[plug] Simple Fault finding 101

[Brad Campbell]

Bret Busby wrote:
> 
> I asked questions, initially; I was trying to determine what was
> happening.

In your situation, this is what I would have done.
A) I hate ASCII Art. I hope you have a monospaced font selected!
B) I find it incredibly difficult to detail a speculative thought
   process. This is probably how I would have done it.
C) Just coz I can talk SMTP does not make me special. I simply went
   to www.google.com and searched for SMTP and RFC. Read the doc and
   used my head. Nothing is hard. People just lack commonsense.
D) I have just re-read this and realise it contains logical errors,
   like trying to contact the hosts mailserver before we have located
   it with an mx record. TOUGH!

ping <target>
Is target alive?
 |
  - Yes : telnet <target> 25
 |        Is targets mailserver alive?
 |        |
 |         _ Yes : dig mx <target>
 |        |
 |         - No : Go to Bed.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
  - No : dig mx <target>
         Look for primary and seconady mx and try to reach both
         using telnet to port 25.
         Can you reach primary
          |
           _ Yes : telnet <primary> 25 and try to send a test
          |        mail to recipient manually. Look for error codes
          |        go to relevant RFC for SMTP and find out what
          |        the error codes mean. Go to bed.
           - No : try secondary as above.
                  Did we contact primary or secondary and succeed?
                  |
                   - Yes : Traceroute relevant server and attempt to figure
                  |        out who feeds them. Do a whois <target> and find
                  |        out who runs the dns, do a dig on the dns and 
                  |        ensure the mx records look correct.
                   - No : Go to bed and try again after the morning coffee.

-- 
Brad....
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