EXIM Problem. Domain Owner stopped recieving emails

[ziggyz27]

Well this is a weird one.
For some reason a virtual domain owner has stopped recieving emails HOWEVER what is wierd is that an email alias in another domain that is same as the domain owner of this domain has started recieving his emails.

xyz.com has domain owner: ABC so his email was [email protected]
zxa.com has an email alias named: [email protected]

Now how would this happen????

Which files can I check??

I have FreeBSD setup with EXIM and Spamassasin plugin.

One more thing... if the ABC alias email is removed from zxa.com the email to [email protected] bounces back with permanent failure, even though the [email protected] email address exists and showing in DA Email Management

Please advise Mr.ABC is my Boss

 

[floyd]

We cannot really help you without the real email addresses. We need real information so we can test the email addresses.

I also take it that xyz.com and zxa.com are under different usernames.

Also the proper term is "forwarder." An alias is really not what you think it is.

 

[ziggyz27]

ok... was just taking precautions to not have more spam delivered to his email
First by alias I meant real email addresses as they are referred sometimes.

xxx is domain owner of xxx.com

the emails being sent to [email protected] is being delivered to [email protected]

and if i remove [email protected] email address the emails start bouncing with permanent error stating [email protected] Unrouteable address

 

[floyd]

Ok I don't see a problem that is not unexplainable. You have a forwarder set up to go to a certain destination but if you delete the destination the email bounces like it is supposed to do.

 

[ziggyz27]

there is no forwarder!
Thats whats confusing me.

Forwarders forward the message but keep a copy as well!! Right!
Nothing is delivered to Inbox. This email was being used since 2006 on same setup till yesterday.

 

[nobaloney]

Actually, to the MTA (exim) they are aliases; I'm not sure why Floyd wants to call them forwarders.

When you forward a username-based email account a copy does NOT get left in the username mailbox. That's set up in exim.conf; the reason is to avoid filling up the mailbox, since you can't delete it without deleting the user.

Or rather, you shouldn't be able to.

Check your logs, and look to see if the domain user mailbox exists.

On Dovecot-based systems you'll find domain user mailboxes in /home/username/Maildir/ and virtual mailboxes in /home/username/imap/domainname/virtual-username.

Jeff

 

[floyd]

Actually, to the MTA (exim) they are aliases; I'm not sure why Floyd wants to call them forwarders.

Because back in the old days aliases were for system users. You would alias a system user to another system user or email address.

Since it a good idea not to have mail sent directly to root you would modify the /etc/aliases file to send root's email to another user and then run "newaliases". However if you wanted to forward mail like [email protected] to [email protected] you would have to modify the /etc/mail/virtusertable file and then run "makemap hash virtusertable < /etc/mail/virtusertable"

Aliases and forwarders were different in sendmail.

Maybe the term is changing. Maybe this was for sendmail only. Maybe old habits die hard.

But even with exim /etc/aliases is still used with certain system users such as root and /etc/virtual/example.com/aliases is used to forward virtual domain email addresses. And from what I have read the proper name for that is called "virtual alias."

However none of the above really matters. I believe ziggyz27 is using the DirectAdmin control panel to manage this and not ssh. The term alias is not used in the control panel and IMO that term should not be used when talking about the control panel because it may cause confusion. In DirectAdmin it is called a forwarder.

 

[ziggyz27]

Thanks jlasman and floyd for taking the time to respond.

jlasman -
The directories for domain user mailboxes and virtual user directories exist; as you mentioned. Domain user can login to his account and is able to see all his previous emails. But something is causing his emails to get routed to other user's mailbox in another domain.

We are using Spamassasin plugin in DA and we had just updated the thresholds in its configs from DA. Thats the only activity that we did on that domain. Can that have anything to do with it? I cant imagine how that could be.

 

[nobaloney]

Floyd,

Yes, old habits do die hard, and I now fully agree with you that we should call them forwarders in DirectAdmin, for all the reasons you mention.

I've had to immerse myself into exim, first so I could write SpamBlocker, and later because I've learned to prefer it . Sendmail is but a vague memory (or is it my oldtimers' disease kicking in ?).

ziggyz27,

No, SpamAssassin sholdn't cause the problem. Please check to see what version of the exim.conf file you're running; if you're not sure just post the first ten lines here.

I believe someone is going to have to log into your server to resolve this for you; I've run out of ideas that don't include logging and and figuring it out that way.

We, and others who post here, offer commercial services, and can help you if you wish. To contact me for commercial services please email the address below in my sig.

Jeff