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1.1 News Mail & DNS servers

The new SBC Yahoo!DSL dialup "backup" number lookup tool is available here. It gives you nationwide dialup capability as well as much expanded local dialup access. Your username and password will work there just like it does on DSL or email.

Just use your normal @ameritech.net or @sbcglobal.net login and password.

by RadioDoc See Profile
last modified: 2007-12-09 14:21:21

To set up your email client (not webmail) to use the newest "New and Improved" secure access:

1. Open your email client program.

2. Locate the email account settings for your particular client.

3. Change or set the POP (incoming) server to inbound.att.net.

4. Change the SMTP (outgoing) server to outbound.att.net.

5. For inbound email, connect securely over the standard POP3 SSL
port: 995
. Use username and password. Do not use "Secure Password
Authentication".

6. For outbound email, connect securely over the standard SMTP SSL
port: 465
. Use the same credentials as for the inbound email.

More info is available at http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB401570&cv=804&title=Email+server+settings+(POP+and+SMTP).
Effective immediately, use 68.94.156.1 and 68.94.157.1 no matter where you are. SBCIS has implemented "anycast" which routes these addresses to your local POP regardless of where you are.

by RadioDoc See Profile
last modified: 2008-02-12 11:29:45


Important note: These servers require authentication, so you will have to enter your username into your news reader (yournamehere@ameritech.net or @sbcglobal.net) and enable authentication by username and password to gain access. qsg1049 See Profile reports that both primary and secondary usernames now work, and can have 3-4 simultaneous connections to the server.

by RadioDoc See Profile edited by lev See Profile
last modified: 2005-08-14 11:55:33


PLEASE NOTE if you find an error please send it to RadioDoc See Profile.

DNS Servers: Effective immediately, use 68.94.156.1 and 68.94.157.1 no matter where you are. ATTIS has implemented "anycast" which routes these addresses to your local POP. However, they sometimes push local DNS servers so don't be confused if you see other addresses in your logs.

Full list of news servers and other important info for setting up your Usenet reader here.

SBC Yahoo! (@sbcglobal.net) mail servers are pop.sbcglobal.yahoo.com and SMTP.sbcglobal.yahoo.com. Those listed below are for legacy accounts.

Legacy (for ameritech.net accounts) mail and news servers:
Akron
POP & SMTP Server mailhost.akr.ameritech.net
News Server news.akr.sbcglobal.net
Appleton
POP & SMTP Server mailhost.app.ameritech.net
News Server news.app.sbcglobal.net
Champaign
POP & SMTP Server mailhost.cha.ameritech.net
News Server news.cha.sbcglobal.net
Chicago
POP & SMTP Server mailhost.chi.ameritech.net
News Server news.chi.sbcglobal.net
Cleveland
POP & SMTP Server mailhost.cle.ameritech.net
News Server news.cle.sbcglobal.net
Columbus
POP & SMTP Server mailhost.col.ameritech.net
News Server news.col.sbcglobal.net
Dayton
POP & SMTP Server mailhost.day.ameritech.net
News Server news.day.sbcglobal.net
Detroit
POP & SMTP Server mailhost.det.ameritech.net
News Server news.det.sbcglobal.net
Grand Rapids / Kalamazoo
POP & SMTP Server mailhost.kal.ameritech.net
News Server news.kal.sbcglobal.net
Indianapolis
POP & SMTP Server mailhost.ind.ameritech.net
News Server news.ind.sbcglobal.net
Lansing
POP & SMTP Server mailhost.lan.ameritech.net
News Server news.lan.sbcglobal.net
Madison
POP & SMTP Server mailhost.mad.ameritech.net
News Server news.mad.sbcglobal.net
Milwaukee
POP & SMTP Server mailhost.mil.ameritech.net
News Server news.mil.sbcglobal.net
Peoria
POP & SMTP Server mailhost.peo.ameritech.net
News Server news.peo.sbcglobal.net
Rockford
POP & SMTP Server mailhost.roc.ameritech.net
News Server news.roc.sbcglobal.net
Saginaw
POP & SMTP Server mailhost.sng.ameritech.net
News Server news.sgn.sbcglobal.net
Springfield
POP & SMTP Server mailhost.spf.ameritech.net
News Server news.spf.sbcglobal.net
Toledo
POP & SMTP Server mailhost.tol.ameritech.net
News Server news.tol.sbcglobal.net
Youngstown
POP & SMTP Server mailhost.ynt.ameritech.net
News Server news.ynt.sbcglobal.net

