wow thank you so much, this did the job, as you can tell im totally new to this software and I wasn't aware of the security options I had to configure first.
It appear so be working fine now, thanks again :)
Hello.
2 days ago I had mercury configured and working properly and suddenly now as soon I start mercury.exe the program window goes completely white, stops responding and dramatically increasing in ram memory usage nonstop to the point I have to kill the process.
Im using it "embedded" on xampp 1.7.4 installed on a windows 2008 server computer.
any help is deeply appreciated.
Make sure no antivirus software is interfering with Mercury and remove any old files from the Queue and Scratch directories before starting the program. Check that the mercury.ini file isn't damaged. If there are incorrect settings we will need to see the contents of the mercury.ini file to comment on that. There has been many reports of flawed xampp installations, actually. Note that v4.6 is quite old, the current version of Mercury is 4.74.
/Rolf
[quote user="Rolf Lindby"]
Make sure no antivirus software is interfering with Mercury and remove any old files from the Queue and Scratch directories before starting the program. Check that the mercury.ini file isn't damaged. If there are incorrect settings we will need to see the contents of the mercury.ini file to comment on that. There has been many reports of flawed xampp installations, actually. Note that v4.6 is quite old, the current version of Mercury is 4.74.
/Rolf
[/quote]
Thanks for replying, as I was checking both folders you mention I noticed that the queue folder has nearly one million QIF files on it, is that normal? where did those come from?
Edit: I just noticed that each time I reopen mercury the number of files in that folder keeps increasing like crazy, could this be the reason?
QIF files stores information about failed delivery attempts. There is something very seriously wrong with your setup. Clear the Queue directory and post the contents of your mercury.ini file here (hide passwords if any but leave other information as is).
/Rolf
this is my mercury.ini file content:
# MERCURY.INI generated by Mercury Setup
#
#
# Sample Bindery Mode MERCURY.INI file (in fact, the one I use on
# my production server). This one implements most of the possible
# switches for each module, but you can edit it to do less if you
# wish. All the fields shown below are described in the file
# MGUIDE.HLP which is supplied in the Mercury archive.
#
# Anything after a '#' to the end of the line is a comment and
# is stripped out before parsing. Trailing and leading whitespace
# is also stripped before parsing. Many sample commands have been
# left in this file commented out for reference purposes.
#
[General]
myname: localhost # Canonical name for this server
timezone: +0000 # Time Zone to add to date fields
file_api: 1 # Use the file api instead of queues
mailqueue: C:\XAMPP\MERCURYMAIL\QUEUE # Where mail should be put for delivery
smtpqueue: C:\XAMPP\MERCURYMAIL\QUEUE # Where the SMTP client should look for mail
newmail_path: C:\XAMPP\MERCURYMAIL\MAIL\~N # Where to find the users' WinPMail mailboxes.
[Protocols]
MERCURYS.DLL
MERCURYP.DLL
MERCURYE.DLL
# MERCURYC.DLL
MERCURYD.DLL
# MERCURYH.DLL
# MERCURYF.DLL
# MERCURYW.DLL
# MERCURYX.DLL
MERCURYI.DLL
# MERCURYB.DLL
[Mercury]
failfile: C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Mercury\FAILURE.MER # Delivery failure notification template
confirmfile: C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Mercury\CONFIRM.MER # Delivery confirmation template
aliasfile: C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Mercury\ALIAS.MER # System-wide alias file
synfile: C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Mercury\SYNONYM.MER # User synonym database
listfile: C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Mercury\LISTS.MER # List of lists
logwidth: 30 # Width of address fields in logfile
retpath: 1 # Do/Don't use 'return-path' for errors
maxhops: 30 # Used to detect mailing loops
gullible: 0 # If NZ, don't validate 'From' fields
bitnethost: cunyvm.cuny.edu # Relay host for '.bitnet' rewrites
poll: 10 # Seconds between queue polling cycles
scratch: C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Scratch # Where we can write temp files
returnlines: 15 # How many lines of failed messages to return
postmaster: Admin # NetWare UIC of postmaster
broadcast: 1 # Yes, we want broadcast notifications, but
receipts: 0 # ... no broadcasts for receipt confirmations
PM_notify: 1 # Do/Don't send errors to the postmaster
change_owner: 1 # Change message ownership to recipient
auto_tzone: 1 # If NZ, obtain timezone information from OS
LogLevel: 15 # System message reporting level
LogMax: 100 # Maximum number of system messages to store
RetryPeriod: 30 # Period between job retries (minutes)
MaxRetries: 16 # Maximum number of times a job can fail
TwoPasses: 1 # If NZ, process submission queue in 2 passes
Autoaddress: 0 # If NZ, auto-generate user addresses based on name
Daily_exit: 0 # If NZ, auto-restart each day after maintenance
No_Areply: 0 # If NZ, disable automatic replies system-wide
Alt_Forward: 0 # If NZ, allow alternate forwarding specification
Maint_hour: 2 # Hour for daily maintenance (24-hour clock)
Maint_min: 0 # Minute for daily maintenance
Retry_Mode: 0 # If NZ, use progressive backoff for queue retries
Local_DSNs: 1 # If NZ generate Delivery Status for local users only
DSN_time1: 10800 # Seconds deferred before first DSN is sent
DSN_time2: 86400 # Seconds deferred before second DSN is sent
DSN_time3: 259200 # Seconds deferred before third DSN is sent
Host_in_title: 0 # If NZ, show hostname in system tray and taskbar
Lingering: 0 # Enable or disable 'lingering mailboxes'
Linger_Timeout: 60 # Seconds before a lingering mailbox is shut down
Alert_Host: notify.pmail.com # Host to check for licensee advisories
Alert_Interval: 720 # Frequency in minutes (min 240) for checks
Alert_Flags: 3 # Flags controlling advisory checks
[MercuryC]
# Session_logging: G:\ # Directory to write session transcripts
host: # mail mail host which relays for us
scratch: C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Mercury # Where we can write temp files
poll: 30 # Seconds between queue polling cycles
returnlines: 15 # How many lines of failed messages to return
failfile: C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Mercury\FAILURE.MER # Delivery failure template
esmtp: 1 # Yes, we want to use ESMTP extensions
[MercuryE]
Poll : 15
Timeout : 60
Nameservers : 208.67.222.222,208.67.220.220
Log_Verbose : 0
DNS_Timeout : 20
DNS_Retries : 4
Transcripts : 1
MaxThreads : 10
[MercuryD]
scratch : C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Mercury
# Timeout : 30
# Poll : 120 # How often to check hosts for new mail (seconds)
[MercuryS]
Debug : 1
Logfile : C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Logs\MERCURYS.LOG
Timeout : 30
Relay : 1
Strict_Relay : 0
Allow_Illegals : 0
SMTP_Authentication : 0
Compliance_Settings : 0
Maximum_Failed_Rcpts : 4
Max_Relay_Attempts : 4
SSL_Mode : 0
ST_Blacklisting : 288
No_VRFY : 0
SMTP_ConnFlags : 0
[MercuryP]
Scratch : C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Mercury
Stack : 32768
Mark_Read : 1
SSL_Mode : 0
Login_Disabled : 0
Timeout : 60
[MercuryX]
# Cmd_Delay: 10
# Cmd_Wait: 1
# IE4_Dialling: 0
# Use_ETRN: 1
# Clients_only: 1
# Sunday: 0800,1800,3,15,30,60
# Monday: 0830,2100,5,15,60,60
# Tuesday: 0830,2100,5,15,60,60
# Wednesday: 1500,1900,2,30,5,30
# Thursday: 0900,1900,2,30,0,0
# Friday: 0830,2100,5,15,60,60
# Saturday: 1031,1035,2,45,-1,0
# [Groups]
# testgroup : TESTGRP
[Domains]
localhost: localhost
localhost: localhost.net
localhost: localhost.org
localhost: localhost.com
localhost: wowimperio.com
[Maiser]
Maiser: Maiser # 'Username' of mail server account
Helpfile: C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Mercury\MAISER.HLP # Help sent on failed maiser requests
Lookupfile: C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Mercury\MAISER.LKP # Format file for the 'lookup' command
Send_dir: C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Mercury\SENDABLE # Directory for the 'send' command
Logfile: C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Logs\MAISER.LOG # Mail server log file
Notify: C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Mercury\TMP # Dir. for pending 'notify' commands
NoList: N # If 'Y', disable the 'list' command
Local_only: Y # If 'Y', local 'notify' commands only
[MercuryH]
Logfile : C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Logs\MERCURYH.LOG
# Addressbook : \\CLIO\SYS\SYSTEM\MERCURY\PH.PMR
# MOTD : \\CLIO\SYS\SYSTEM\MERCURY\PH-MOTD.TXT
# Administrator : postmaster@clio.pmail.gen.nz
Timeout : 30
[MercuryI]
Scratch : C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\SCRATCH
Timeout : 120
Server_Port : 143
Idle_Timeout : 1800
SSL_Mode : 0
Login_Disabled : 0
[MercuryB]
Scratch : C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\SCRATCH
# Logfile : o:\mail\tmp\mercuryb.log
Timeout : 120
Server_Port : 2224
# Session_logging : o:\mail\mercury\mblogs
# Session_logmode : 0
Idle_Timeout : 1800
# URL_Base : enter_your_domain_here
[Groups]
[Rewrite]
[Statistics]
StatFlags: 0 # Statistical reporting settings
STF_Hours: 24 # How often to write stat log files
STM_Hours: 24 # How often to e-mail stat log files
OK, massive problems, I'm afraid. It seems Mercury has been set to be an open relay, flooding the world with spam. So first correct this:
[MercuryS]
Relay : 1
Strict_Relay : 0
SMTP_Authentication : 0
Do at least set Relay to 0, do preferably set Strict_Relay to 1, consider setting SMTP_Authentication to 1.
After that you should enter some sensible domain data:
[General]
myname: localhost # Canonical name for this server
localhost isn't a suitable name for your server unless you only want to send mail to yourself. If you own the domain wowimperio.com that would be a good name to use.
[Domains]
localhost: localhost
localhost: localhost.net
localhost: localhost.org
localhost: localhost.comlocalhost: wowimperio.com
Unless you own the domains localhost.net, localhost.org and localhost.com please remove them from the list. Calling the server localhost is a bit silly but works. The first line should contain the actual hostname of the server though, i.e. localhost: my_server. The second line should be the public IP address that you use, i.e. localhost: [208.67.111.111]. If the server will be used by other computers in a local network you may want to enter the LAN IP address as well. Please refer to Mercury help or the PDF manual for more information about local domains.
[MercuryE]
Nameservers : 208.67.222.222,208.67.220.220
You only need to list name servers if Mercury for some reason can't get that information from Windows. It's OK to do it, though.
If you fix those things and clear the queue directory Mercury should work again. Your IP address may have been blacklisted as a spammer though, so check that for instance here:
http://www.mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx
/Rolf
