Some of my clients are experiencing indefinite "Pending" messages when trying to send email. Most of the time their email works fine but sometimes they run into the above issue. I am new to Novell and Groupwise and I'm hoping that someone might be able to shed some light on this problem for me. Any help would be greatly appreciated. We are running a Novell 6.0 network, there are only about 50 clients, I am using a WatchGaurd Firebox 700 firewall and GroupWise 6 is the only email service we use. I hope this info will help narrow it down. Thank you.

Hi, The fix is a little like trying to get a sip of a water out of a fire hydrant; there are a great many things, but only one is the target. Are they failing via Internet connectivity or within the current domain? If so, are the sent mails failing to a specific domain or address? Regardless, are you routing through a secondary or tertiary domain, even if it's the server itself? Is the problem consistant with specific users? Are the pendings sent/generated at a specific time? If so, were these clients converted from a previous GW? Are any rule generated messages effected? Are all the recent service packs applied to both the server and GW? What client operating systems are involved, and are all the client updates current? Or virus protection? I know 3 problems it could be, though it could be more. 1 of the problems you just DON'T want. As I tend to prattle on, I can assure you no one can leave too much information when describing a problem. -J

J Thanks for the quick response! Those are some great questions and I'll have the answers by tomorrow afternoon. I'll try to narrow down as much of the problem as possible and hopefully this will help you help me. Thanks again J

J I spoke with the clients today and here's what I found out: They are not failing because of internet connectivity or the local domain. Everything sent within the internal network seems to work fine. Most of their emails sent outside seem to work fine, it seems to be very sporadic. There is only one domain and they are not part of any other tree or domain. The email addresses aren't domain specific, or address specific. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. There seems to be only 2 users having difficulty or at least they are the only two that have reported the problem. One client is running XP, the other is running 2000. They are not routing through a second domain or a tertiary domain. Neither clients were converted from a previous GW. No rule generated messages effected. They are both running Norton Antivirus as all the clients are. As far as they can recall, the messages that remain pending aren't sent at any specific time, they are sent whenever. I'm not sure when the latest sevice packs were released, I do know that no one has installed service packs on their servers for at least 3 months but this problem has been there for longer than 3 months. This is everything I gathered, I hope this may help narrow it down, if you think you may have an anecdote, I'm all ears. Thank you

Hi, > I'm all ears. Got it! No ear jokes! I wont make fun. OK, let me summarize, feel free to recheck my opinion: > There seems to be only 2 users having > difficulty or at least they are the only > two that have reported the problem. As these users appear to be looking for it, they would be ones most likely to find it. I suggest making them the control group to test the fix. (If anyone can make it fail, its going to be them) The client updats are free from support.novell.com, so there's little excuse for anyone to not have them. When you see the machines, veriify the clients version numbers, then cross-reference them with the available ones. Onward: User Error: Check to see if the users have created personal address groups, or have customized their client. More than likely, if the 2 users having problems are in a close proximity to each other, they could be very well having identical and repeatable problems. Check to see if "Delay Delivery" has been enabled on the clients. Tools -> Options -> Send -> Send Options. If they're running the newest client and are set to defaults, then they can be taken out of the loop. Firewall error: 1. You might verify the date of the firewall implimentation. See if they've had problems for as long as its been there. 2. Verify they have active access through the firewall, as some rule based checking may make the message kick back (i.e. huge attachments) 3. See exactly what ports are configured for the firewall. If someone misconfigured the PO, its possible the outbound link could not be getting through. If say port 1677 is unavaible, problems can insue. This seem highly unlikely, but you are there, and I can only assume. All you have to do is insure the outbound is a static port, and that its hardset. Also, other failures would raise their head such as ftp/http/https, if the firewall was to blame. PO Error: The other fixes deal with a corrupted PO, as its a last resort, and as you may never know who set what, this is a cautionary step. Make sure all users are assigned to proper DBs, and if in question, run a GWcheck to check the structual intergiry of them. As there are only 50 clients, all can use the same DB nicely. After this, if you still have problems, repost or email me, as I do not want to immediately boradcast shotgun fixes. They can do more harm than good if someone isn't careful. HTH, -J

Also, It may mean that you have to pitch a tent and roast marshmallows, but camping the problem to "SEE" exactly whats done will be extremely benificial. Its time consuming, but it defines the problem exactly. If at all possible, being able to duplicat ethe problem is a 100% guarantee toward solving the problem. HTH, -J P.S. I noticed there are several misspellings in my previous post. I feel I should relate the thinkgeek quote: "I have plenty of talent and vision. I just don't give a s**t!" =)

File Clerk, Hey man, thanks a million for your ideas, you've given me some great avenues to take. I'm going back to their building on Sunday. I'll fill you in on what happens when I get back. Thanks again, this was a big help!