by edited by RadioDoc See Profile
last modified: 2008-02-12 11:31:11

You can send all types of files as attachments, including word processor or spreadsheet documents, audio files, image files (.bmp, .jpg., .gif, etc.), web pages saved as HTML files, and more. Currently, SBC Yahoo! subscribers can send messages containing up to 50 attachments. The total message size (message + attachments) can be up to 20MB in size.

Posted by dslknowitall at »File attachment size limit on Ameritech.net (SBC/ATT) email?

by RadioDoc See Profile
last modified: 2006-05-12 12:08:16

Update! auskie See Profile reports that the server name has changed:

Non-authoritative answer:
smtp.sbcglobal.yahoo.com canonical name = smtp-sbc.mail.yahoo.com.
smtp-sbc.mail.yahoo.com canonical name = smtp.sbc.mail.yahoo4.akadns.net.
Name: smtp.sbc.mail.yahoo4.akadns.net
Address: 68.142.198.11
----------
Update #2, MikeStammer See Profile reports that it's not all as easy as it should be:

I think SBC just broke SMTP AUTH again in things like sendmail and postfix. this morning i had errors at 2 sites. seems they changed the IP that smtp-sbc-v1.mail.vip.sc5.yahoo.com was resolving to. i had to hard code the IP of what smtp-sbc-v1.mail.vip.sc5.yahoo used to resolve to to get it working again. The old IP (the one that works) is 63.230.177.41. if you resolve the IP based on the hostname now and try to SMTP auth (at least with sasl) it doesnt work. it complains that authentication is needed.

Further update and a possible fix at »Warning: SBC Yahoo SMTP Auth possibly broken
----------
Update #3 (07-28-06) from parkut See Profile:

I discovered my configuration for using SBC and Sendmail as my MTA was broken. I spent some time googling around, and found a hint on another website. Here is the result of how I fixed it.
 
edit the file /etc/mail/authinfo
 
Below is the contents of my authinfo file
 
AuthInfo:yahoo.com "U:siege.x@sbcglobal.net" "I:siege.x@sbcglobal.net" "P:pAsSWoRd" "M:PLAIN"
 
AuthInfo: "U:siege.x@sbcglobal.net" "I:siege.x@sbcglobal.net" "P:pAsSWoRd" "M:PLAIN"
 
In case its not apparent, the text after U: and I: is the username, after P: is the password
 
Note that the second line is almost exactly the same as the first line except its missing yahoo.com and there is a space after the colon. I'm not exactly sure why this line is needed, but it did not work until I added it.
 
After editing the file, run the following command to secure the file:
 
chmod 660 /etc/mail/authinfo
 
Then convert to a .db file so sendmail will recognize our new settings:
 
makemap hash /etc/mail/authinfo < /etc/mail/authinfo
 

]]>----------

SBCYahoo's mailserver requires user authentication in order to relay email through it. This causes a problem if you want to run a mailserver with your own domain name on your home network and relay your outbound email through SBCYahoo's mailserver. You may want to use SBCYahoo as a SMARTHOST for all of your outbound email because you have a dynamic IP address and no mailservers out there will accept email from you because they are running RBL filters that block your IP. You may want to just use SBCYahoo's server as a fallback MX host in the event that your mailserver can not send directly for whatever reason. There are a number of configuration issues that can make this tricky to setup and the available documentation is less than helpful in understanding how to resolve these problems.

