how to detect a firewall

[jonty rhodes]

Hello,
I wrote a program that sends out an email, My smtp setting are set properly
but it still doesn't run. Could anyone tell me how to detect if p.c is behind a firewall and then how to de-activate it. When i ping local host i get the following:

 
Reply from My I.P: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
Reply from : bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
Reply from : bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
Reply from : bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
Ping statistics for :
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum =  0ms, Average =  0ms
 

but wheni rry to ping hotmail or some other site i get the following:

Pinging <a href="http://www.hotmail.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">www.hotmail.com</a> [207.68.172.239] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Ping statistics for 207.68.172.239:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum =  0ms, Average =  0ms
  

Could someone plz explain to me what the above msg means?. And how to detect and then de-activate a firewall. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[jonty rhodes]

Can anyone please help me out? I have wrote a java program that sends out emails. It compiles fine and when i run it . gives me the following error

 javax.mail.SendFailedException: Sending failed;
  nested exception is:
        javax.mail.MessagingException: Could not conne
, port: 25;
  nested exception is:
        java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused:
        at javax.mail.Transport.send0(Transport.java:2
        at javax.mail.Transport.send(Transport.java:80
        at MailSender.send(MailSender.java:35)
        at MailSender.main(MailSender.java:42)
 

I'm thinking its a firewall issue. But don't know how to detect it and then de-activate it. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

[Thomas Paul]

Most sites have ping blocked because attackers use it to bog down servers.
As far as your other request, it is what every spammer in the world would like to do. The firewall is there to keep people from doing what you want to do.

[Lasse Koskela]

Originally posted by jonty rhodes:
And how to detect and then de-activate a firewall.

And what good is a firewall if Joe Average shut it down at will?

[jonty rhodes]

Take it easy guys. A simple " no, you can't deactivate it" could have send the message across as well. What a way to help a begineer learn.

[Barry Gaunt]

Try to get a mail client such as Mozilla/Thunderbird/OutlookExpress to work on the same system sending and receiving mail from your ISP's mail server. Then use the same settings in your program. Be aware that if your program goes into a loop or overloads your ISP's mailserver in any way, or your ISP thinks you are a spammer, then the consequences could be uncomfortable and expensive.
However, this could be a valid method of sending yourself a mail or SMS if you are monitoring a system or a process which should be continuously available.

[Ilja Preuss]

Can you show us the code you use for sending?

[jonty rhodes]

Here's my code for sending. As i said earlier, it compiles fine. I'm also able to send out email using outlook and have used the same settings here.

import java.util.*;
import javax.mail.*;
import javax.mail.internet.*;
public class MailSender {
private String host;
private String from;
private String to;
private String subject;
private String messageBody;
public MailSender(String host,String from,String to,String subject,String messageBody) 
{
 this.host = host;
this.from = from;
this.to = to;
this.subject = subject;
this.messageBody = messageBody;
}
public void send() throws Exception {
Properties props = new Properties();  // Setup mail server
props.put("mail.smtp.host","smtp");
props.put("smtp.auth","true");
// Get session
Authenticator auth = new SmtpAuthenticator();
Session session = Session.getDefaultInstance(props,auth);
session.setDebug(true);  // Define message
MimeMessage message = new MimeMessage(session);
message.setFrom(new InternetAddress(this.from));  // Set the from address
// Set the to address
message.addRecipient(Message.RecipientType.TO, new InternetAddress(this.to));
// Set the subject
message.setSubject(this.subject);
// Set the content
message.setText(this.messageBody);
message.saveChanges();
// Send message
Transport.send(message);
}
public static void main(String[] args) 
{
try {
MailSender mailSender = new MailSender("smtp","[e-mail]","[e-mail]","test subject","test message");
mailSender.send();
} catch (Exception e) 
{
e.printStackTrace();}
}
}
class SmtpAuthenticator extends javax.mail.Authenticator 
{
public PasswordAuthentication getPasswordAuthentication() 
{
String username = "my email_address_here";
String password = "mypassword";
return new PasswordAuthentication(username,password);
}
  

[Lasse Koskela]

props.put("mail.smtp.host","smtp");

Try using the full domain name for the SMTP host, e.g. "smtp.domain.com".

[jonty rhodes]

My ISP is rogers high speed in toronto. I called them and thats what they gave me for their outgong mail server ("smtp"). I followed your advice and changed it to "smtp.rogers.com" . Its still giving me the same runtime error. Any other suggestions?. I really want to ge this working. So, Please if theres anything else that can be done, let me know. THanks in advance

[Stephen Huey]

Theirs may not be named smtp.rogers.com, so call them again and tell them that you need the full name of the SMTP server (if necessary, tell them you're not using Outlook or something like that and so their shortcut or whatever you call it isn't working in your case). I think I remember RoadRunner having me just use "smtp" in my mail client, but I'm betting that's just some sort of alias that doesn't seem to be working right for your Java program.

[Gregg Bolinger]

You could always install an SMTP server on your local PC and use it instead of your ISP. That is unless your ISP is blocking port 25. In fact, come to think of it, you should make sure that they are using the standard port 25 for SMTP. JavaMail will use port 25 by default for SMTP.

[jonty rhodes]

Could you please tell me where to install a SMTP server from? and what to do if my ISP is using port 25?. Thanks alot in advance. I think we're getting closer to making it work. THanks

[James Swan]

Following along the lines of maybe they don't use "smtp.roger.com", depending on what your OS is try to see what your DNS search suffix is.
I am assuming you're connected to the internet using rogers, try running this command:
ipconfig /all
and see what the line "Primary DNS Suffix" or "DNS Suffix Search List" says, chances are it might not say "rogers.com".
Then try that value as "smtp.whatever-dns-suffix-is-listed.com"

[jonty rhodes]

Its working now!!. Thanks alot guyz for not giving up on me. I really appreciate it. I downloaded a SMTP server. and thats all it took. Thank you very much for leading me to right path.

[Gregg Bolinger]

Originally posted by jonty rhodes:
Its working now!!. Thanks alot guyz for not giving up on me. I really appreciate it. I downloaded a SMTP server. and thats all it took. Thank you very much for leading me to right path.

Glad we could help! Tell all your friends!