Clients getting duplicate emails from one domain

[Matt Grant]

I have a couple of clients on my server that happen to do business with a college here locally. For some reason when anyone from the college emails a user on my server, my clients end up getting 20-100 duplicates of the same email. I contacted their IT staff and they say it is on my end and that my server is "cutting off the sending process before it completes". If that was the case, then the user would not receive the first email.

Is there something on my server that could be causing the issue? My server is Plesk 12.0.18 update #38 running Qmail/Courier-IMAP. The server has no issues otherwise.

Thanks in advance!

 

[dash]

hi,

Do you face the same issue when your server receiving emails from other servers?
I would like to recommend you to ask sender IT staff about more detailed info from their logs - how do they know about "cutting off the sending process", what are symptoms on their side? specific error codes?

From your end you can check maillog (/var/log/maillog) on you server for some errors/warnings.

 

[Matt Grant]

No it only happens from this server used by a local college. I tried contacting the IT guy there and her has not responded to me.

hi,

Do you face the same issue when your server receiving emails from other servers?
I would like to recommend you to ask sender IT staff about more detailed info from their logs - how do they know about "cutting off the sending process", what are symptoms on their side? specific error codes?

From your end you can check maillog (/var/log/maillog) on you server for some errors/warnings.

 

[dash]

>> No it only happens from this server used by a local college. I tried contacting the IT guy there and her has not responded to me.

Then most probably the issue is on sending server side I think.

 

[Matt Grant]

Just a bump to try and get this figured out. The issue is still happening and is driving my clients nuts! I spoke to their IT dept and they said the issue is on my end and that my server is closing the connection too early and their server thinks the email was not delivered (but it really was). The users get the email every hour on the hour. Is there something I can change on my server's config to make the connection stay open longer? If this is an issue on my server, why is it not happening to every email that it receives?

The only error I see in the maillog is this:

Apr 15 14:29:28 mail qmail-queue-handlers[29117]: Unable to get sender domain by sender mailname
Apr 15 14:29:28 mail qmail-queue-handlers[29117]: Unable to get sender domain by sender mailname
Apr 15 14:29:28 mail qmail-queue-handlers[29117]: Unable to get sender domain by sender mailname
Apr 15 14:29:28 mail qmail-queue-handlers[29117]: Unable to get sender domain by sender mailname
Apr 15 14:29:28 mail qmail-queue-handlers[29117]: handlers_stderr: SKIP
Apr 15 14:29:28 mail qmail-queue-handlers[29117]: SKIP during call 'limit-out' handler
Apr 15 14:29:28 mail qmail-queue-handlers[29117]: handlers_stderr: SKIP
Apr 15 14:29:28 mail qmail-queue-handlers[29117]: SKIP during call 'check-quota' handler
Apr 15 14:29:28 mail qmail-queue-handlers[29117]: Incorrect recipient mailname : test
Apr 15 14:29:28 mail qmail: 1429122568.916915 warning: trouble injecting bounce message, will try later


I am not sure if this has anything to do with my issue.

 

[Matt Grant]

I am now noticing that this is starting to happen to more than one domain (only 2 or 3 domains out of the 80 or so I have on that server). But it is not happening for all emails to those domains, the college domain email duplicates is happening to two domains on my server and I noticed a couple advertising emails were coming in 50x's for two domains as well. This is starting to look like it is my server that has the issue, not the sending server(s).

Is there nothing I can do to fix this?

 

[Matt Grant]

Well, I got a new 1&1 server running CentOS 6.6 with Plesk 12.0.18 #48 and I moved one of the domains that was having the duplicate email issues over to the new server and guess what, he is still getting duplicates (but not all emails are duplicated). My MagicSpam email logs show the remote server sending the email every 15 minutes until it hits 100, then it stops. MS has a way easier log file to read than the built standard Linux or Plesk logs. Why is this still happening on the new server? What can I try next? This issue started out as just happening from one specific college's domain, now it is happening to a few other domains (but not all users on the server).

 

[Jon_Larson]

Well, I got a new 1&1 server running CentOS 6.6 with Plesk 12.0.18 #48 and I moved one of the domains that was having the duplicate email issues over to the new server and guess what, he is still getting duplicates (but not all emails are duplicated). My MagicSpam email logs show the remote server sending the email every 15 minutes until it hits 100, then it stops. MS has a way easier log file to read than the built standard Linux or Plesk logs. Why is this still happening on the new server? What can I try next? This issue started out as just happening from one specific college's domain, now it is happening to a few other domains (but not all users on the server).

What do the logs show when these messages come in?

(On a side note, what's the performance like an on the 1&1 Dedi? Was thinking about getting one or two, but heard mixed feelings about them)

 

[Matt Grant]

The logs show that the email is being sent from the remote server every 15 minutes until 100 or so emails are sent (see attached image below). What is really wierd about this one is that the server sends from a different IP address everytime. The email itself is just a reply to my client's email. I totally thought a new server would fix it, even though the server with the issue is only about 4 months old.

I currently have 3 Linux dedicated servers from 1&1 and have had probably 10+ over the last 10 years or so. The performance has been fine for hosting websites and email. I run one server for web hosting with about 100 domains on it and another server for email with about the same amount of domains. I have never had any performance issues, but have had a couple hard drives die on my about 5 years back. As long as you make nightly backups via Plesk, it does not take long to rebuild a server.

What do the logs show when these messages come in?

(On a side note, what's the performance like an on the 1&1 Dedi? Was thinking about getting one or two, but heard mixed feelings about them)

 

[Jon_Larson]

Is that the MagicSpam log? I've never used MagicSpam before, so I'm not sure I can help you there. Could you post the qmail logs? That usually provides more detailed info

 

[Matt Grant]

I will have to wait for it to happen again. For some reason, i cannot find a maillog that has any logs relating to the date it last happened. I have asked the client ot have the sender send another email just now, hopefully I will have a log to post tonight.

Is that the MagicSpam log? I've never used MagicSpam before, so I'm not sure I can help you there. Could you post the qmail logs? That usually provides more detailed info