I get these addresses as the 3 first mail handlers for gmail.com:

A-record for gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com:    IP address = 173.194.71.27

A-record for alt1.gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com:    IP address = 173.194.64.27

A-record for alt2.gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com:    IP address = 74.125.193.27 

Maybe one of your name servers has some old records cached that aren't valid any more? 

I have a Mercury server that has been up and running since 2009.  It was using MercuryC until a few days ago when our ISP changed something and we can't seem to log onto the account they gave us.  So, I switched over to MercuryE.  The problem is some of our staff are able to access their mailboxes and send mail and others cannot.  When trying to log onto the POP server I get a time out error that I have exceeded 300 seconds do I want to wait.  I can send SMTP mail through the box with no issues.  I have reset passwords, checked to make sure their IP addresses were allowed under the POP connections all to no avail.  Does anyone have any suggestion of what my problem may be?

Thanks in advance!

If you can send messages to external addresses MercuryE should be OK. Switching between MercuryC and MercuryE will not in any way change the way the server modules MercuryP and MercuryS work. Make sure there hasn't been any changes in the settings for those two modules, though. If you post the contents of your mercury.ini file (with passwords removed, if any, but no other changes) we can perhaps help to see if there are any obvious problems.

Otherwise the best way to find out why other users can't access their POP3 mailboxes or send mail is to temporarily switch on session logging in MercuryP and MercuryS to see exactly what is sent and received from the server. 

Thanks for the help.  Below is my Mercury.ini file.  Any advice will be great!

#  MERCURY.INI generated by Mercury Setup
#
#
#  Sample Bindery Mode / Standalone Mode MERCURY.INI file.
#  This sample file implements most of the possible switches for each
#  module, but you can edit it to do less if you wish.
#
#  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.
#
#  Note that in general, manual modification of this file is NOT
#  RECOMMENDED - use the Mercury "Configuration" menu to change the
#  program's settings wherever possible.
#

[General]
myname:          neocap.org    # Canonical name for this server
timezone:        -0500    # Time Zone to add to date fields
file_api:        1    # Use the file api instead of queues
mailqueue:       C:\MERCURY\QUEUE    # Where mail should be put for delivery
smtpqueue:       C:\MERCURY\QUEUE    # Where the SMTP client should look for mail
newmail_path:    C:\PMAIL\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:\MERCURY\Mercury\FAILURE.MER    # Delivery failure notification template
confirmfile:   C:\MERCURY\Mercury\CONFIRM.MER    # Delivery confirmation template
aliasfile:     C:\MERCURY\Mercury\ALIAS.MER    # System-wide alias file
synfile:       C:\MERCURY\Mercury\SYNONYM.MER    # User synonym database
listfile:      C:\MERCURY\Mercury\LISTS.MER    # List of lists
logfile:       C:\MERCURY\Logs\Core\~y-~m-~d.log    # Traffic logging file
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
poll:          10   # Seconds between queue polling cycles
scratch:       C:\MERCURY\Scratch    # Where we can write temp files
returnlines:   15    # How many lines of failed messages to return
postmaster:    rblower    # 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:   1    # 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:   -121    # 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:   7    # Flags controlling advisory checks
Alert_Users:   r.blower@neocap.org    # Local users to receive advisories

[MercuryC]
Host : smtp.centurylink.net
Failfile : C:\MERCURY\Mercury\FAILURE.MER
Poll : 30
Scratch : C:\MERCURY\scratch
ReturnLines : 15
Timeout : 30
ESMTP : 1
SMTP_Username: xxx Removed XXX
SMTP_Password: XXX Removed XXX
POP3_Auth : 0
Logfile : C:\MERCURY\Logs\MercuryC\~y-~m-~d.log
Log_Verbose : 0
Session_logging : C:\MERCURY\Sessions\MercuryC
Session_logmode : 1

