Diagnosing M1XEP Email

[aehusted]

I am trying to set up my M1XEP to send emails, but I have not gotten too far. The virtual keypad works and I can connect to the M1 over the network with ElkRP so I know it is running. However, I set up a rule that fires every 5 minutes to test the sending of emails and it does not seem to be doing anything. I installed Wireshark to watch the network traffic and there does not seem to be anything at all coming from the IP address assigned to the XEP. Granted I am not a network protocol expert, but I assume that if it was really trying to send emails I would see something on Wireshark. Right?
Can anyone tell me what might be the trouble?

 

[Spanky]

Have you setup the email settings in ELKRP in the M1XEP area. Use a SMTP email service. Sometimes advanced authentication by some providers is not support in the M1XEP.

 

[aehusted]

I set up the email settings with my Gmail SMTP info for starters. I realize that this may not work because of authentication issues, but I assume that even if their SMTP server is not replying I would still see the outgoing message (or any signal) coming from the XEP. I have tried changing all the email settings around, but nothing seems to work. I know that my rule is working because other actions on the same rule work. So either the control is not sending the email command or the XEP is not sending the email or both.

 

[gcimmino]

I am trying to set up my M1XEP to send emails, but I have not gotten too far. The virtual keypad works and I can connect to the M1 over the network with ElkRP so I know it is running. However, I set up a rule that fires every 5 minutes to test the sending of emails and it does not seem to be doing anything. I installed Wireshark to watch the network traffic and there does not seem to be anything at all coming from the IP address assigned to the XEP. Granted I am not a network protocol expert, but I assume that if it was really trying to send emails I would see something on Wireshark. Right?
Can anyone tell me what might be the trouble?

You've searched for other XEP threads on this forum, right?

You've also disconnected RP from the XEP? The XEP won't send email if RP is connected to it.

You've checked the DNS setup on your XEP? Perhaps replaced DNS server names with IP addresses?

 

[gcimmino]

I installed Wireshark to watch the network traffic and there does not seem to be anything at all coming from the IP address assigned to the XEP. Granted I am not a network protocol expert, but I assume that if it was really trying to send emails I would see something on Wireshark. Right?

Might not see anything.. That is, the traffic will be from the XEP to your router. I'm presuming wireshark is on your PC, so it would only be monitoring traffic on to/from your PC. The PC isn't involved in this communication.

Also, I'm presuming you're hooked up to a switch, not a hub. Switches pass packets between source and destination, so another switch port (the one with the PC running wireshark) won't see traffic not intended for it.

 

[wuench]

I installed Wireshark to watch the network traffic and there does not seem to be anything at all coming from the IP address assigned to the XEP. Granted I am not a network protocol expert, but I assume that if it was really trying to send emails I would see something on Wireshark. Right?

Might not see anything.. That is, the traffic will be from the XEP to your router. I'm presuming wireshark is on your PC, so it would only be monitoring traffic on to/from your PC. The PC isn't involved in this communication.

Also, I'm presuming you're hooked up to a switch, not a hub. Switches pass packets between source and destination, so another switch port (the one with the PC running wireshark) won't see traffic not intended for it.

GMail requires SMTP over SSL, which is on tcp port 995 and I don't think the M1 supports this. One thing you can try is to setup an ssl tunnel using stunnel on one of your machines and point the M1 at that. To the M1 it would look like regular SMTP, but once it gets to your PC it will go into the SSL tunnel and get encrypted for GMAIL.

And he is correct the sniffer needs to be on a PC connected to a hub with your M1 or router to catch the traffic. Your network switch will filter the traffic to the pc.

 

[aehusted]

good point. I guess the router is not showing the packet on the LAN since it is outbound. I will try setting the SMTP server to a LAN address so I can see if it is trying to send.

Also, I'm presuming you're hooked up to a switch, not a hub. Switches pass packets between source and destination, so another switch port (the one with the PC running wireshark) won't see traffic not intended for it.

 

[CollinR]

You are probably better off using your ISPs SMTP server, they are already doing all they can to prevent you from using any others and will continue to until spamming gets under control. You only need to change it when you change ISPs so it's no biggy.

 

[aehusted]

This looks like it is going to be the answer. Unfortunately, setting up stunnel on a Mac is a bit more complicated than I would like.
I will let you know how it goes...

GMail requires SMTP over SSL, which is on tcp port 995 and I don't think the M1 supports this. One thing you can try is to setup an ssl tunnel using stunnel on one of your machines and point the M1 at that. To the M1 it would look like regular SMTP, but once it gets to your PC it will go into the SSL tunnel and get encrypted for GMAIL.