The offline problem is probably due to a bug in MercuryX. Disable that module unless you actually need to use it. If you use it please install this patch:

http://community.pmail.com/files/folders/patches/entry24194.aspx

/Rolf 

I am running Mercury on XAMPP to test the automated emails on my site. I set up Mercury last night, and after a couple of hours working at it I finally got it working - I was able to send test mail through Outlook Express and also through a test page on my site. After I got it working, I powered down my computer for a break, thinking it was all taken care of. When I came back to test the automated mail on my actual site pages it had stopped working, and I was getting the "SMTP port 25" message. I went back to both the test page and Outlook, and I'm getting the same thing.

Nothing had changed other than the power-down, and I have tried several times with several different configurations. I have changed the ports to 587 & 995, as well as other ports which I know to be open. Nothing. I have tried Outlook with exsisting email addresses (going through 587 & 995) and that works fine.

I should note that the email addresses being used are @localhost only - I'm not trying to contact "real" addresses outside of my network. I'm not even working outside of my computer - I'm just testing on this machine. I'm not sure if my ISP is blocking the ports, but as I say I have tried dozens of other ports and I'm not sure that matters anyway since I'm just working internally at the moment.

 I'm really stuck here and frustrated, even more so since I already had it working. Any help might just save my sanity.

If you can give us a little more to work with we'll see what we can figure out. The default configuration for Mercury in XAMPP can be rather strange, so please post your mercury.ini file (leave everything as it is that isn't a password). Then please make a new test run and include any error messages you get and the relevant entries from Mercury's log files. We need to track step by step what is happening.

/Rolf 

thanks rolf

 so here's the mercury.ini file:

#  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:          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]
C:\xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYS.DLL
C:\xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYP.DLL
C:\xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYE.DLL
# C:\xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYC.DLL
C:\xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYD.DLL
C:\xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYH.DLL
C:\xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYF.DLL
C:\xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYW.DLL
C:\xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYX.DLL
C:\xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYI.DLL
C:\xampp\MercuryMail\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
logfile:       C:\xampp\MercuryMail\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:\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]
Host:             # mail mail host which relays for us
Failfile : C:\xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURY\failure.mer
Poll : 30
Scratch : C:\xampp\MercuryMail\SCRATCH
ReturnLines : 15
Timeout : 30
ESMTP : 1
POP3_Auth : 0
Logfile : C:\xampp\MercuryMail\LOGS\MERCURYC\~y-~m-~d.log
Log_Verbose : 0
Session_logging : C:\xampp\MercuryMail\SESSIONS\MERCURYC
Session_logmode : 0

[MercuryE]
HELO : 127.0.0.1
Session_logging : C:\xampp\MercuryMail\SESSIONS\MERCURYE
Session_logmode : 0
Poll : 15
Timeout : 60
Nameservers : 127.0.0.1
Logfile : C:\xampp\MercuryMail\LOGS\MERCURYE\~y-~m-~d.log
Log_Verbose : 0
DNS_Timeout : 20
DNS_Retries : 4
Transcripts : 1
MaxThreads : 10

[MercuryD]
Scratch : C:\xampp\MercuryMail\SCRATCH\MERCURYD
Timeout : 30
Poll : 120
Session_logging : C:\xampp\MercuryMail\SESSIONS\MERCURYD
Session_logmode : 0

[MercuryS]
Debug : 1
HELO : 127.0.0.1
Logfile : C:\xampp\MercuryMail\LOGS\MERCURYS\~y-~m-~d.log
Timeout : 30
Relay : 0
Strict_Relay : 0
Server_Port : 587
Interface : 127.0.0.1
Allow_Illegals : 0
SMTP_Authentication : 0
Session_logging : C:\xampp\MercuryMail\ESSIONS\MERCURYS
Session_logmode : 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\SCRATCH\MercuryP
Logfile : C:\xampp\MercuryMail\LOGS\MERCURYP\~y-~m-~d.log
Stack : 32768
Interface : 127.0.0.1
Mark_Read : 1
Server_Port: 995
SSL_Mode : 0
Login_Disabled : 0
UIDL_nul_list : 1
New_UIDs : 1
No_NUL_passwords : 1
Session_logging : C:\xampp\MercuryMail\SESSIONS\MERCURYP
Session_logmode : 0
Timeout : 60

[MercuryX]
Cmd_Wait: 1
IE4_Dialling: 0
Use_ETRN: 0
Clients_only: 0
Drain_queues: 1
Sunday: 0000,0000,0,0,0,0
Monday: 0000,0000,0,0,0,0
Tuesday: 0000,0000,0,0,0,0
Wednesday: 0000,0000,0,0,0,0
Thursday: 0000,0000,0,0,0,0
Friday: 0000,0000,0,0,0,0
Saturday: 0000,0000,0,0,0,0

[Domains]
localhost: localhost

[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\~y-~m-~d.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\~y-~m-~d.log
Timeout : 30