[MercuryE]
HELO : mail.neocap.org
Session_logging : C:\MERCURY\Sessions\MercuryE
Session_logmode : 0
Poll : 30
Timeout : 60
Nameservers : 205.244.194.36, 204.117.214.10, 8.8.8.8, 192.168.109.5
Logfile : C:\MERCURY\Logs\MercuryE\~y-~m-~d.log
Log_Verbose : 0
DNS_Timeout : 20
DNS_Retries : 4
Transcripts : 1
MaxThreads : 10

[MercuryD]
Scratch : C:\MERCURY\Scratch\MercuryD
Timeout : 30
Poll : 30
Session_logging : C:\MERCURY\Sessions\MercuryD
Session_logmode : 0

[MercuryS]
Debug : 1
Logfile : C:\MERCURY\Logs\MercuryS\~y-~m-~d.log
Timeout : 30
Relay : 0
Strict_Relay : 0
Allow_Illegals : 1
SMTP_Authentication : 0
Auth_File : smtpauth
Killfile : KillFile
Session_logging : C:\MERCURY\Sessions\MercuryS
Session_logmode : 0
Compliance_Settings : 488
Maximum_Failed_Rcpts : 6
Max_Relay_Attempts : 3
SSL_Mode : 0
SSL_Certfile : C:\MERCURY\cert.txt
ST_Blacklisting : 288
No_VRFY : 1
SMTP_ConnFlags : 0
Compliance_Exceptions : smtpExcp

[MercuryP]
Scratch : C:\MERCURY\Scratch\MercuryP
Logfile : C:\MERCURY\Logs\MercuryP\~y-~m-~d.log
Stack : 32768
Mark_Read : 1
SSL_Mode : 0
SSL_Certfile : C:\MERCURY\cert.txt
Login_Disabled : 0
UIDL_nul_list : 1
New_UIDs : 1
No_NUL_passwords : 0
Session_logging : C:\MERCURY\Sessions\MercuryP
Session_logmode : 1
Timeout : 600

[MercuryX]
Drain_queues: 1
# 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]
n.neocap.co.trumbull.oh.us: neocap.org
n.neocap.co.trumbull.oh.us: [69.34.18.154]
n: neocap.org


[Maiser]
Maiser:          Maiser   # 'Username' of mail server account
Helpfile:        C:\MERCURY\Mercury\MAISER.HLP   # Help sent on failed maiser requests
Lookupfile:      C:\MERCURY\Mercury\MAISER.LKP   # Format file for the 'lookup' command
Send_dir:        C:\MERCURY\Mercury\SENDABLE   # Directory for the 'send' command
Logfile:         C:\MERCURY\Logs\Maiser\~y-~m-~d.LOG   # Mail server log file
Notify:          C:\MERCURY\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]
Addressbook : C:\PMAIL\Programs\personal.pmr
Logfile : C:\MERCURY\Logs\MercuryH\~y-~m-~d.log
Administrator : rblower@neocap.org
Timeout : 30

[MercuryI]
Scratch : C:\MERCURY\Scratch\MercuryI
Logfile : C:\MERCURY\Logs\MercuryI\~y-~m-~d.log
Timeout : 120
Server_Port : 143
SSL_Port: 993
Charset : ISO-8859-1
Session_logging : C:\MERCURY\Sessions\MercuryI
Session_logmode : 0
Idle_Timeout : 1800
SSL_Mode : 1
SSL_Certfile : C:\MERCURY\cert.txt
Login_Disabled : 0
No_NUL_passwords : 1

[MercuryB]
Scratch : C:\MERCURY\Scratch\MercuryB
Logfile : C:\MERCURY\Logs\MercuryB\~y-~m-~d.log
Timeout : 120
Server_Port : 80
Session_logging : C:\MERCURY\Sessions\MercuryB
Session_logmode : 0
Idle_Timeout : 1800
URL_Base : neocap.org
SSL_Mode : 1
SSL_Certfile : C:\MERCURY\cert.txt
Alt_Server_Port : 443

[Groups]

[Rewrite]

[Statistics]
StatFlags:    3  # Statistical reporting settings
StatFiles:    C:\MAILSTATS  # Directory to write stat log files
StatMail:     t.williams@neocap.org  # Address to send stat log files
STF_Hours:    24  # How often to write stat log files
STM_Hours:    24  # How often to e-mail stat log files

 

Where I am getting hung up at is the POP3 Authorization process.  It will sit for 300 sec. and then time out.  I know I am using the correct username and password.  Is there a possibility of a corrupt file somewhere in Mercury or the PMAIL mail file?  Also, when I look at the POP3 window in Mercury I see my static ip address and it says not-logged-in. 

Here is some more information from the MercP Session capture.  It doesn't seem as if I ever get to the "Ok Welcome" part of the message retrieval.

14:20:10.343: Connection from 192.168.109.13, Wed Jan 15 14:20:10 2014
14:20:10.421: << +OK <14751406.53759@neocap.org>, POP3 server ready.<cr><lf>
14:20:10.437: >> USER rblower<cr><lf>
14:20:10.437: << +OK rblower is known here.<cr><lf>
14:20:10.437: >> PASS ***Removed***<cr><lf>
 

 This is another capture of a different user who cannot get their email.  This is always the same message except sometimes it gets the socket error sometimes it doesn't.

09:09:41.812: Connection from 192.168.109.11, Wed Jan 15 09:09:41 2014
09:09:43.687: << +OK <50924578.15841@neocap.org>, POP3 server ready.<cr><lf>
09:09:43.687: >> USER twilliams<cr><lf>
09:09:43.687: << +OK twilliams is known here.<cr><lf>
09:09:43.687: >> PASS ***Removed***<cr><lf>
09:23:53.875: << +OK Welcome! 9479 messages (216194381 bytes)<cr><lf>
09:23:53.875: 9: Socket write error 10054 (connection aborted by remote host)
09:23:53.875: 7: Socket read error 10054 (connection aborted by remote host)
09:23:53.921: --- Connection closed normally at Wed Jan 15 09:23:53 2014. ---

0:23:39.328: Connection from 192.168.109.11, Wed Jan 15 10:23:39 2014
10:23:41.671: << +OK <561656.6875@neocap.org>, POP3 server ready.<cr><lf>
10:23:41.703: >> CAPA<cr><lf>
10:23:41.703: << +OK Capability list follows<cr><lf>
10:23:41.703: << USER<cr><lf>
10:23:41.703: << TOP<cr><lf>
10:23:41.703: << UIDL<cr><lf>
10:23:41.703: << EXPIRE NEVER<cr><lf>
10:23:41.703: << .<cr><lf>
10:23:41.703: >> USER twilliams<cr><lf>
10:23:41.718: << +OK twilliams is known here.<cr><lf>
10:23:41.718: >> PASS ***Removed***@<cr><lf>
11:29:52.484: << +OK Welcome! 9483 messages (216249766 bytes)<cr><lf>
11:29:58.109: --- Connection closed normally at Wed Jan 15 11:29:57 2014. ---

One more piece of information.  I do have a Microsoft SBS 2011 on the network.  I has exchanged installed but no appliance is pointing email to it.  The network has been like this for almost a year with no problems. 

There are no major problems in the settings, but maybe room for some small improvements:

- Unless you actually need MercuryX it's better to disable it.

- 1 minute is a very short RetryPeriod. Default seems to be 30 minutes, we use 15 minutes.

- Alert_Users should be a local username, not an email address.

- MercuryE timeout can be increased a lot, we use 300.

- MercuryS timeout can be increased a bit, we use 60.

- Strict_Relay : 1 is strongly recommended if MercuryS is open from the Internet.

- MercuryP timeout is usually around 60.

- Local domains:  n: neocap.org is not needed, but you could consider adding local IP address and hostname.

It appears that Mercury has problems to access the mailbox directories for users. Part of the problem could be the amount of messages in the mailbox, but unless system resources are very limited I can't see why it should take 14 minutes to parse. Something seems to be in the way, maybe an antivirus program or some hardware issue.

Having Exchange running on another server in the local network shouldn't interfere with Mercury at all.

Thanks.  I tried to access the mailbox with PMAIL and I got this message:

[*] Connection established to 192.168.109.4
>> 0052 +OK <1661828.17033@neocap.org>, POP3 server ready.
<< 0014 USER rblower
>> 0028 +OK rblower is known here.
<< 0015 PASS XXXXXXXX
8: Socket read timeout.
 

What does the socket read timeout mean?

"Socket read timeout" is an error message indicating that there was no network response within the expected time. In this case the reason for that would seem to be that it takes an extraordinarily long time to parse the contents of the mailbox.

Problem solved.  I had too many emails in my mailboxes due to the "leave a copy on server" checked.  As soon as I cleared out 25,000 emails it started working like a charm! 

 I really deserve a Dinozo for that move!  (NCIS reference for those of you who get it.) 

[quote user="cynist"]

09:09:43.687: << +OK twilliams is known here.<cr><lf>
09:09:43.687: >> PASS ***Removed***<cr><lf>
09:23:53.875: << +OK Welcome! 9479 messages (216194381 bytes)<cr><lf>  <--- 14 minutes!
09:23:53.875: 9: Socket write error 10054 (connection aborted by remote host)

10:23:41.718: << +OK twilliams is known here.<cr><lf>
10:23:41.718: >> PASS ***Removed***@<cr><lf>
11:29:52.484: << +OK Welcome! 9483 messages (216249766 bytes)<cr><lf>  <--- 1 HOUR 6 mins!!!
11:29:58.109: --- Connection closed normally at Wed Jan 15 11:29:57 2014. ---

[/quote]

Your server seems to be struggling ... how many users with BIG mailboxes?

So, I thought I had the problem solved.  Everything seemed to be working fine for a week.  I came into work this morning and none of my SMTP mail is being sent out.  My session log for MercuryE is:

11:42:44.000: --- Mon Jan 27 11:42:44 2014 ---
11:42:44.000: Connect to '74.125.142.26', timeout 60.
11:43:06.000: 15: Peer connect failure

I have no idea what this means.  I'm getting local mail behind my firewall but nothing can get out to the DNS servers it seems.  I have no restriction from my LAN to my WAN so I don't think the firewall is blocking anything.  However, when I do a packet capture it just says the status is "DROPPED".  Any ideas why MercuryE would just stop working?

 Can someone please explain to me what the difference between MercuryS and MercuryE?

I did fix the large email box problem.  I had many mailbox users with large email boxes.  Now I have different problems.

MercuryS is the SMTP server module, for incoming messages to your server. MercuryE is the SMTP client module, for outgoing messages from your server.

Anyway, try increasing the MercuryE timeout as I suggested in a previous post! 

[quote user="Rolf Lindby"]

MercuryS is the SMTP server module, for incoming messages to your server. MercuryE is the SMTP client module, for outgoing messages from your server.

Anyway, try increasing the MercuryE timeout as I suggested in a previous post! 

[/quote]

I have made all of your recommended changes except I missed changing the retries from 1 minute to 15 minutes.  I've since changed that.

Last week everything was working fine.  This morning MercuryE stopped working.  This is all I get now over and over with every IP address the server tries to contact:

16:19:44: processing job MO000004
Resolved MX for 'gmail.com' to 74.125.142.27
Connecting to 173.194.78.27
Connection error.
Attempting connection to alternate, 74.125.142.27
Connection error on alternate.
Attempting connection to alternate, 173.194.68.27
Connection error on alternate.
Attempting connection to alternate, 173.194.75.27
Connection error on alternate.

Session is still same:

16:27:39.828: --- Mon Jan 27 16:27:39 2014 ---
16:27:39.828: Connect to '173.194.78.27', timeout 300.
16:28:00.812: 15: Peer connect failure