Trouble Shooting a New Installation

Testing the Account

I'll assume that you are running Windows 2000 (any version) and Outlook Express is the email client program.

The first test would be to click the Send and Receive button in your email client program (Outlook Express). If you get an error, then something is not correct - obviously. Lets try to fix it.

Password Errors

If the error has to do with the password, check the account logon name and the password. This is the username and password on the email server, not the local computer. The password is case sensitive, while the username is not. If they are correct, check to make sure that the user belongs to the IMSUsers group. If there is still a problem, check to make sure the IMSUSers group has the Logon as a batch job policy.

The users accounts must be on the computer that the email server is running on. If you have a NT domain or use Windows 2000 Active Directory for authentication, the email server will have to be on the computer that authenticates the users. I think this is a limitation of the IMS POP3S software.

Host not found Problems

If you get an error about the host not found, there could be several possibilities. First check to see that the the host name for the email servers in the email client program are correct. The computer the email server is running on can actually be one of several names.

• The first valid name for the email server is the ComputerName.
• The second valid name is the FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name).
• Another name would be any A record or CNAME in the domain zone file that has an IP address that points to your computer.

The first is the Computer name as reported in the Network Identification tab of the Properties of My Computer. Just right click on the My Computer icon on the Desktop or select System from the Control Panel. The FQDN is shown. Click the Properties button to see the individual components (computer name and domain suffix if there is one). The computer name is what is shown in the Network Neighborhood.

One check you can make yourself would be to ping the email host computer (which is this one) using one of the names listed above such as computername.mydomain.com. From the Command Prompt type:

C:>ping computername.mydomain.com

or

C:>ping computername

If you get a reply then the problem is with your email account setup. Check it again. Otherwise it's a name resolution error. That is, the computers can't figure out how to contact your email server. See the next section.

Cannot determine IP address

This is related to the problem above. Some systems (especially Windows XP) have been getting the following error in the Event Log:

The service could not determine the IP address of this computer. Please check that TCP/IP is correctly installed and configured

The domain name in the Network Identification tab of the System Properties is missing. The IMS POP3S needs both a computer name and domain. It is mentioned in the IMS documentation, but the error message is misleading.

To fix it, (you need administrator privileges), right click My Computer (or select System Properties from Settings), select the Computer Name tab, click the Change button and then the More button. Fill in a Primary DNS Suffix. This can be anything, but use your domain name, or just make one up. You need a reboot.

POP3S should be happy with the change and start working. Check the Events Log again after you start it.

Name Resolution

Name resolution is the process computers use to figure out how to contact each other. There are several methods of name resolution that will work here.

• DNS (name servers)
• HOSTS files
• NETBIOS names

If you are connected to the Internet, you will need some method to resolve names on the Internet. Usually your ISP will supply the IP addresses of a couple of it's name servers that you can use.

DNS (name servers)

In the first two scenarios, we used our ISP's name servers for name resolution. That is, we had a domain name registered with the Internet authorities and our ISP administered the domain zone file. This is so computers on the Internet can find our email server. We also used their name servers so that we can find computers on the Internet. They supplied IP addresses for a couple of their name servers. These are entered into Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) of our network card.

To check this, open a Command Prompt (on WinNT/2000) and type:

C:\>ipconfig /all

In the information the prints on the screen check that you have some DNS Servers IP addresses listed. If you don't, then add some. Check with your ISP to find out what they should be. To add them, click START->Settings->Control Panel. In the Control Panel select Network and Dial-up Connections. Right click on Local Area Connection and pick Properties from the menu. Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click the Properties button. At the bottom of the General tab, select Use the following DNS server addresses: and add the IP addresses supplied by your ISP.

NETBIOS Names

If you are not connected to the Internet, as in Example Three, you will have to do name resolution yourself. There are a few methods. First, get a Linux system and use bind - no no, there are easier ways. If you have a Microsoft network Workgroup setup using the Internet protocol (TCP/IP) and can see the other computers in the Network Neighborhood (My Network Places), then you can use NETBIOS for name resolution. This is basically automatic and you can use the names of the computers as they appear in the Network Neighborhood.

To check, from the Command Prompt type:

C:>ping ComputerName

where ComputerName is the name of any computer as it appears in the Network Neighborhood. You should get a reply.

Windows assigned a generated name for the computer when you first installed it. This is the name that appears in the Network Neighborhood. You can change the name of a computer to something more appropriate for your needs. Right click on My Computer on the desktop. Select Properties from the menu and then select the Network Identification tab. Click the Properties button to change the computer name.

HOSTS File

If you want to add a domain name suffix to the computer name such as name.domain.suffix, you will have to use a HOSTS file for name resolution. (This is still assuming that your aren't connected to the Internet and don't have a name server available). The HOSTS file is located in C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc\hosts on Win2000 systems and just C:\Windows\hosts on Win95/98/ME systems. It has to be named hosts and not hosts.sam or hosts.txt. hosts.sam is just a sample file. For a computer to be able to find your mail server called mail.postoffice.com add the following line to the HOSTS files:

192.168.0.10    mail.postoffice.com    mail

where 192.168.0.10 is the IP address of the email server (use the IP address that you have assigned), mail.postoffice.com is the FQDN, and mail is the short version or nickname. Your email server will answer to mail as well as mail.postoffice.com. Email messages can then be sent to someone@postoffice.com and the server name as entered into the email client program can be either mail or mail.postoffice.com. You will have to copy the HOSTS file that you create to all the computers that need to access the email server.

Sending a Message to Yourself

If there are no errors from pressing the Sending and Receiving button, you can test the system by sending a message to yourself. If it doesn't arrive within a minute or so then it got lost. A couple of places to look are in the C:\InetPub\MailRoot\Badmail or C:\InetPub\MailRoot\drop directories.

If it's in the drop directory, then the POP3S or POPAgent service is not working. The most likely problem is that the directories are not setup correctly. Check the Configuration again. You might also want to check the Events Log to make sure that both services are still running and haven't quit because of an error.

If the message is in the Badmail directory, the message may be addressed wrong. It could be either a SMTP or POPAgent problem. Check the log files to see which service put it there and possibly why.

If the message come back to you - congratulations, your email system is working.

Problems and Corrections

The information here is to the best of my knowledge at the time I wrote it. If you do find any problems please let me know. I can be reached through the webmaster address below.

If you do happen to send me a message, I suspect that your SMTP server will contact my name server wysenburg.RiverCityCanada.com to find out that the MX record for DigitalMapping.sk.ca points to mail.DigitalMapping.sk.ca. Your SMTP server will then contact my SMTP server and pass it your message, which my SMTP server will place in the drop directory. Every 15 seconds, my POP Agent checks that directory. If there is mail addressed to me it's transferred to a directory where the IMS POP3 server can find it. Every 15 minutes, my copy of Eudora contacts my IMS POP3 server to check for messages. If there are any and I'm nearby I will hear some chimes announcing that a new message has arrived.

Amazing how they all get along.