fetchmail and smtp problem (was tuning iptables)

[Haines Brown <brownh@hartford-hwp.com>]

On a RH8.0 installation I've been trying to get going since October,
one problem has been that I can't receive e-mail. The first problem
was a broken rp-pppoe. When that fixed, I could at least browse the
web. Next I faced messed up rules for iptables, but I've removed the
firewall. Since the problem persists, I'm led to fetchmail and smtp.

The fetchmail log suggests that I've got ip at least, for it is able
to download the number and size of messages waiting on the mail
server. However, when it tries to download the first message, it can't
do it. Apparently fetchmail can't open a connection to the smtp server
on my machine. Here's snippet from fetchmail's log at the point it
fails:

> ...
> fetchmail: POP3< +OK 3778 octets
> reading message 1 of 22 (3778 octets)
> About to rewrite Return-Path: <linux-usb-users-admin@lists.sourceforge.net>
> Rewritten version is Return-Path: <linux-usb-users-admin@lists.sourceforge.net>
> ...

When at first fetchmail did not seem to write its log, which raised the
question of permissions and UID. However, it seems to work
now. Undoubtedly my error at some point.

The question is, what sockets are listening? I don't know how to
interpret the following, but it does not look all that different from
my current machine, which is functional.

# netstat -l
Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State      
tcp        0      0 *:32768                 *:*                     LISTEN      
tcp        0      0 *:printer               *:*                     LISTEN      
tcp        0      0 *:sunrpc                *:*                     LISTEN      
tcp        0      0 *:x11                   *:*                     LISTEN      
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:8118          *:*                     LISTEN      
tcp        0      0 *:ssh                   *:*                     LISTEN      
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:smtp          *:*                     LISTEN      
udp        0      0 *:32768                 *:*                                 
udp        0      0 *:sunrpc                *:*                                 
Active UNIX domain sockets (only servers)
Proto RefCnt Flags       Type       State         I-Node Path
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     1847
      /tmp/.iroha_unix/IROHA
	
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     2325
      /tmp/.esd/socket
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     2108
      /tmp/ssh-XX1O24lT/agent.1076 
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     2083   
      /tmp/.X11-unix/X0
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     1916   
      /tmp/.font-unix/fs7100
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     2232  
       /tmp/.ICE-unix/1076
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     1571   
      /var/run/lprng
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     2129  
       /tmp/orbit-brownh/linc-446-0-54d253d5c0c8d
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     2137  
       /tmp/orbit-brownh/linc-434-0-1692b3b6d257d
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     2243  
       /tmp/orbit-brownh/linc-448-0-141f7b126e97c
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     2270   
      /tmp/orbit-brownh/linc-44d-0-24ce2e57dc8f6
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     2305   
      /tmp/orbit-brownh/linc-44a-0-19bc27591b9fc
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     2529   
      /tmp/orbit-brownh/linc-460-0-2d7ba098b88a
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     2535   
      /tmp/orbit-brownh/linc-464-0-433b03def5c8
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     2634   
      /tmp/orbit-brownh/linc-46b-0-59017d95c4a98
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     2674   
      /tmp/orbit-brownh/linc-46e-0-3df7182d8cfc3
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     2722   
      /tmp/orbit-brownh/linc-471-0-3df7182de5371
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     2751   
      /tmp/orbit-brownh/linc-473-0-1022b4e538916
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     2781   
      /tmp/orbit-brownh/linc-475-0-1022b4e575a77


Then, I looked at /etc/services:

        ...
	smtp		25/tcp		mail
	smtp		25/udp		mail

I looked at /etc/xinetd.conf: 

	defaults
	{
		instances               = 60
	        log_type                = SYSLOG authpriv
	        log_on_success		= HOST PID
	        log_on_failure		= HOST
		cps			= 25 30
	}

	includedir /etc/xinetd.d

I looked in /etc/xinet.d/ at the servers and a services files:  

	service services
	{
		type		= INTERNAL UNLISTED
		port		= 9098
		socket_type	= stream
		protocol	= tcp
		wait		= no
		disable		= yes
		only_from	= 127.0.0.1
	}                                                                              

	service servers
	{
		type		= INTERNAL UNLISTED
		port		= 9099
		socket_type	= stream
		protocol	= tcp
		wait		= no
		disable		= yes
		only_from	= 127.0.0.1
	}          

I looked at /etc/hosts. The hosts.allow and host.deny files are
empty. However, the /etc/hosts file had a very strange error:

	27.0.0.1  hartford-hwp.com  localhost.localdomain localhost

However, changing the "27" to "127" did not fix anything.

With that exception, I did not see anything amiss in these files. 

Haines Brown

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