Hi Dion,

I was still under the assumption that you are receiving mail directly from the internet. To make things more clear, here are a few questions:
Are you recieving mail via internet or only form your webserver via LAN and via IMAP from LAN?
And you are sending out only with Mercury-C ?

If you are receiving mail only by LAN, you don't need to add TLS to Mercury-S and Mercury-I
That is for that part.

Now sending out from Mercury directly via File > send mail message
Which email address are you using there ? the postmaster default which is put in automatically or your actual email you got from your provider ?
What did you use before whe it was working? Or did you never use this before with the old system?

Is your provider receiving mail on port 25 and/or 587 ?

In regards to my testing link, that is only working if you receive mail with Mercury-S via internet and you have port-forwarded port 25. If that is not the case, there will never be a connection for the testing.

For your settings in Mercury-C, the video is too blurry. at least for me, to see what you have put in place.

Johannes

I am not able to send or receive mail at all. One thing I have never really understood is the mail.php configuration because it wasn't written by myself, it was downloaded from github. All I know is that when someone registers on my site it uses that file's configuration to send mail through Mercury which in turn is sent to my ISP who relays the mail. Well, I believe that is how it worked anyway. I always used $SMTPAuth = false; and $SMTPSecure = '0'; for normal connection. I was never sure if I needed to set this file to use TLS to work with Mercury for a secured connection and configure Mercury for TLS as well. I found little to no working examples to use.

My internet provider was receiving mail on port 25 but just over a month ago the connections started timing out when trying to send mail, it was like I was using the wrong username or password. They told me they still allow strait connections through port 25, but it no longer works. I tried SSL, TLS and strait plain text connections, all connections time out. Sorry for the poor quality video as I have only just installed OBS and have not set up anything on that yet, I have only just re-installed windows with no antivirus installed and just using the regular windows 11 defender firewall. Even disabling the firewall makes no difference. My router was setup from scratch too so to eliminate any bugs.
The whole system here is fresh out of the box basically, this was done to make sure there were no viruses, bugs or conflicts interfering with the mail server. Everything was working perfectly a month ago, it just suddenly stopped and started getting the Error FF queue job when trying to connect to my ISP.

I thought it was because my Mercury version was too old, so I updated it then thought my PHPMailer was too old (which both were really old versions) so they are now both updated to the latest versions. I am just at a loss, not really sure what to do now

Dion,

I noticed in your video that your install is an xampp install of Mercury, Was the original install as well an xampp install?

To be clear now, your instance of Mercury is to receive mail from your webform and send it off by smarthost through your provider. No direct receiving from the internet.

One question: would you be able to install Mercury directly and disable it at xampp ? This way we can make sure that there is no interfering with special settings inside of xampp. Otherwise it is like reading a glassball.

Johannes

It seems I am receiving mail from outside now, but still not able to relay through my ISP's SMTP server.
Interesting, on MercuryC config panel I entered my own domain name: smtp.aviandirectory.uk with connection type SSL encryption via STARTTLS and mail was being sent but for some reason it kept sending it over n aver like it was in a loop. Having said that, the mail never reached my hotmail account so I am not sure where those emails went lol

My first post is dated 6th August, it is now the 25th of August, but I have had this same issue now for over a month before I created the first post. I could really use some help here guys please. I am willing to allow remote assistance if needed, 'anything' to get this working.

I am able to receive mail but not send mail at all.

It is really frustrating because it was fine before then just stopped working for no reason at all.

As mentioned before, please provide your mercury.ini file (block out passwords and any other information that may not be public). If there are problems with Mercury settings we can probably identify them. If there are problems regarding other things like firewalls, ISP port blocking, or SMTP smarthost settings it's not necessarily something that we can help with, but a MercuryC session log can perhaps provide clues. Session logging should be switched off again after the test run.