Following is a little tutorial that will hopefully clear up these issues and save you hours of frustration wondering why you keep getting authentication errors etc. This configuration is based on Sendmail 8.12.10 running on Mandrake Linux 9.2 with Linux kernel 2.4.22. This FAQ assumes you already have Sendmail compiled and installed and configured as your mailserver, that you understand the basics of Sendmail configuration, and you are logged in as root. If you need assistance with building Sendmail for authentication see Jon Fullmer's great tutorial.

The first thing to do is enable the proper directives in your sendmail.mc file to allow for the Sendmail authentication mechanisms. Uncomment or add the following options into your sendmail.mc (usually found in /etc/mail/cf/cf/ )

define(`confAUTH_OPTIONS', `A')dnl
define(`confAUTH_MECHANISMS', `LOGIN PLAIN DIGEST-MD5 CRAM-MD5')dnl
TRUST_AUTH_MECH(`LOGIN PLAIN DIGEST-MD5 CRAM-MD5')dnl
FEATURE(`authinfo',`hash -o /etc/mail/authinfo.db')dnl
 

]]>
If you want all of your outbound email to relay through SBC because you are using a dynamic source IP, also add the following SMARTHOST config into your sendmail.mc file:
define(`SMART_HOST', `esmtp:[smtp.sbcglobal.yahoo.com]')dnl
 

]]>
If you only want to use SBCYahoo's mailserver as a relay in the event that your mailserver can not forward email directly, add the following FALLBACK_MX config to your sendmail.mc file:
define(`confFALLBACK_MX', `esmtp:[smtp.sbcglobal.yahoo.com]')dnl
 

]]>
The format of these entries with brackets [ ] is key to making it work properly. The brackets keep Sendmail from looking up the MX record for the hostname which would return the bogus hostname nomail.yahoo.com. Without brackets Sendmail would bounce every message it attempted to relay through this host.

Once the above is completed, rebuild your sendmail.cf file using:
m4 /path/to/m4.cf /etc/mail/cf/cf/sendmail.mc > /etc/mail/sendmail.cf
 

]]>
Enter the paths for your specific site configuration as necessary in the above command.

Next we need to create the authinfo file which will contain the user credentials for logging into the mailserver. Create a file called 'authinfo' in /etc/mail/  For security reasons, this file should be chmod 400 and owned by root if you are running Sendmail as root. If you are using an alternate UID/GID for Sendmail then make sure that the file's group owner matches and set the file chmod 440. In the entry below, replace userID with your SBCGlobal username and password with your password.

Following is the syntax for the file (all on one line):
AuthInfo:smtp-sbc-v1.mail.vip.sc5.yahoo.com "U:userID@sbcglobal.net" 
"I:userID@sbcglobal.net" "R:sbcglobal.net" "P:password" "M:PLAIN"
 

]]>
The mailserver hostname is entered right after AuthInfo: in this file. Sendmail looks at the DNS A record for the host it is connecting to and parses the authinfo file looking for this hostname to match for credentials to use. If you do an nslookup for smtp.sbcglobal.yahoo.com you will notice that it is an alias or CNAME to the hostname entered above. If this ever changes, you will have to change this hostname in your authinfo file to match and rebuild the map file and restart sendmail. If you used smtp.sbcglobal.yahoo.com as the server name in the authinfo file, you would never match credentials and email would bounce from SBC for no authentication.

Once you have saved this file you need to build the authinfo map file.
makemap hash /etc/mail/authinfo < /etc/mail/authinfo
 

]]>
Mandrake Linux includes all the nice service start/stop scripts for standard services in /etc/init.d  In the script for Sendmail they include functions to automatically rebuild the map files whenever you start or restart the service. I just added authinfo into the list of maps to build...

for i in virtusertable access domaintable mailertable genericstable authinfo; do
         if [ -f /etc/mail/$i ] ; then
         makemap hash /etc/mail/$i < /etc/mail/$i
         fi
done
 

]]>
Now it is time to start or restart Sendmail. If you are going to be using the fallback MX option, I suggest initially configuring using the SMARTHOST for testing purposes and then switching back after you have verified that your config works.

service restart sendmail
 

]]>or
service start sendmail
 

]]>

Troubleshooting Once you have Sendmail up and running with the new configuration it is time to test. Use the SMARTHOST option as recommended above during testing so that all mail goes outbound through SBCYahoo's mailserver. Send an email to an outside email address you can check and verify that you do not get a bounce back like this...

