Forums » Interstage BPM Server

• Ivar Alexander

  
   

  January 9, 2012 3:44:57 PM PST

  My Interstage BPM server was not sending email notifications. It used to work just fine, but then stopped with a socket connection error.
  
  The server log showed this:
  {SMS/Email message construction error. {javax.mail.MessagingException: Could not connect to SMTP host: eval.interstagebpm.com, port: 25}}}}
  
  and lower in the log, the true reason:
  Caused by: java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect
   at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.socketConnect(Native Method)
   at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.doConnect(Unknown Source)
   at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connectToAddress(Unknown Source)
   at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connect(Unknown Source)
   at java.net.SocksSocketImpl.connect(Unknown Source)
   at java.net.Socket.connect(Unknown Source)
   at java.net.Socket.connect(Unknown Source)
   at com.sun.mail.util.SocketFetcher.createSocket(SocketFetcher.java:232)
   at com.sun.mail.util.SocketFetcher.getSocket(SocketFetcher.java:189)
   at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.openServer(SMTPTransport.java:1250)
   ... 37 more
  
  There have been no changes to the server, and no changes to the email server being accessed. Using Outlook Express from the BPM server machine to the email server works fine. I can send and receive emails with no problem.
  
  

  Author: Ivar Alexander
  Attachment:

• admin admin

  
   

  January 9, 2012 3:50:20 PM PST

  Are you able to telnet machine from machine where IBPM Server is running
  telnet eval.interstagebpm.com: 25
  

  Author: Rajeev Kumar Singh
  Attachment:

• Ivar Alexander

  
   

  January 9, 2012 3:50:56 PM PST

  Turned out the problem was related to McAfee. It looked like a firewall problem, but the fact that Outlook Express worked, really threw me. Turns out that McAfee Access Protection has started blocking access to port 25 (SMTP) by default. This is to prevent mass spamming programs from sending emails. They do however, allow "known" email clients like Outlook Express to work.
  
  The fix is to allow java.exe as one of the processes that McAfee allows to access port 25 for sending email. See
  https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=KB50707
  for info about how to change the settings. Once this was done, the email notifications worked fine, and so did the email listener (that was not really impacted by this because it uses port 110).
  

  edit: Not sure how/when McAfee started blocking this... the email notification used to work... but stopped working recently. So i am guessing some kind of automatic update to McAfee's rules caused this.

  Author: Ivar Alexander
  Attachment:

• Ivar Alexander

  
   

  January 9, 2012 3:54:23 PM PST

  Thanks for the suggestion Rajeev - unfortunately, telnet access is blocked by the corporate firewall on the network that this server is on.

  Author: Ivar Alexander
  Attachment: