AppleShare IP 6.x Mail Server: Automatically Dials Out

Symptom:

I have an AppleShare 6 Mail Server and I am interested in the scheduled dial-out access feature. I have set up my server with dial-out access to my Internet Service Provider (ISP), but every time I start the Mail Server, it dials out immediately and stays connected. Why is it not following the schedule?

Solution:

The AppleShare IP 6 Mail Server, like the AppleShare IP 5 Mail Server, will open TCP/IP on launch and wait for incoming connections on standard mail ports (in the case of AppleShare IP 6, it waits for SMTP, IMAP, and POP). If you have TCP/IP on the server configured to dial out to a PPP server, one of two things will happen:

1. If "Connect automatically when starting TCP/IP applications" is checked in the PPP control panel, then the machine will try to dial out when the Mail Server launches, and it will stay connected as long as the Mail Server is running. Local machines will not be able to connect to the server via TCP/IP.

2. If the "Connect automatically when starting TCP/IP applications" check box is not checked, the Mail Server will appear to start up normally, but nobody will be able to connect via TCP/IP, the AppleShare Mail Server will not connect to an off-site mail server, and the error log will say that Open Transport TCP/IP is not available.

In order for the Mail Server to work properly, TCP/IP on the mail server must be configured for the local network so that it will look on the Ethernet port for incoming connections. In addition to this you must have a router or gateway on the network that dials out on demand. This may be hardware (such as an ISDN router), or software (such as Vicom's Internet Gateway or Sustainable Softworks' IPNetRouter). Once this is set up, the server will try to access the remote mail server on the specified schedule, and the gateway will handle the dial-out connection to the Internet.

For more information on setting up an ASIP Mail Server to connect on a schedule, please see the following article:

Article 30570: "AppleShare IP Mail Server: Send & Receive Setup"