[afnog] Cannot connect to remote pop3 server

Wed Feb 18 14:36:29 UTC 2009

Mark,

The ISPs are in .za and I am getting my good pings and tracert on both
connections with possible filtering on tracert as below:

[admin@ ISP1] > ping pop3.zonnet.nl
62.58.50.236 64 byte ping: ttl=111 time=240 ms
62.58.50.236 64 byte ping: ttl=111 time=225 ms
62.58.50.236 64 byte ping: ttl=111 time=213 ms
62.58.50.236 64 byte ping: ttl=111 time=231 ms
62.58.50.236 64 byte ping: ttl=111 time=216 ms
62.58.50.236 64 byte ping: ttl=111 time=212 ms
7 packets transmitted, 6 packets received, 14% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 212/222.8/240 ms

Tracert - tracert is showing good progress until it reaches a firewall.
[admin at ISP1] > tool traceroute  pop3.zonnet.nl
     ADDRESS                                    STATUS
   1     196.36.x.x  2ms 2ms 3ms
   2  196.37.240.121 35ms 42ms 30ms
   3 cdsl1-rba-vl144.isdsl.net 36ms 53ms 57ms
   4 core2b-rba-7600-gi1-0-10.ip.isnet.net 56ms 34ms 60ms
   5 168.209.161.236 235ms 205ms 203ms
                      mpls-label=2669 exp=1
   6  168.209.224.67 200ms 204ms 205ms
                      mpls-label=2446 exp=1
   7 core2a-dock-gi1-0-19-22.ip.isnet.net 228ms 208ms 215ms
   8 core1b-dock-gi0-0-2.ip.isnet.net 206ms 205ms 211ms
   9 gi8-13.mpd01.lon02.atlas.cogentco.com 207ms 201ms 208ms
  10 te4-4.ccr01.lon01.atlas.cogentco.com 204ms 209ms 203ms
  11 te2-7.ccr02.ams03.atlas.cogentco.com 212ms 246ms 213ms
  12 vl3491.mpd01.ams03.atlas.cogentco.com 212ms 215ms 212ms
  13         0.0.0.0 timeout timeout timeout
  14         0.0.0.0 timeout timeout timeout

ISP1 just told me that it is a global problem after they did their
telnet tests and there is little they can do for me. They said they
will however try pursue the issue but with NO guarantees at all.
ISP2 is still to respond to my ticket.

I am figuring out the tcptraceroute.

Shepherd

On Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 3:38 PM, Mark Tinka <mtinka at globaltransit.net> wrote:
> On Wednesday 18 February 2009 09:26:58 pm Shepherd Magumo
> wrote:
>
>> ISPs are saying there is nothing they can do because this
>> is a global issue ( South Africa).
>
> You mean ISP's from .uk are saying this, or ISP's from .za?
>
>> 1. Anyone else getting similar connect error elsewhere?
>
> Testing from Malaysia:
>
> a) I can ping:
>
> [tinka at nms ~]$ ping pop3.zonnet.nl
> PING pop3.zonnet.nl (62.58.50.236): 56 data bytes
> 64 bytes from 62.58.50.236: icmp_seq=0 ttl=112 time=349.516
> ms
> 64 bytes from 62.58.50.236: icmp_seq=1 ttl=112 time=349.467
> ms
> 64 bytes from 62.58.50.236: icmp_seq=2 ttl=112 time=349.711
> ms
> 64 bytes from 62.58.50.236: icmp_seq=3 ttl=112 time=349.698
> ms
> ^C
> --- pop3.zonnet.nl ping statistics ---
> 4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
> round-trip min/avg/max/stddev =
> 349.467/349.598/349.711/0.108 ms
> [tinka at nms ~]$
>
> b) I can traceroute (but it's filtered, I think):
>
> [tinka at nms ~]$ traceroute pop3.zonnet.nl
> traceroute to pop3.zonnet.nl (62.58.50.236), 64 hops max, 52
> byte packets
>  1  gi-2-0-11.edge-gw-1-kul-pip.my.globaltransit.net
> (124.158.236.61)  0.392 ms  0.384 ms  0.362 ms
>  2  gi-1-0-0-0.cr-gw-2-kul-pip.my.globaltransit.net
> (61.11.210.130)  0.667 ms  3.015 ms  3.636 ms
>  3  gi-0-1-0-0.br-gw-2-kul-pip.my.globaltransit.net
> (61.11.211.253)  0.666 ms  0.676 ms  0.516 ms
>  4  GBT-0004.GW1.KUL2.asianetcom.net (202.147.33.153)  0.511
> ms  0.385 ms  0.356 ms
>  5  gi15-0.gw2.sin1.asianetcom.net (203.192.144.34)  6.907
> ms  6.920 ms  6.754 ms
>  6  gi0-1-2.cr3.hkg3.asianetcom.net (202.147.16.233)  37.483
> ms  37.354 ms  37.645 ms
>  7  po14-1-1.cr1.nrt1.asianetcom.net (202.147.0.41)  84.294
> ms  84.615 ms  84.756 ms
>  8  po0-1-1.gw3.lax1.asianetcom.net (202.147.61.181)
> 195.985 ms  196.478 ms  195.680 ms
>  9  ge-2-0-0-207.ip.tiscali.net (77.67.69.89)  198.323 ms
> 198.744 ms  198.664 ms
> 10  xe-1-2-0.par20.ip.tiscali.net (89.149.185.113)  335.149
> ms  336.810 ms  336.618 ms
> 11  cor1-core.gigabiteth4-0.swip.net (213.200.85.30)
> 336.227 ms  335.794 ms  335.458 ms
> 12  cbv1-core-1.gigabiteth3-0-0.swip.net (130.244.49.69)
> 365.401 ms  342.169 ms  349.881 ms
> 13  ams16-core-1.pos0-0-0.swip.net (130.244.205.146)
> 342.176 ms  342.570 ms  342.162 ms
> 14  br01tc2.versatel.net (130.244.200.130)  357.761 ms
> 357.772 ms  357.919 ms
> 15  ge-1-1-0-664.ncr01asd2.versatel.net (212.53.18.17)
> 358.470 ms
>    ge-1-2-0-668.ncr01asd2.versatel.net (212.53.18.25)
> 352.198 ms
>    ge-1-1-0-666.ncr01asd2.versatel.net (212.53.18.1)
> 352.010 ms
> 16  212.53.18.193 (212.53.18.193)  352.631 ms  352.048 ms
> 352.459 ms
> 17  217.16.47.193 (217.16.47.193)  352.298 ms  352.510 ms
> 352.145 ms
> 18  * * *
> 19  * * *
> ^C
> [tinka at nms ~]$
>
> c) I can connect to the POP3 service:
>
> [tinka at nms ~]$ telnet pop3.zonnet.nl 110
> Trying 62.58.50.236...
> Connected to pop3.zonnet.nl.
> Escape character is '^]'.
> +OK POP3 Ready 10.170.1.153 0001fe2f
> quit
> +OK QUIT
> Connection closed by foreign host.
> [tinka at nms ~]$
>
>> 2. Can i work around this problem via some traffic
>> tunneling of some sort via the UK server?
>
> Only as a workaround.
>
> Have you tried pinging/tracerouting from .za and see what
> happens? tcptraceroute might help you here also.
>
> Have you verified that your ISP's in .za (and their
> upstreams) aren't filtering access to port 110 on their
> transit/peering links?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Mark.
>