I took your advice and have been trying to get it working using no encryption on port 25 again. Yes, my instance of Mercury is to receive mail from my webform and send it off by smarthost through my provider. Incoming mail can be received now. Here is a copy of my Mercury.ini file

#  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:    Administrator    # NetWare UIC of postmaster
broadcast:     1    # Yes, we want broadcast notifications, but
receipts:      0    # ... no broadcasts for receipt confirmations
PM_notify:     0    # 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
Fast_First_Retry: 0 # Expedited first retries (greylist mitigation)
Fast_First_Retry_Secs: 60  # Delay in seconds for expedited retries

[MercuryC]
Host : smtp.talktalkbusiness.net
Failfile : C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Mercury\FAILURE.MER
HELO : finchkeeper.com
Poll : 30
Scratch : C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Mercury
ReturnLines : 15
Timeout : 30
ESMTP : 1
SMTP_Username: username
SMTP_Password: pass
POP3_Auth : 0
POP3_Host : pop3.talktalkbusiness.net
Logfile : C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Mercury\GENERAL.MER
Log_Verbose : 0
Session_logging : C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Mercury\SESSIONS.MER
Session_logmode : 0

[MercuryE]
HELO : finchkeeoer.com
Session_logging : C:\XAMPP\MERCURYMAIL\LOGS
Session_logmode : 1
Poll : 15
Timeout : 60
Nameservers : 208.67.222.222,208.67.220.220
Logfile : C:\XAMPP\MERCURYMAIL\LOGS
Log_Verbose : 1
DNS_Timeout : 20
DNS_Retries : 4
Transcripts : 1
MaxThreads : 1

[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 : 0
Strict_Relay : 0
Interface : 
Allow_Illegals : 0
SMTP_Authentication : 0
Compliance_Settings : 216
Maximum_Failed_Rcpts : 4
Max_Relay_Attempts : 4
SSL_Mode : 0
SSL_Certfile : C:\xampp\apache\conf\ssl.crt\server.crt
ST_Blacklisting : 288
No_VRFY : 0
SMTP_ConnFlags : 0
SSLD_Port : 0
Compliance_Exceptions : 
Phish_Prot : 0

[MercuryP]
Scratch : C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Mercury
Stack : 32768
Interface : 127.0.0.1
Mark_Read : 1
POPAlias_File : 
SSL_Mode : 0
SSL_Certfile : C:\xampp\apache\conf\ssl.crt\server.crt
Login_Disabled : 0
UIDL_nul_list : 1
New_UIDs : 0
No_NUL_passwords : 1
SSLD_Port : 995
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: aviandirectory.uk
localhost: [127.0.0.1]
localhost: 192.168.1.2

[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
Logfile : C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Logs\imap
Timeout : 120
Server_Port : 143
SSL_Port: 993
Charset : ISO-8859-1
Interface : 127.0.0.1
Session_logging : C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Logs
Session_logmode : 1
Idle_Timeout : 1800
SSL_Mode : 0
SSL_Certfile : C:\xampp\apache\conf\ssl.crt\server.crt
Login_Disabled : 0
No_NUL_passwords : 1

[MercuryB]
Scratch : C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\SCRATCH
Timeout : 120
Server_Port : 2224
Idle_Timeout : 1800

[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

Here is my SESSION.LOG file

05:17:37.660: --- 26 Aug 2023, 5:17:37.660 ---
05:17:37.660: Connect to 'smtp.talktalkbusiness.net', timeout 30 seconds.
05:17:58.708: 15: Peer connect failure

Here is my MERCURY.LOG file after trying to send an email via webform.

T 20230826 051721 64e97cc2 Connection from 127.0.0.1
T 20230826 051721 64e97cc2 EHLO www.aviandirectory.uk
T 20230826 051721 64e97cc2 MAIL FROM:<noreply@aviandirectory.uk>
T 20230826 051721 64e97cc2 RCPT TO:<dion2u2002@hotmail.com>
T 20230826 051721 64e97cc2 DATA
T 20230826 051721 64e97cc2 DATA - 38 lines, 1427 bytes.
T 20230826 051721 64e97cc2 QUIT
T 20230826 051721 64e97cc2 Connection closed with 127.0.0.1, 0 sec. elapsed.

