Problem setting up Email option. need technical advice at your end

[Gayatri]

Hi,
We are trying to setup options to forward sms's to email addresses.
and are having the issue of 'impossible to connect to server' problem!

We have checked up at our mail server end - things seem to be working fine. I can also check my emails on the linux server from my XP PC, but when I use it to setup an account in frontline, it fails everytime.

Any technical pointers where we can check how frontline connects to mailserver ? We want to troubleshoot it some more to fix the problem.

We need this feature ready for our 'real' release !!

[kiwanja]

Hi Gayatri

I'm not sure what settings you are using, but if it's a Gmail account you're trying to set up then a couple of people have had problems, depending on the configuration they've used. If you're using Gmail then try these. (This is a cut-and-paste from a post in the Forum here - I searched for "email settings"):

"E-mail Settings work and forwarding works.

I created a Gmail account to be used for forwarding TXT messages to other e-mail accounts.

Account Server = smtp.googlemail.com
Account E-mail = @gmail.com
Account Password =

Using E-mail with or without SSL works. But it might be a good idea to stick with SSL for security reasons and also consider using a more secure e-mail account if security is a concern.

Sending to multiple email recipients works."

Let me know if that solves it, assuming it's relevant.

Ken

[Gayatri]

Thanks a lot Ken - the googlemail works.

But using our own smtp server does not. For now we will use googlemail itself.
What kind of details did you want about our server?

[kiwanja]

Hi Gayatri

I'll ping the developers and they can let you know. I'm not sure what they'll find useful!

At least you have something to test with for now. =)

We'll be in touch...

Ken

[Alex Anderson]

Hi Guyatri,

I would guess this would be a security issue with your SMTP server. If you can look at your FrontlineSMS or SMTP server logs, this might give a clue to the problem. Otherwise, if you submit your FrontlineSMS logs (either attach them here, or using Help > Submit Error Report), then we can have a look through.

Thanks,

Alex

[Gayatri]

Hi Alex,
I submitted the error report.
I connected it without SSL, according to the linux server expert, frontline is not connecting to the correct port if we use SSL.
But even then we get the same error. We are also looking at our server side logs. will get back.
[SmsModem :: COM3] TRACE [03/02/09 12:52:55] net.frontlinesms.SmsModem.checkForMessages(SmsModem.java:200) - ENTER
[AWT-EventQueue-0] TRACE [03/02/09 12:53:00] net.frontlinesms.ui.UiGeneratorController.saveEmailAccount(UiGeneratorController.java:712) - ENTER
[AWT-EventQueue-0] DEBUG [03/02/09 12:53:00] net.frontlinesms.ui.UiGeneratorController.saveEmailAccount(UiGeneratorController.java:712) - Server [chennai.aidindia.in]
[AWT-EventQueue-0] DEBUG [03/02/09 12:53:00] net.frontlinesms.ui.UiGeneratorController.saveEmailAccount(UiGeneratorController.java:712) - Account [[e-mail]]
[AWT-EventQueue-0] DEBUG [03/02/09 12:53:00] net.frontlinesms.ui.UiGeneratorController.saveEmailAccount(UiGeneratorController.java:712) - SSL [false]
[AWT-EventQueue-0] DEBUG [03/02/09 12:53:00] net.frontlinesms.ui.UiGeneratorController.saveEmailAccount(UiGeneratorController.java:712) - Testing connection to [chennai.aidindia.in]
[AWT-EventQueue-0] TRACE [03/02/09 12:53:00] net.frontlinesms.EmailSender.testConnection(EmailSender.java:200) - ENTER
[AWT-EventQueue-0] INFO [03/02/09 12:53:00] net.frontlinesms.EmailSender.testConnection(EmailSender.java:200) - Fail to connect to server [chennai.aidindia.in]
[AWT-EventQueue-0] DEBUG [03/02/09 12:53:00] net.frontlinesms.EmailSender.testConnection(EmailSender.java:200) - Fail to connect to server [chennai.aidindia.in]
javax.mail.NoSuchProviderException: Invalid protocol: null

[Alex Anderson]

Hi Gayatri,

I'll take a closer look at this when I get to my office. Hopefully that will be later today, but currently I can't travel as London is covered in (beautiful) snow. Just letting you know so you don't think I'm ignoring you.

Alex

[Alex Anderson]

Hi Gayatri,

It looks like you can't change the ports for your SMTP server. Currently for unsecure SMTP, the port is 25, and for secure SMTP, the port is 465. I'm guessing this is causing your current problem.

Thanks for spotting that one. We'll try to get this configurable in the next release.

Cheers,

Alex

[madan]

hi alex

wat about pop3 can it be used r not instead of smtp.
regards
madan

[kiwanja]

Hi Madan

POP servers usually handle receiving, SMTP the sending. The server names don't have to include the POP or SMTP words, but the server you tell FrontlineSMS to send through needs to be an SMTP server. That's my understanding, anyway! Guess you could just try it with your server settings and see what happens.

Ken

[Brian]

Hi All-

I've been trying to get the email function working with gmail as the SMTP server but I've had no luck with any of the suggested settings. I've tried all combinations using port 25, 465, 587 and with SSL on/off. Looking at the logs, it appears it just cannot connect to the server:

DEBUG [30/07/09 19:41:44] net.frontlinesms.EmailSender.send(Unknown Source) - Fail to connect to server [smtp.googlemail.com]
javax.mail.NoSuchProviderException: Invalid protocol: null
at javax.mail.Session.getProvider(Session.java:441)
at javax.mail.Session.getTransport(Session.java:660)
at javax.mail.Session.getTransport(Session.java:641)
at javax.mail.Session.getTransport(Session.java:627)
at net.frontlinesms.EmailSender.connect(Unknown Source)
at net.frontlinesms.EmailSender.send(Unknown Source)
at net.frontlinesms.EmailSender.run(Unknown Source)

Has anyone gotten this to work with other settings?

I am running 1.5.8 on Ubuntu Hardy.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Brian

[kiwanja]

Hi Brian

Have you tried getting this to work with a Gmail account? To isolate where the problem might be it may be worth setting up one if you haven't already and trying it out. Settings for Gmail have been tested and work. Let us know if that gives you a different outcome and/or solves the problem.

[Brian]

Hi Ken-

I was actually testing this with my personal gmail account.

What other settings have been tried and true other than what is outlined earlier in this post?

To make sure there I wasn't having a local network issue, I successfully opened up ports 25, 465, and 587 at smtp.googlemail.com using telnet.

Many Thanks!
Brian