Is BigPipe blocking Port 25 after a plan change (UFB)?

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Is BigPipe blocking Port 25 after a plan change (UFB)?

timbosan

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#193777 23-Mar-2016 20:10

Hey all,

I have been using BigPipe UFB for over a year now, never any problems, and have been running my own email (Exchange) server for longer. However the other day I asked for a plan change (from 200/200 to 200/20) and since then I have not been able to get any email.

My static IP address hasn't changed, and using mxtoolbox I can see that neither my public IP or DNS is resolvable to port 25.

Has BigPipe change policies on this? Or is it just a side affect of the plan change?

(Yes, I have raised a support ticket with them, however since they cannot email me back, I thought it best to post here too ;- )

NonprayingMantis

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#1518663 23-Mar-2016 20:59

seems unlikely, but then again all things are possible with teh internets.

but why would you want to mess around running your own email server at home? (especially on a residential grade broadband connection - as you found out, if you have a problem with your internet, your email is also screwed - and this isn't even an outage)

seems like a lot of work to mess around doing it when there are perfectly good email services out there which you don't lose if your home broadband goes down.

I can't remember the last time gmail went down, but residential broadband problems happen probably once or twice a year I'd say, often for several hours, sometimes longer - whether that's the ISP having an issue or something like a technician cutting the wrong cable.

timmmay

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#1518673 23-Mar-2016 21:10

Email them from Gmail.

timbosan

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#1518675 23-Mar-2016 21:12

NonprayingMantis:

seems unlikely, but then again all things are possible with teh internets.

but why would you want to mess around running your own email server at home? (especially on a residential grade broadband connection - as you found out, if you have a problem with your internet, your email is also screwed - and this isn't even an outage)

seems like a lot of work to mess around doing it when there are perfectly good email services out there which you don't lose if your home broadband goes down.

I can't remember the last time gmail went down, but residential broadband problems happen probably once or twice a year I'd say, often for several hours, sometimes longer - whether that's the ISP having an issue or something like a technician cutting the wrong cable.

Yeah, I can easily imaging something odd like plan changes resetting port rules.

As for running a server at home, it is part learning, part wanting to keep my emails to myself and not be a product to large corporates. I run SBS2011 and getting Exchange set up was very easy, and generally my UFB connection is rock solid and up time has been over a year (minus the times I have taken something down myself to upgrade hardware/move stuff/change plugs/etc.)

Yes, there is work involved, but I have learnt a lot about domains, Exchange, ports, DNS, hosting, etc.

timbosan

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#1518677 23-Mar-2016 21:13

timmmay:

Email them from Gmail.

Done that (from Hotmail!). Problem is their contact form makes you enter the email address your account is tied to, and since they don't have phones, its problematic when you have no email!

Lorenceo

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#1518678 23-Mar-2016 21:15

Two things change on Bigpipe when you change UFB plans. The speed the LFC has your line provisioned at, and your monthly bill. Nothing else. :)

timbosan

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#1518773 24-Mar-2016 07:55

Lorenceo:

Two things change on Bigpipe when you change UFB plans. The speed the LFC has your line provisioned at, and your monthly bill. Nothing else. :)

Hmm - I beg to differ. I changed my DNS to another email system (MX record now points to 25mai.st) and my email works. Change it back to my own DNS and it doesn't work (i.e no email) and mxtoolbox.com cannot connect to port 25. It was working for over a year before that.

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dan

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#1519026 24-Mar-2016 13:19

are you sure after your change of plan you havent lost your static ip or are back on cgnat,

from their FAQ "Your Static IP will change if you move between different Bigpipe plans."

Lorenceo

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#1519035 24-Mar-2016 13:26

dan:

from their FAQ "Your Static IP will change if you move between different Bigpipe plans."

This doesn't apply when changing between UFB plans. It would if you changed from ADSL to UFB though, for example.

timbosan

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#1519074 24-Mar-2016 14:16

dan:

are you sure after your change of plan you havent lost your static ip or are back on cgnat,

from their FAQ "Your Static IP will change if you move between different Bigpipe plans."

Nope - that was the first thing I checked.

However having been in touch with BigPipe it seems the plan change hasn't happened yet, and they have confirmed they do NOT block any ports (nor can they actually do so). It seems the problem may not be on their side after all. I am working through a few things with their engineers.

So to answer my own question, no, a plan change does not change anything else. And @Lorenceo was right.

I will post an update once I find out more.

timbosan

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#1519371 24-Mar-2016 23:05

So I have been looking at event logs in SBS and the "Microsoft Exchange Transport" service isn't running, and wont start. It seems there is something wrong with the mail.que file. Further investigation shows the file is not there! So the service cannot start.

Luckily this server backs up daily to another disk and I can do a restore. But more interesting is that the backup failed on the same say as the mail stopped working, with a FILE NOT FOUND error. Sounds like something went really bad. Restoring now....