Assuming that outgoing mails are always coming from your webform with delivery through MercuryC, and incoming mails from the Internet are always collected by MercuryD (rather than received directly by MercuryS) settings in mercury.ini are acceptable.

Still there are a number of things to improve for active modules, even though it will have little impact on performance:
Set TwoPasses to 0
Change LogLevel to 25 (debug)
Create a dedicated Scratch directory for MercuryC: Scratch : C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\scratch\MercuryC
If you aren't using POP3 authentication for MercuryC there is no need to specify POP3_Host
Logfile should be a path with a filename, such as C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Logs\MercuryC~y-~m.log (for monthly log files)
Log_Verbose: we do want details here, so set this to 1
Session_logging should be a directory path, such as C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Sessions\MercuryC
MercuryD settings are expected to look something like this:

[MercuryD]
Scratch : C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Scratch\MercuryD
Timeout : 30
Poll : 300000
Session_logging : C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Sessions\MercuryD
Session_logmode : 0

MercuryP Scratch : C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Scratch\MercuryP
Logfile : C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL\Logs\MercuryP~y-~m.log (monthly log file)
Probably no need to restrict access to the loopback (127.0.0.1) interface only
Domains: Using localhost as domain name is rather silly but makes no difference as long as Mercury isn't directly exposed to the Internet. 92.168.1.2 should be [92.168.1.2]
MercuryI: Similar comments for filenames etc. as for MercuryP

That leaves us with the problem that connections to smtp.talktalkbusiness.net fails. To investigate this I would suggest that you start by opening a cmd window on the computer with Mercury and try to ping smtp.talktalkbusiness.net. If this works then move on to making a manual SMTP connection using a Telnet client or Putty: http://blog.shawnhyde.com/post/2023/01/06/how-to-use-putty-to-test-smtp-on-an-email-server

Depending on results it should be clearer what needs to be changed.

OK, I have made all those changes to the Mercury.ini file, Pinged smtp.talktalkbusiness.net and got the following results.

Setting environment for using XAMPP for Windows.
dion2@DION c:\xampp
# ping smtp.talktalkbusiness.net

Pinging smtp.talktalkbusiness.net [62.24.202.85] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 62.24.202.85: bytes=32 time=25ms TTL=250
Reply from 62.24.202.85: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=250
Reply from 62.24.202.85: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=250
Reply from 62.24.202.85: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=250

Ping statistics for 62.24.202.85:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 16ms, Maximum = 25ms, Average = 18ms

dion2@DION c:\xampp
#

Whilst messing about with the configuration settings yesterday I did manage to get an email to send to my hotmail account but would not send to my googlemail (obviously they don't like insecure emails). I also experimented with MercuryC and entered my own domain name in the smart host address i.e. smtp.aviandirectory.uk but would appear to send out mail but over n over again like in a loop however the mail was never received by my hotmail or googlemail account.

By the way, I don't understand the results of the ping, not sure if it connected or not.

Using Putty would not connect, I also used cmd as administrator then used telnet to connect with the following results.

Microsoft Telnet> set localecho
Local echo on
Microsoft Telnet> set logfile testing.txt
Log file : testing.txt
Client logging on
Microsoft Telnet> OPEN mail.talktalkbusiness.net 25
Connecting To mail.talktalkbusiness.net...Could not open connection to the host, on port 25: Connect failed
Microsoft Telnet> OPEN smtp.talktalkbusiness.net 25
Connecting To smtp.talktalkbusiness.net...Could not open connection to the host, on port 25: Connect failed
Microsoft Telnet>

Talktalkbusiness told me they still allow unsecure connections to their servers also their engineers told me the same thing, but I am having my doubts.

I was going to ask, can Mercury smart host send out mail without the use of talktalkbusiness?

OK, so we have some new information. The ping test shows that the address smtp.talktalkbusiness.net resolves correctly to an IP address (62.24.202.85), and that this server accepts ping connections and replies.

