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twixt
join:2004-06-27
North Vancouver, BC

twixt

Member

Scan to Email problem resolved

Hi, All. Just a heads-up.

2 days ago, one of my Clients lost their ability to send a PDF file of a Scan on their Standalone Multi-Function Network Printer (Magicolor 2490MF) to their Shaw Email account.

All had worked fine for over 6 months previous - no changes were made to the Client's system-configuration at the time the problem showed up.

After much thrashing about, including finger-pointing between Shaw, D-Link (router manufacturer) and Konica-Minolta (printer manufacturer) - the problem was finally localized to the IP address for the target SMTP Server in the hardware configuration for the Printer - which had worked flawlessly up to that point for years and years and years.

Now, the thing that made this particularly annoying was I had suspected a change in the Shaw operating-configuration from the very beginning of the incident. However, when I called Shaw Technical Support - there was absolutely nothing they could tell me about the problem. According to the Shaw Technical Support guy I was dealing with, Shaw were "fully functional, all Systems operating normally".

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Furthermore, to add insult to injury, Shaw has not downed the particular SMTP Server at the IP address originally configured by Minolta when the MFP was commissioned. The Server responds quite readily to a ping. It just won't handshake and allow SMTP data transfer.

The Printer has built-in verification which checks to see whether the target IP address for the SMTP Server in the Printer Configuration is active or not. The target IP address passed that test. However, there was still no data transfer - just an eventual timeout with a cryptic error code in the transfer report from the Printer with an error saying "SMTP Disconnect". Thanks Konica-Minolta - that's extremely helpful.

Note: Yes there was a rather sardonic tone to that last sentence... Don't you think so too?

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Despite a reasonably thorough investigation, I could not find any record in amongst Shaw's technical information on the Shaw website (or in the Shaw FAQ on BBR) - as to the IP addresses of Shaw's SMTP Servers. So, I ended up doing an NSLookup on the FQDN for the SMTP Server closest to my client. That returned two authoritive IP addresses.

The second IP address was dead as a doornail - so much for the sanctity and accuracy of Shaw's DNS results - and the 2490MF quite properly said there was no SMTP Server at that address.

The first IP address on the NSLookup list worked fine - and my Client now has their Scan-to-Email working properly again.

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The annoying thing about this rather-typical-for-Shaw clusterfark is the usual complaint - there was absolutely no information forthcoming from Shaw about the fact they downed that particular SMTP App - but left the Server itself still active - nor were Shaw Technical Support informed about the status and/or current-and-active IP addresses for their SMTP Server Farm.

Furthermore, the Tech Support Rep I dealt with fobbed me off to D-Link (usual finger-pointing nonsense) with some bafflegab about "Port Forwarding" - which the D-Link Support Rep firmly countermanded (and quite correctly so) since this was a standalone device with absolutely no "executable" to name on a PC at all! (note standalone - I can't tell you how many times I had to repeat that - and they still didn't get it...)

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All in all, a thoroughly annoying trip through incompetenceville - which my Client suffered through no fault of his own. To say I'm less than impressed with Shaw Support's technical competence is a rather massive understatement. :-(

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Note to Shaw: Get this sorted. Get the info made readily available. If you're really smart - you'll have a Status Page available which shows which SMTP Servers are active and which are "broken". This will save all of us who thrash about trying to get your mail-service working properly - an immense amount of time and energy trying to do the Vulcan-mind-meld with your NOC operators - in order to find out what's actually going on. Forcing your users to stumble around in the dark and feeding us BS is not the way to run a "supposedly competent" Communications Company.

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Results please. You know, those things that aren't hype and actually work in the real world...

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kevinds
Premium Member
join:2003-05-01
Calgary, AB

kevinds

Premium Member

Just to make sure I understood that correctly,

You hard-coded the SMTP IP address into your printer, instead of the FQDN, and that IP address stopped working?

Which IP?

SMTPisFINE
@shawcable.net

SMTPisFINE to twixt

Anon

to twixt
Shawmail.**.shawcable.net

Replace ** with VC, LB, CG, Wp etc etc etc. Fairly simple issue to fix in a few seconds!

kevinds
Premium Member
join:2003-05-01
Calgary, AB

kevinds

Premium Member

As far as I can tell, all the 'cities' go to the same servers now, they aren't seperate anymore.

rustydusty
join:2009-09-29
Red Deer County, AB

rustydusty to twixt

Member

to twixt
If you we're using an ip instead of fqdn that is your own fault. A simple google search for shaw smtp would have saved you hours of time. Anyone with a technical background knows this. By saying shaw needs to have a status page for smtp is crazy. They need outage status well before an smtp one. You need to do more research before taking on anything technical again.

kevinds
Premium Member
join:2003-05-01
Calgary, AB

1 edit

kevinds

Premium Member

That is part of the idea with FQDN isn't it?

A server goes down (or IP reused for something else), take it's A record away and the traffic goes elsewhere.

rustydusty
join:2009-09-29
Red Deer County, AB

rustydusty to twixt

Member

to twixt
Exactly.
AnonShawUser
join:2006-06-17
Calgary, AB

AnonShawUser to twixt

Member

to twixt
As others have said... your client had the IP hardcoded, instead of using FQDN. So, you are quite right in saying your client had quite the time dealing with incompetency. Problem is, it lied fully with whoever set up the printer to an IP, instead of to the domain. Routing changes. Make this lesson 1 of "why won't my network stuff work!" and then move on to lesson 2 "Have you tried turning it off and on again?"
twixt
join:2004-06-27
North Vancouver, BC

twixt

Member

It would be interesting if those of you who suggested using a FQDN had bothered to go and check the manual on the particular Printer model I mentioned in my originating post - before complaining. The manual is available online, easily found with google.

"Professionals" indeed............

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When all else fails, read the instructions.

kevinds
Premium Member
join:2003-05-01
Calgary, AB

2 edits

kevinds

Premium Member

»printer.konicaminolta.ne ··· er_j.pdf

Page 34
quote:
3 SMTP SERVER Type in the IP address or host name for the SMTP
server. A maximum of 64 characters can be entered.

mail.shawcable.com is well under 64 characters