Trouble Getting Started

I tried setting up a connection on the second site (as mentioned above) and have no trouble establishing a connection to an email address on that server. I get a screen of php and WordPress config details followed by the ‘Clock’ details, email connection details and the correct # of waiting messages.

The problem therefore seems to be an error on rachaelrowe.com which is unhandled by Postie’s Configuration Test – making it difficult to debug and correct.

Set up a subdomain with only a fresh install of WordPress and the Postie plugin.

Still no joy connecting to either a local (on the same server) email address OR a gmail address.

Any suggestions?

I have received the following from the host’s support team:

I have found the following error from the error logs ‘ Maximum execution time of 120 seconds exceeded’, so I increased the Maximum execution time to 300 for both your domain and subdomain. You can also edit this through the cPanel >> Software >> MultiPHP INI Editor. And please check it out and let us know if you will get any issues.

———————————
[03-Aug-2018 15:59:16 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 120 seconds exceeded in /home/ihqxtua/public_html/rebuild/wp-content/plugins/postie/postie.class.php on line 1653
=================================

This seems to relate to:

    function log_onscreen($data) {
        if (php_sapi_name() == "cli") {
            print( "$data\n");
        } else {
            //flush the buffers
            while (ob_get_level() > 0) {
                ob_end_flush();
            }
            print( "<pre>" . htmlspecialchars($data) . "</pre>\n");
        }
    }

Line 1653 is ob_end_flush();

I don’t know whether that helps narrow the problem down or not.

Changing the time-out made no real difference (except that the Configuration Test ran longer before it returned only the two header lines) – “Postie Settings (v1.9.24)” and “Postie Configuration Test”

Thanks for the details. It is highly likely that your hosting company is blocking outbound connections on the port you have configured.
If you have shell access this article provides some troubleshooting steps. https://postieplugin.com/faq/postie-wont-connect-mailserver/
You can pass this along to your hosting company if you don’t have shell access.

I specifically asked about anything that might need to be unblocked when I asked if they could shed any light on the problem. I’d be surprised if that didn’t prompt any thoughts.

On command line/terminal access I think I may have had a bit of a brain wobble and thought I needed terminal access at the actual server. Doh! After putting my brain back in gear I get:

local server/pop gives:

derek@derek-kubuntu:~$ telnet mail.XXXXXXXXXXX.com 110
Trying a.b.c.d…
Connected to XXXXXXXXXXX.com.
Escape character is ‘^]’.
+OK Dovecot ready.
quit
+OK Logging out
Connection closed by foreign host.

Local server/imap gives:

derek@derek-kubuntu:~$ telnet mail.XXXXXXXXXXX.com 143
Trying a.b.c.d…
Connected to XXXXXXXXXXX.com.
Escape character is ‘^]’.
* OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS ID ENABLE IDLE NAMESPACE STARTTLS AUTH=PLAIN AUTH=LOGIN] Dovecot ready.
C logout
* BYE Logging out
C OK Logout completed.
Connection closed by foreign host.

For gmail I get pages full of connection and certificate information that all look ok to me.

The obvious difference (with the local server) is that it replies “Dovecot” instead of POP or IMAP.

By ‘local’ I mean the same host that the wordpress site is on – as far as I’m aware it might not even be on the same server. TBH I don’t really mind whether I get it working from the ‘local’ host or from a Gmail account. Having fiddled, for most of yesterday and today, with the Jetpack offering (‘Post by Email’) I just want to stay away from it. This is a site that has been hacked once already (in a former Joomla guise) and still attracts the ‘wrong’ sort of visitor. I’d like to rename it but can’t because of what it is. I prefer to keep xmlrpc.php access locked down.

I’ll pass your link on to the host’s support team and see if it sparks any thoughts.

Thanks for the response.

Response from host’s support team:

Please note that these are the default email ports in the server we never blocked 110, 993, 995 in our shared servers. So you may please contact with the plugins support forum and provide the following error from your account.

——————————-
[07-Aug-2018 08:57:00 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 300 seconds exceeded in /home/xxxxxxx/public_html/wp-content/plugins/postie/postie.class.php on line 1653
[07-Aug-2018 08:57:00 UTC] PHP Warning: Error while sending QUERY packet. PID=515 in /home/xxxxxxx/public_html/wp-includes/wp-db.php on line 1924
================================

More from the host’s support:

We have found one error from your wordpress site and its should be fixed by disabled zlib.output_compression on php.ini file in your account. and pasted the error message as the following:-

———————————-
Notice: ob_end_flush(): failed to send buffer of zlib output compression (0) in /home/ihqxtua/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 3743
==================================

I now get the expected response from the Configuration Test. I have, therefore maked the issue as resolved.