sendmail problem

[Dan Bishop]

Need some help.  Email began acting up yesterday (or over the weekend). 
We can receive messages OK but we are having problems sending messages. 
Most don't get sent and the few that do take 3-5 minutes (in Messenger) 
to send.

Linux Redhat, Sendmail & Cyrus on the Linux side
Netscape Messenger (some Outlook) & IMP (webmail) on the client side.
Novell 5.0 & BorderManager 3.0 on the network.

Webmail sends messages, but Messenger & Outlook do not.

I tried to flush the mail queue but it does not work.  I type "sendmail 
-v -q" at the terminal and we get the message:

Running /var/spool/mqueue/(a message number) (sequence 1 of 66)
<email address>... Connecting to cyrus...
<email address>... Deferred

If I use Webmin in a browser, and click on the button "Flush Mail Queue" 
it brings up the following:

Forcing the attempted delivery of mail with the command 
/usr/sbin/sendmail -v -q ..

Running /var/spool/mqueue/g9MINvR03821 (sequence 1 of 67)
<email_address at bbcnet.edu>... Connecting to cyrus...
<email_address at bbcnet.edu>... Deferred


What does the "Deferred" message mean?  And why the difference in number 
of messages (66 or 67)?  There are more messages in /var/spool/mqueue. 
Should they not be included in the total number of messages above, in 
the "queue"?

We have restarted sendmail a number of times, and have even gone so far 
as to restart Linux.  But all to no avail.

I am headed home for the night (to see what I can find on the Internet), 
but thought to post this message before I leave.


-- 

-- 
Thanks,

Dan Bishop

Network Administrator
Baptist Bible College
Springfield, MO