in bobbyiliev’s reply.

    Kind regards,
    Kalin D.

    Reply Report
Areku August 11, 2019

@bobbyiliev

Hi, friend

After rebooting there were 52 packages to be updated. I did the upgrade.
Then the connection with portquiz was ok. There was no need to trace the route.
Then i activated the plugin Post Smpt and the website’s mailing system is normalized.

I thank you guys so much for caring, @Kdimitrov

OMMMMMMMMMMM

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Azinity December 1, 2019

@bobbyiliev

hi bobby,

what if we are hosting tens of wordpress sites for our clients on one of our droplets which we cannot log in to and install an wp smtp plugin?

we still need to fix the php mailer issue, dont we?

from the output of “nc -vz smtp.gmail.com 25”, we got “Connection to smtp.gmail.com 25 port [tcp/smtp] succeeded!” which means at least the droplet is able to communicate over the ports required to send emails externally.

from the output of “tail -20 /var/log/mail.log” below, we got some deferred emails sent from some of our clients. will those deferred emails prevent the droplet from sending other emails? any idea?

Dec 1 08:24:26 AzinityServerCPU2 postfix/smtp[22043]: 30067409CB: to=info@kennethchaucpa.com, relay=mail8.internad.hk[202.130.104.18]:25, delay=0.82, delays=0.02/0.01/0.21/0.58, dsn=2.6.0, status=sent (250 2.6.0 1048 bytes received in 00:00:00; Message id 201912011624254622 accepted for delivery)
Dec 1 08:24:26 AzinityServerCPU2 postfix/qmgr[1868]: 30067409CB: removed
Dec 1 08:26:03 AzinityServerCPU2 postfix/pickup[21887]: C9B23409CB: uid=33 from=<www-data>
Dec 1 08:26:03 AzinityServerCPU2 postfix/cleanup[22041]: C9B23409CB: message-id=86584e93c7b362c12461f14b930162b3@www.czdcpa.com
Dec 1 08:26:03 AzinityServerCPU2 postfix/qmgr[1868]: C9B23409CB: from=www-data@azinity.com, size=1031, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
Dec 1 08:26:24 AzinityServerCPU2 postfix/smtp[22043]: C9B23409CB: to=winnie@czdcpa.com, relay=mail.czdcpa.com[192.186.255.164]:25, delay=21, delays=0.01/0/21/0.19, dsn=5.0.0, status=bounced (host mail.czdcpa.com[192.186.255.164] said: 550 Access denied - Invalid HELO name (See RFC2821 4.1.1.1) (in reply to MAIL FROM command))
Dec 1 08:26:24 AzinityServerCPU2 postfix/cleanup[22041]: F09AF409D9: message-id=20191201082624.F09AF409D9@AzinityServerCPU2
Dec 1 08:26:24 AzinityServerCPU2 postfix/qmgr[1868]: F09AF409D9: from=<>, size=2998, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
Dec 1 08:26:24 AzinityServerCPU2 postfix/bounce[22049]: C9B23409CB: sender non-delivery notification: F09AF409D9
Dec 1 08:26:24 AzinityServerCPU2 postfix/qmgr[1868]: C9B23409CB: removed
Dec 1 08:26:24 AzinityServerCPU2 postfix/local[22050]: F09AF409D9: to=www-data@azinity.com, relay=local, delay=0.01, delays=0/0.01/0/0, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (delivered to maildir)
Dec 1 08:26:24 AzinityServerCPU2 postfix/qmgr[1868]: F09AF409D9: removed
Dec 1 08:26:55 AzinityServerCPU2 postfix/qmgr[1868]: 631CA409C8: from=www-data@azinity.com, size=1800, nrcpt=2 (queue active)
Dec 1 08:26:55 AzinityServerCPU2 postfix/smtp[22043]: 631CA409C8: host mx-apac.mail.gm0.yahoodns.net[106.10.248.74] said: 421 4.7.0 [TSS04] Messages from 139.59.96.33 temporarily deferred due to user complaints - 4.16.55.1; see https://help.yahoo.com/kb/postmaster/SLN3434.html (in reply to MAIL FROM command)
