Email Troubleshooting Checklist for Escalation

Email sending/receiving/connectivity issues
Here's a complete list of details we need in order to troubleshoot any email-related issues.


 * describe the exact error you see in the client
 * email address
 * source ip (i.e., customer's ip)
 * provider
 * email client
 * traceroute to sub5.mail.dreamhost.com
 * port #
 * time of the error
 * test using telnet to sub#.dreamhost.com

Example

 * For Windows, open the cmd prompt and run:

telnet

open sub5.mail.homie.mail.dreamhost.com 25


 * For Mac, open terminal and run the same command.

This lets us know if you can reach sub5 via that port. Alternatively, you can check using 587 instead of 25.

A successful connection looks like this
telnet telnet> open sub5.homie.mail.dreamhost.com 25 Trying 208.113.200.129... Connected to sub5.homie.mail.dreamhost.com. Escape character is '^]'. 220 homiemail-a83.g.dreamhost.com ESMTP

Errors to look for

 * Connection to host closed/terminated
 * Unable to connect to host

If you're experiencing email delay issues
We need the following:


 * Full email headers
 * Time the email was sent and received
 * Sending address and receiving address
 * Where was the email sent from? (web server using phpmail/sendmail etc or via email client)
 * Which mail cluster