The Telnet sessions are less encouraging. Apparently something between Mercury and smtp.talktalkbusiness.net is blocking outgoing traffic on port 25. It could be a router or firewall, maybe even some anti-malware software, but most likely it's your Internet provider.

Unless it's possible to get an exception to this block the only way to connect to smtp.talktalkbusiness.net would be if they accept incoming traffic on another port.

Switching to MercuryE (direct delivery) or another smarthost will unfortunately not help until the port issue is solved.

Since installing a fresh copy of windows 11 last week, I didn't install any antivirus software and have allowed Mercury Mail through the firewall. I did disable my firewall which is windows defender to try but still the same results. I have no other blocking software installed, no malware, no adware. If I remember rightly, there is a site that allows for testing something like this. It will at the very least tell me if it can accept connections via port 25. From what I can see, this seems to be the heart of the issue (connecting to my ISP's smtp server).

To be fair, I have been using Mercury Mail for about 20 years, maybe longer and it has always been reliable for me although setting up was always a bit of a challenge. Once it works, it is great but when mail stops sending or receiving it is 99% of the time the ISP's fault.

I contacted GoDaddy to ask about my MX records and to check everything out for me, they told me it is all working 100%, they sent me a link so I can see it all working for myself. My ISP tell me they are not blocking port 25 and that I am not on any blocklist but talktalkbusiness (from my experience) are numpties, they don't know their left from their right. When I ask them for support they give me the same reply over n over again because they of their lack of knowledge.

Below are the settings for my smtp in the router.

I found this recent post on the community.talktalk.co.uk forum:

https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Full-Fibre/Outbound-emails-port-25/td-p/2984834

The talktalkbusiness tech team said in a private message and over the phone that they still allow unencrypted connections on port 25, but I think they have stopped it personally. This is why I was trying to setup using SSL/TLS or STARTTLS.
I was meaning to ask for some time, in the php.ini file in the directory PHP there is a reference to the domain name and port.

[mail function]
; For Win32 only.
; http://php.net/smtp
SMTP=localhost
; http://php.net/smtp-port
smtp_port=25

To use secure connection, will I need to alter this? Or leave it as it is?
I'd like to try to get SSL/TLS or STARTTLS working.

To help people helping me here are my GoDaddy settings.

Maybe there is something wrong or missing on there?

php settings are for communicating locally on your computer only. No changes required.

DNS settings at GoDaddy need attention. MX records point to smtp.aviandirectory.uk and mail.aviandirectory.uk, but those hosts are not defined (missing A records). You should probably at least add an SPF record as well. See test results at https://mxtoolbox.com/emailhealth/aviandirectory.uk/ .

I have to be honest, I have no idea how to set any of that up properly to work with Mercury. Are there any examples or guides? This part definitely seems to be the root of the problem as mxtoolbox reports several errors which I have no idea how to resolve.

Back again after a long battle with configurations. These are a couple of screenshots of reports from mxtoolbox and luxsci.

With my limited knowledge, this is probably the best I can do so far. Connection still times out though.

I tried to setup DKIM but could not find where to enter the info in Mercury, not sure Mercury supports DKIM?

If anything, at least I am slowly progressing, this is really a hard battle and I really appreciate all the help you guys have offered

Dion,

how may Mercury setups do you have?

As far as I understand, you are only running one instance of Mercury as your mailserver (MX). According to your screen shot, you have now 2, smtp.aviendirectory.uk and mail.aviendirectory.uk

And if you have only one instance of Mercury for you as your mailserver (MX) please setup only one dns MX-record with corresponding DNS A-record. Your naming can be mail.... or smtp....
And in Mercury-S, Mercury-C and in the "name of the system" (General configuration and local domains) enter such name.

This way, Mercury-S announces itself with the reflecting DNS MX record and as well Mercury-C when talking to the smart host.

Your smart host is blocking port 25, did you try to send over port 587 with username & password?

Johannes