[MercuryI]
Scratch : C:\xampp\MercuryMail\SCRATCH\MERCURYI
Logfile : C:\xampp\MercuryMail\LOGS\MERCURYI\~y-~m-~d.log
Timeout : 120
Server_Port : 143
Charset : ISO-8859-1
Session_logging : C:\xampp\MercuryMail\SESSIONS\MERCURYI
Session_logmode : 0
Idle_Timeout : 1800
SSL_Mode : 0
Login_Disabled : 0
No_NUL_passwords : 1

[MercuryB]
Scratch : C:\xampp\MercuryMail\SCRATCH\MERCURYB
Logfile : C:\xampp\MercuryMail\LOGS\MERCURYB\~y-~m-~d.log
Timeout : 120
Server_Port : 2224
Session_logging : C:\xampp\MercuryMail\SESSIONS\MERCURYB
Session_logmode : 0
Idle_Timeout : 1800
SSL_Mode : 0
Alt_Server_Port : 443

[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

I only enabled general logging for the smtp/pop3 modules this afternoon, but I cannot seem to find any useful files. The only thing I see is in the MercuryS log folder, and that appears to be a record of only the successfully posted messages (from both Outlook and the test page) and none of the six hundred three failed attempts. Still, for what it's worth, here it is:

T 20100817 224940 4c6afc39 Connection from 127.0.0.1
T 20100817 224940 4c6afc39 HELO WeezyTorbot
T 20100817 224940 4c6afc39 MAIL FROM: <jamestest2@localhost.com>
T 20100817 224940 4c6afc39 RCPT TO: <jamestest1@localhost.com>
T 20100817 224940 4c6afc39 DATA
T 20100817 224940 4c6afc39 DATA - 38 lines, 1189 bytes.
T 20100817 224940 4c6afc39 QUIT
T 20100817 224940 4c6afc39 Connection closed with 127.0.0.1, 0 sec. elapsed.
T 20100817 225010 4c6afc3a Connection from 127.0.0.1
T 20100817 225010 4c6afc3a HELO WeezyTorbot
T 20100817 225010 4c6afc3a MAIL FROM: <jamestest2@localhost.com>
T 20100817 225010 4c6afc3a RCPT TO: <jamestest2@localhost.com>
T 20100817 225010 4c6afc3a DATA
T 20100817 225010 4c6afc3a DATA - 68 lines, 2195 bytes.
T 20100817 225010 4c6afc3a QUIT
T 20100817 225010 4c6afc3a Connection closed with 127.0.0.1, 0 sec. elapsed.
T 20100817 225201 4c6afc3b Connection from 127.0.0.1
T 20100817 225201 4c6afc3b EHLO WeezyTorbot
T 20100817 225201 4c6afc3b MAIL FROM: <jamestest2@localhost.com>
T 20100817 225201 4c6afc3b RCPT TO: <jamestest1@localhost.com>
T 20100817 225201 4c6afc3b DATA
T 20100817 225201 4c6afc3b DATA - 38 lines, 1190 bytes.
T 20100817 225201 4c6afc3b QUIT
T 20100817 225201 4c6afc3b Connection closed with 127.0.0.1, 0 sec. elapsed.
T 20100817 225329 4c6afc3c Connection from 127.0.0.1
T 20100817 225329 4c6afc3c HELO WeezyTorbot
T 20100817 225329 4c6afc3c MAIL FROM: <jamestest1@localhost.com>
T 20100817 225329 4c6afc3c RCPT TO: <jamestest2@localhost.com>
T 20100817 225329 4c6afc3c DATA
T 20100817 225329 4c6afc3c DATA - 38 lines, 1205 bytes.
T 20100817 225329 4c6afc3c QUIT
T 20100817 225329 4c6afc3c Connection closed with 127.0.0.1, 0 sec. elapsed.
T 20100817 225441 4c6afc3d Connection from 127.0.0.1
T 20100817 225441 4c6afc3d HELO WeezyTorbot
T 20100817 225441 4c6afc3d MAIL FROM:<sender@example.com>
T 20100817 225441 4c6afc3d RCPT TO:<jamestest1@localhost.com>
T 20100817 225441 4c6afc3d DATA
T 20100817 225442 4c6afc3d DATA - 16 lines, 368 bytes.
T 20100817 225442 4c6afc3d QUIT
T 20100817 225442 4c6afc3d Connection closed with 127.0.0.1, 1 sec. elapsed.
T 20100817 225528 4c6afc3e Connection from 127.0.0.1
T 20100817 225528 4c6afc3e HELO WeezyTorbot
T 20100817 225528 4c6afc3e MAIL FROM:<sender@example.com>
T 20100817 225528 4c6afc3e RCPT TO:<jamestest1@localhost>
T 20100817 225528 4c6afc3e DATA
T 20100817 225528 4c6afc3e DATA - 16 lines, 364 bytes.
T 20100817 225528 4c6afc3e QUIT
T 20100817 225528 4c6afc3e Connection closed with 127.0.0.1, 0 sec. elapsed.
T 20100817 225618 4c6afc3f Connection from 127.0.0.1
T 20100817 225618 4c6afc3f HELO WeezyTorbot
T 20100817 225618 4c6afc3f MAIL FROM:<sender@example.com>
T 20100817 225618 4c6afc3f RCPT TO:<jamestest2@localhost>
T 20100817 225618 4c6afc3f DATA
T 20100817 225618 4c6afc3f DATA - 16 lines, 364 bytes.
T 20100817 225618 4c6afc3f QUIT
T 20100817 225618 4c6afc3f Connection closed with 127.0.0.1, 0 sec. elapsed

