Message Security Administration Guide >  Test Tools & Mail Flow Troubleshooting > SMTP Message Test

SMTP Message Test

Successful Results for SMTP Test

Error Messages and Next Steps

Use the SMTP Message Test to verify whether your email server can receive a message. The test generates an actual message, so you should use an address with both an email account on your mail server and a user account on the message security service. You can also enter a user alias, but not a domain alias.

Note: If your mail server rejects spoofed sender addresses, this may cause the SMTP Message test to fail even though other mail can be sent successfully.

To run the SMTP Message Test:

1.	Go to the home page (click the logo at the top of any Administration Console).

2.	Click the SMTP Message Test link in the lower left-hand corner of the page.

3.	On the SMTP Message Test page, enter the email address of a user to be used as the message recipient.

4.	Select an option:

Test mail flow through the data center: Checks mail connectivity through the message security service to your mail server. It can be used to troubleshoot mail delivery to identify problems with Administration Console settings.

Test an email generated by the data center: Helps you troubleshoot issues concerning delivery of alerts, quarantine summaries, and quarantined messages.

Test an email from the data center directly to your mail host: Checks mail connectivity to your mail server. It can be used to troubleshoot mail delivery and find problems on your mail server.

5.	Click Test. The results appear at the bottom of the page:

To run the SMTP Message Test by batch file:

See the testmail command section in the “Commands” chapter of the Batch Reference Guide for details on submitting the following command:

testmail <user name>, mailtype=0|1

<user name>	Address for the test email recipient
mailtype=0|1	Method for test: 0, if sent through the data center 1, if generated by the data center

Successful Results for SMTP Test

Test mail flow through the data center

A successful SMTP Message Test using this option displays the following test summary:

Sending test email to marc@jumboinc.com:

 

Establish connection...

Sending HELO

Sending MAIL FROM

Sending RCPT TO

Sending data

End of data dot

Success

 

The email data center can deliver email to this email server from an external email server.

Test an email generated by the data center

When the SMTP Message Test successfully delivers mail to your mail server using this option you will see:

Sending test email to mark@jumboinc.com:

 

Establish connection...

Sending HELO

Sending MAIL FROM

Sending RCPT TO

Sending data

End of data dot

Success

 

The email data center can deliver email to this email server from an external email server.

Test an email from the data center directly to your mail host

Note: This test setting will always fail if your mail server is set to accept only TLS mail. If your mail server accepts only TLS connections, use one of the other two test settings instead.

When the SMTP Message Test successful delivers mail to your mail server using this option, you will see:

Sending test email to marc@jumboinc.com:

Establish connection...

Sending HELO

Sending MAIL FROM

Sending RCPT TO

Sending data

End of data dot

Success

 

The email data center can deliver email to this email server.

In all cases, the recipient marc@jumboinc.com will receive the following email:

From: Test <test@psmtp.com>

To: mark@jumboinc.com

Subject: Email Flow Test

 

 

This is a test message.

Error Messages and Next Steps

When the SMTP Message Test fails, you will see a summary similar to the successful test results, however the last line of the summary points out when the transaction failed.

For example:

Establish connection...

Sending HELO

HELO failed.

Phase of Test	Next Steps
SMTP Connection failed.	See Troubleshoot Incoming Email Delivery for full steps.
HELO failed.	This usually indicates an issue with your mail server. Look in your mail server logs for the exact SMTP error it returned. This information will help you resolve this issue.
MAIL FROM failed.	This indicates that your mail server will not accept the sender (test@psmtp.com) or timed out during this phase of the test. Look in your mail server logs for the exact SMTP error it returned. This information will help you resolve this issue.
RCPT TO failed.	This usually indicates that your mail server rejected the recipient or timed out during this phase of the test. Does the recipient have an email box on the server? Look in your mail server logs for the exact SMTP error it returned. This information will help you resolve this issue.
Sending message data failed.	This indicates that your mail server rejected the body of the email message or timed out during this phase of the test. Look in your mail server logs for the exact SMTP error it returned. This information will help you resolve this issue.

Related Topics

MX Record Test

Run a Firewall Test

Latency Test

Traceroute Test

Reinjection Test

Troubleshoot Incoming Email Delivery

Verifying Email Flow

Setting up Delivery Manager

Configuring the Spool Manager