Dec 1 08:26:55 AzinityServerCPU2 postfix/smtp[22043]: 631CA409C8: lost connection with mx-apac.mail.gm0.yahoodns.net[106.10.248.74] while sending RCPT TO
Dec 1 08:26:55 AzinityServerCPU2 postfix/smtp[22043]: 631CA409C8: to=billionapex@yahoo.com.hk, relay=mx-apac.mail.gm0.yahoodns.net[106.10.248.73]:25, delay=143389, delays=143389/0/0.03/0.2, dsn=4.7.0, status=deferred (host mx-apac.mail.gm0.yahoodns.net[106.10.248.73] said: 421 4.7.0 [TSS04] Messages from 139.59.96.33 temporarily deferred due to user complaints - 4.16.55.1; see https://help.yahoo.com/kb/postmaster/SLN3434.html (in reply to MAIL FROM command))
Dec 1 08:56:54 AzinityServerCPU2 postfix/qmgr[1868]: 6EFF63F146: from=www-data@azinity.com, size=2413, nrcpt=2 (queue active)
Dec 1 08:56:54 AzinityServerCPU2 postfix/smtp[26774]: 6EFF63F146: host mx-apac.mail.gm0.yahoodns.net[106.10.248.74] said: 421 4.7.0 [TSS04] Messages from 139.59.96.33 temporarily deferred due to user complaints - 4.16.55.1; see https://help.yahoo.com/kb/postmaster/SLN3434.html (in reply to MAIL FROM command)
Dec 1 08:56:54 AzinityServerCPU2 postfix/smtp[26774]: 6EFF63F146: lost connection with mx-apac.mail.gm0.yahoodns.net[106.10.248.74] while sending RCPT TO
Dec 1 08:56:56 AzinityServerCPU2 postfix/smtp[26774]: 6EFF63F146: to=billionapex@yahoo.com.hk, relay=mx-apac.mail.gm0.yahoodns.net[106.10.248.73]:25, delay=214684, delays=214682/0.04/1.6/0, dsn=4.7.0, status=deferred (host mx-apac.mail.gm0.yahoodns.net[106.10.248.73] said: 421 4.7.0 [TSS04] Messages from 139.59.96.33 temporarily deferred due to user complaints - 4.16.55.1; see https://help.yahoo.com/kb/postmaster/SLN3434.html (in reply to MAIL FROM command))

br,
tom

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  • bobbyiliev December 3, 2019

    Hi @garyy,

    I believe that the PHP mail would work perfectly fine, it just reduces the chance of your emails being delivered. As you’ve tested port 25 is open for outgoing TCP connections so there’s basically nothing preventing you from using PHP mail. I suggested SMTP as it is much more reliable thank plain PHP mail.

    As far as I can see you are using Postfix already rather than just PHP mail. From the log that you’ve shared, it looks like that the problem was particularly Yahoo, according to the official Yahoo page here this error indicates Yahoo is seeing unusual traffic from your IP address and/or that emails from your mail server are generating complaints from Yahoo Mail users.

    It seems like that an unusual amount of emails have been sent from your server to Yahoo email boxes, and the Yahoo users have reported the emails. I could suggest making sure that the email boxes on your server are not compromised, the easiest thing to do is to change your email passwords with strong uniqs passwords.

    Regards,
    Bobby

    Reply Report
Azinity December 29, 2019

hi bobby,

thanks for your reply and suggestions.

but i think otherwise. i guess some bots are using the contact form on one of our client websites to blast them with tons of emails. i think the quick fix is to add a recaptcha in the form. regardless, we will still need to contact the clients for the fix. any idea?

br,
tom

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