[quote][Protocols]
C:\xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYS.DLL
C:\xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYP.DLL
C:\xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYE.DLL
# C:\xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYC.DLL
C:\xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYD.DLL
C:\xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYH.DLL
C:\xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYF.DLL
C:\xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYW.DLL
C:\xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYX.DLL
C:\xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYI.DLL
C:\xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYB.DLL[/quote]

Are you really using all these?

comment the modules you are not using, especially MercX, or apply the patch here http://community.pmail.com/files/folders/patches/entry24194.aspx as there is a bug in it that could explain your symptoms quite well.

I have installed the patch, and that didn't seem to do anything. Anyway, I'm not sure what I'm actually running - I just started Mercury from the XAMPP control panel. The only changes I made were to 1) add the test accounts, 2) change the IP to 127.0.0.1 in a few places as directed in another post somewhere, and 3) change the SMTP & POP3 ports to 587 & 995, respectively. Otherwise Mercury is running out-of-the-box, so to speak.

[quote user="mimewear"]

I have installed the patch, and that didn't seem to do anything. Anyway, I'm not sure what I'm actually running - I just started Mercury from the XAMPP control panel.[/quote]

If you are only using the SMTP & the POP3 server modules, then disable all the others.

[quote]The only changes I made were to 1) add the test accounts,[/quote]ok[quote] 2) change the IP to 127.0.0.1 in a few places as directed in another post somewhere,[/quote]then make sure your client is configured to connect to this interface[quote] and 3) change the SMTP & POP3 ports to 587 & 995, respectively.[/quote]why?[quote] Otherwise Mercury is running out-of-the-box, so to speak.

As a follow up, the log files seem to have updated, so I'm pasting a  few lines from each here (I have cut a lot of redundant messages out to cut down the repetition):

From MercuryE:

T 20100818 193023 4c6c6d2c Begin processing job MO000006 from jamestest2@localhost.com
T 20100818 193023 4c6c6d2d Begin processing job MO000008 from jamestest1@localhost.com
T 20100818 193023 4c6c6d2e Begin processing job MO00000A from sender@example.com
W 20100818 193023 4c6c6d2e Temporary error 249 (temporary MX resolution error) resolving 'localhost.com'.
T 20100818 193023 4c6c6d2e Job MO00000A processing complete.

From MercuryP:

Connection from 127.0.0.1, Wed Aug 18 19:55:14 2010
1 sec. elapsed, connection closed Wed Aug 18 19:55:15 2010

Connection from 127.0.0.1, Wed Aug 18 19:55:15 2010
User jamestest2, (2) 32 messages, 175045 bytes
2 sec. elapsed, connection closed Wed Aug 18 19:55:17 2010

And from MercuryS:

T 20100818 193042 4c6c34cf Connection from 127.0.0.1
T 20100818 193042 4c6c34cf EHLO WeezyTorbot
T 20100818 193042 4c6c34cf Connection closed with 127.0.0.1, 0 sec. elapsed.

As the only entry in the [Domains] section of mercury.ini is "localhost: localhost" Mercury will consider a message to someone@localhost.com as an external delivery, and attempt to connect using MercuryE. Please read the help text in Mercury about local domains carefully.

Maybe I'm missing the point here, but having a mail server that only communicates with the computer it's installed on seems rather limited. If you plan to change that there are a number of things in the ini file that needs to be modified, though.

/Rolf 

I have tried localhost and localhost.com - it was one of the two when it worked, but now it's none of them. All I am trying to do at the moment is test my auto mail coming from web pages on my site. All I need to do at the moment is make sure they work. I won't be needing Mercury when they are uploaded to the server, and Mercury was recommended for just this sort of task because its built into XAMPP already. If there is a better way to do the same thing internally I'm game, but if I could also send externally that would be a bonus.

Well both 'localhost.com' & 'example.com' are real domains.

If you look them up in DNS they do not resolve to your server, and should not be used as test configuration, although many places that should know better suggest just this.

Would you use microsoft.com for your test domain name?

Pick a non-existing name to use and enter it in the [Local Domains] section as per the help.

Test your sending and receiving using usernames at this domain only.

If you want to send offsite or use non-local domains in your mails you will need further configuration which will depend on your setup.

All the info you need is in the help file.

I hit this issue myself, oddly enough looking through my firewall settings and port usage I spotted the services weren't actually listening despite having just restarted the server and the Mercury services afterwards.

Mercury was reporting no errors however, I decided to try something silly by going into the file menu and entering and exiting offline mode. It fixed the glitch. If it occurs to me again I'll grab the logs prior to the glitch until the end and put them up for dissection, I'm not entirely sure when the problem first occured given the non existent mail load of the server at present. I'll be watching over the next week at least to spot if it occurs again.