The server responded: 530 authentication required - for help go to 
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/sbc/dsl/mail/pop/pop-11.html
 

]]>
If you get the email on your external mail account, check the SMTP headers if you can and verify that the email passed through SBCYahoo's mailserver. You may also see an Authenticated bits header, as well.

If you get the dreaded bounce back, there are quite a few things you can do to troubleshoot this problem.

Verify proper configuration
  1. Check the output from 'sendmail -d0.1 -bt < /dev/null' The string "SASL" or "SASLv2" should appear somewhere in the output. If not, you didn't compile suitably.
  2. Check the output from 'echo "/map authinfo authinfo:smtp-sbc-v1.mail.vip.sc5.yahoo.com" | sendmail -bt' That will check whether the authinfo map is being properly recognized.
Verify mailserver output
  1. From the command line on your mailserver do the following:
    telnet smtp.sbcglobal.yahoo.com 25
     
    Trying 66.163.171.137...
    Connected to smtp.sbcglobal.yahoo.com (66.163.171.137).
    Escape character is '^]'.
    220 smtp812.mail.sc5.yahoo.com ESMTP
     
    EHLO domain.com
     
    250-smtp812.mail.sc5.yahoo.com
    250-AUTH LOGIN PLAIN
    250-PIPELINING
    250 8BITMIME
     
    quit
     
    221 smtp812.mail.sc5.yahoo.com
    Connection closed by foreign host.
     
    
    ]]>
    Make sure you are getting the 250-AUTH LOGIN PLAIN option back when you enter the 'EHLO domain.com' command. If not, you have a firewall that is inspecting or filtering SMTP at the application layer. Do not use the Cisco PIX fixup protocol for SMTP or the Cisco IOS 'ip inspect' commands for SMTP on outbound SMTP sessions. This breaks the ability to authenticate SMTP sessions because it blocks the EHLO responses and spoofs a 502 response to your server. Your mailserver will never see the AUTH LOGIN option and will never even try to send its user credentials.
    
    
  2. You can observe a session by creating a dummy email message in a file, then run 'sendmail -Am -v -t < /path/to/file'. The file should have To:email@externaldomain.com on the first line at a minimum.

Other Links about Sendmail SMTP Auth: »www.sendmail.org/~ca/ema ··· ientauth »www.jonfullmer.com/smtpauth/ »www.urbanophile.com/aren ··· dsl.html »efflandt.freeshell.org/s ··· uth.html

by rolande See Profile edited by lev See Profile
last modified: 2006-07-28 15:36:41

In Sendmail version 8.12, MX records will be looked up in DNS for FallBackMXhost. Since, Yahoo has a bogus MX record (nomail.yahoo.com) for all of its mailserver names, including smtp.sbcglobal.yahoo.com, this would cause the FallBack MX host to bounce email if Sendmail ever forwarded to it.

To use the old behavior (no MX lookups), you have to put the fallback server's domain name in square brackets in your .mc configuration file and run it through m4 again, copy it in place of your current config and restart sendmail.

Below is the line you need to add or replace in your sndmail.mc file. If you use a different FallBack MX host, then just change the domain name inside the square brackets to the server you use.

define(`confFALLBACK_MX', [smtp.sbcglobal.yahoo.com])

by rolande See Profile edited by kmac1 See Profile
last modified: 2003-12-18 12:59:44

From a post by lev See Profile at /forum/remark,11277018~mode=flat#11277363

Open up a telnet session on port 110 to pop.sbcglobal.yahoo.com. Go to a command prompt and type:

TELNET pop.sbcglobal.yahoo.com 110 (or whatever format your OS requires for Telnet)

and enter the following:

USER youruserid@sbcglobal.net (or youruserid@ameritech.net depending on your account domain)
PASS your password

If it doesn't accept the password, change it through the main account's page at »sbc.yahoo.com.

