smtplib bug with Windows XP

Peter Hansen peter at engcorp.com
Mon Jan 24 22:05:02 EST 2005


stewart.midwinter at gmail.com wrote:
> I'm having problem with a script that used to work under Win2k but is
> now broken after an install of WinXP Pro.  I can no longer connect to a
> local mail server.  Has anyone else seen this?  If so, were you able to
> work around it?  Here's the traceback (below).  

The usual first step to troubleshooting such a problem is to
use Telnet to connect manually.  Type this "telnet 10.50.200.6 25"
and see what you get.  If it appears correct (it helps to know
some of the SMTP protocol: you should get a "220" response here
plus the host's name), type "helo blech.org" or something like
that to see the response.  "Help" is usually a valid command
at this point.  If you can't do this manually, then smtplib
certainly cannot either.

 > Interestingly, if I
> change ports to the POP port 110, I get a different error, but one that
> lets me know that I can reach the server.

"ping" would let you know you can reach the server as well,
but using SMTP to connect to a POP3 server is perhaps a
somewhat more complicated and hopeless, but interesting
way to do the same thing. <wink>

>>>>s = smtplib.SMTP('10.50.200.6',25)
> 
> Traceback (most recent call last):
> File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
> File "C:\Programs\Python24\Lib\smtplib.py", line 241, in __init__
> (code, msg) = self.connect(host, port)
> File "C:\Programs\Python24\Lib\smtplib.py", line 303, in connect
> raise socket.error, msg
> socket.error: (10053, 'Software caused connection abort')

Try manually, but think about these options: a firewall that
has suddenly been enabled, an SMTP server that now requires
authentication, some kind of proxy like what virus scanners
use (though why they would intercept outgoing mail I don't
know)...

-Peter



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