SMTP takes 3 - 4 minutes to send an e-mail

[acidbox]

I use Plesk 8 with qmail. When I send an e-mail from MS Outlook 2003, it takes between 3 and 4 minutes to send the e-mail.

The peculiar part is that it was working fine for months and all of a sudden it just started crawling slowly out of nowhere. I hadn't even added a site or made any server changes in forever so I have no idea what could be the culprit.

I've looked at a lot of posts on this forum and still haven't found the answer. I've tried disabling MAPS and have added the -Rt0 into my smtp xinetd config. Still, it takes forever to send e-mail. Could there be anything missing here?

 

[cmurphy@]

1. 4 minutes for outlook to send it or 4 minutes for it to leave the queue once the server has been given the mail by outlook?

Advice: stop supporting Bill! Get Thunderbird.

2. Check your queue. a hack may be in place using your qmail to send large volumes of mail, and thereby causing mail to take several minutes to be sent as the outgoing queue fills and tries to catch up.

3. Have you modified your qmail conf files to allow more messages per cycle? as your server grows the default setup will become too slow.

 

[acidbox]

Originally posted by cmurphy
1. 4 minutes for outlook to send it or 4 minutes for it to leave the queue once the server has been given the mail by outlook?

Advice: stop supporting Bill! Get Thunderbird.

2. Check your queue. a hack may be in place using your qmail to send large volumes of mail, and thereby causing mail to take several minutes to be sent as the outgoing queue fills and tries to catch up.

3. Have you modified your qmail conf files to allow more messages per cycle? as your server grows the default setup will become too slow.

Thanks for the reply:

1.) It takes 3 - 4 minutes to send from outlook. I had to adjust my timeout settings to over 4 minutes to get it to send from outlook. Once it hits the server it sends instantly. I've tried from several computers and different locations, so it's not a DNS issue or antyhing like that.

2.) The queue is empty. We don't process large volumes of mail.

3.) This is a private server with a few sites on it. The configuration and setup hasn't been touched in several months. This issue appears to have just cropped up on its own.

Any ideas?

 

[breun]

Maybe this Knowledge Base article helps?

Some clients face a 30-60 second delay when trying to send/receive mail. Why so?

 

[acidbox]

Originally posted by breun
Maybe this Knowledge Base article helps?

Some clients face a 30-60 second delay when trying to send/receive mail. Why so?

I already have the -Rt0 in my config.

 

[jwdick]

If you are using MAPS, check the RBL's that you are using to make sure they are still active. Some have been shut down lately and you might be having a time out issue.

 

[acidbox]

Originally posted by jwdick
If you are using MAPS, check the RBL's that you are using to make sure they are still active. Some have been shut down lately and you might be having a time out issue.

I've already done this. In fact I've even disabled MAPS to ensure that this isn't the cause. This didn't resolve anything.

 

[by88]

-Rt0 option in /etc/xinetd.d/smtp_psa
can cause problems sending emails on plesk 8
(it seems to be a wrong option)

BTW the delay of at least 30 seconds exists and also qmail service from control panel is not shown correctly.

I've opened a ticket ...

I hope they know what they sell.

 

[DCNet_James]

Heres an example entry of what I have.

I used to have this problem a LONG time ago. -Rt0 after tcp-env solved the problem for me.

Restart qmail and inetd/xinetd and works.

smtp stream tcp nowait root /usr/local/psa/qmail/bin/tcp-env tcp-env -Rt0 /usr/local/psa/qmail/bin/rblsmtpd -r sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org /usr/local/psa/qmail/bin/relaylock /usr/local/psa/qmail/bin/qmail-smtpd /usr/local/psa/qmail/bin/smtp_auth /usr/local/psa/qmail/bin/true /usr/local/psa/qmail/bin/cmd5checkpw /usr/local/psa/qmail/bin/true

I believe the cause was DNS related, inetd/xinetd is trying to resolve the connecting IP's RDNS, which takes time and eventually will pass/fail and connect, hence the delay. I'd also verify the type of relay scheme you have. Mine is smtp-auth not popb4smtp.

Thx
J