If it does, type:

LIST

See if anything looks funky there.

RETR followed by a number will display a message. If you want to delete it, type DELE followed by that number.

QUIT should get you out of the session.

See if this gets you on the road.

by RadioDoc See Profile
last modified: 2004-09-08 14:22:27

said by sdonelan See Profile:

For most users, removing the port 25 filter should be the last choice. If you can't use the AT&T Yahoo SMTP server then here are your options:

1. Contact your mail hosting provider for information about using Port 587 for sending authenticated outgoing email. Since December 1998, Port 587 has been the Internet standard (RFC2476) port for authenticated email submission for mail clients and is supported by most major mail hosting providers.

2. Or contact your mail hosting provider for information about using other alternative access methods to connect to their mail server, such as VPN, Web mail or Outlook Web Access to send outgoing email.

3. Or change your email software to send outgoing mail messages through AT&T (SMTP) email servers, The AT&T (SMTP) server requires authentication using the same Master Account Member ID and password used for the POP server and PPPoE login, you are allowed to use other email domains for your email address.

Change only your Outgoing mail (SMTP) to use AT&T email servers.
Do not change your Incoming email server (POP3/IMAP).
An example of SMTP authentication settings


4. Or if none of the proceeding alternatives work, request removal of the Port 25 filter. Use the Abuse of Service Form to contact the AT&T Abuse team and choose the **Opt Out Port 25 under Abuse Type. Enter your Master Account Member id (also used for PPPoE Login) to opt-out. You don't need to enter your email address at the other mail hosting provider; the filter is based on your login ID only. After you receive a confirmation email to the Master Account Member ID (this sometimes takes 24-48 hours), you will need to logoff the network and turn off your DSL router/modem for 30 seconds to remove the filter.
An example of the Abuse Form


d_l See Profile advises:
Also as an alternative to port 587, some third-party email providers use port 465, the "designated" Secure SMTP port. AT&T Worldnet and AT&T Yahoo are examples.
NOTE:
To use Option 3 your AT&T Yahoo! DSL email must work. If you did not complete the Yahoo portion of AT&T Yahoo! DSL registration, your email may not be setup. If you can log on to www.sbc.yahoo.com please ignore this note.
If you cannot log on to att.yahoo.com please read this FAQ
How do I register a username and password for my new account?
Port 25 is not blocked; anything outbound on port 25 that is not destined for a AT&T Yahoo mail server is not routed past the Redback.

by RadioDoc See Profile edited by wayjac See Profile
last modified: 2008-03-16 18:20:42

If you think your account has had the evil Port 25 block applied and your external SMTP server does not seem to be there anymore then this little test will tell you what is what:

1) Open a command prompt. If you can't find the little sucker in Windows just hit "start", click on "run" and type cmd. If you are running Linux or a derivative, we'll just assume you already know how to run Telnet on a port other than 23.

2) In that command prompt "DOS box", type telnet mail.dslreports.com 25 which will result in one of two results:

a) NOT blocked:
The screen will clear and then you will see
220 mail.dslr.net ESMTP Postfix.
Type quit which will get you
221 Bye
Connection to host lost.


b) BLOCKED:
Connecting To mail.dslreports.com...Could not open connection to the host, on port 25: Connect failed


If you get "a)", then your mail server or client has issues other than a port block by SBCIS. If you get "b)" and need to use servers other than what SBC provides, see »AT&T Midwest/Ameritech FAQ »Here's what to do if port 25 is blocked for you.

by RadioDoc See Profile edited by lev See Profile
last modified: 2005-03-08 11:57:55