Lack of email notifications while on vacation

[WayneW]

We recently returned from a vacation. When we left the house, I got the expected email from the ISY that the Elk was armed. That was the last email I received from the ISY for a week. Once we returned, I connected to the ISY admin console and manually ran a "then" part of a program that sent the expected email correctly. While gone, I continued to receive emails from HomeSeer and my Elk, so I assume that the house had no obvious internet connectivity issues.

 

I have no idea why I stopped receiving emails from the ISY, but this sounds very familiar to me. I recall that somebody reported something similar happened to them on a vacation, but I cannot remember if it was with an ISY or something else. I cannot remember the forum or source, and my searches have failed to find what I think I remember, but the proper keywords are elusive.

 

The most obvious change to the house was the shutdown of all non-essential computers, but I don't understand how that would have any impact on the ISY. My ISY is configured to notify my cell phone (via SMS email gateway) & a traditional email address. Both failed for the one week period, so I am assuming the issue is on the sending side.

 

Is this familiar to anybody? Is there any troubleshooting that I can do now? It works now, so if it ain't broke, it is hard to fix. Is there any way to prevent this?

[oberkc]

Perhaps a program error?

[WayneW]

Perhaps a program error?

 

Can you be more specific? What kind of program error? My programs are pretty simple and none of them should have acted any differently due to the vacation. In other words, there is no "vacation mode" logic involved. For example, one of my programs sends an email every weekday at a fixed time with the alarm status and some temperature readings.

 

The ISY log shows that the last ISY startup was from a power glitch a few days before we left. So I am assuming that there was no reboot or lockup of the ISY while we were gone. The ISY log appears to indicate that the Insteon aspect was working properly while we were gone, but I am no expert at decoding the log.

 

I do use my own SMTP server, not the UDI SMTP server. But this is the same SMTP server that I use for HomeSeer and Elk, so I don't think it is an SMTP issue, but I honestly don't know how to confirm.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Wayne,

 

Have you looked at the Error Log to see if you have SMTP errors?

http://wiki.universal-devices.com/index ... MTP_Errors

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[oberkc]

Can you be more specific? What kind of program error?

 

Since you did not post the program, I could only ask the general question. If you have satisfied yourself that it cannot be a program error, that is good enough for me. Your original post did not address the possibility (except for the THEN path working correctly), however, so I simply raised the question for you to consider.

 

If there remains any doubt, feel free to post it for a second opinion. Of course, it could be the program being disabled, either manually or by another program. It could be part of a folder that is disabled. Yes, it could also be a logical condition error. Unfortunately, I don't have access to your program to do anything more than speculate.

[WayneW]

Since you did not post the program, I could only ask the general question. If you have satisfied yourself that it cannot be a program error, that is good enough for me. Your original post did not address the possibility (except for the THEN path working correctly), however, so I simply raised the question for you to consider.

 

If there remains any doubt, feel free to post it for a second opinion. Of course, it could be the program being disabled, either manually or by another program. It could be part of a folder that is disabled. Yes, it could also be a logical condition error. Unfortunately, I don't have access to your program to do anything more than speculate.

 

Thanks for the clarification and feedback. I have multiple programs that should have fired, so I am pretty confident that it isn't an error in one program, but a global issue is certainly a possibility. Is there anything that could have disabled all of my emailing programs without my knowledge? And then somehow re-enabled them as none of my email programs appear to be disabled now.

 

Here is one program:

If

On Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri

Time is 12:30:00PM

 

Then

Send Notification to 'email & cell' content 'Elk Current Status'

 

Else

- No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

 

Could my " 'email & cell' " choice be an issue? Is it best practice to make that two lines, one line for email and one line for cell? I believe that all of my email rules use the same distribution list concept.

[WayneW]

Hi Wayne,

Have you looked at the Error Log to see if you have SMTP errors?

http://wiki.universal-devices.com/index ... MTP_Errors

 

I have no negative numbers at all in the second column of the Excel log. And no mention of SMTP in the log. I do have a few "-1" and "-2" in the "log type" column, but those all appear to be Insteon comm issues. There is nothing in the -50xxx range. My log goes back about 13 months.

 

Thanks.

[oberkc]

Is there anything that could have disabled all of my emailing programs without my knowledge?

 

Not that I am aware. I assume you would know about (unless your memory is like mine) any program, or manual disable.

 

I agree, there is nothing in the program that makes me suspect it would not fire on its own.

 

I don't know about any particular advantage in breaking apart your email and cell issue, especially since you tested it out and it worked.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Wayne,

 

Error Log please and not the log.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[WayneW]

Hi Wayne,

 

Error Log please and not the log.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

 

Ah ha! Sorry, i was following the instructions on the Wiki page, which don't lead to the actual .txt error log you desired. Maybe that wiki page can be updated to clarify what info comes from which log location?

 

Sat 2013/09/28 10:38:09 AM System -10 n/a

Sun 2013/09/29 03:00:41 AM System -10 n/a

Sun 2013/09/29 12:11:47 PM System -50001 -11

Sun 2013/09/29 12:23:15 PM System -50001 -11

Sun 2013/09/29 06:51:29 PM System -50001 -11

Sun 2013/09/29 07:34:12 PM System -50001 -11

Mon 2013/09/30 03:15:41 AM System -60006 Stopping retries/next cycle

Mon 2013/09/30 07:16:46 AM System -50001 -11

Mon 2013/09/30 07:17:48 AM System -10 n/a

Mon 2013/09/30 08:55:55 AM System -50001 -11

Mon 2013/09/30 09:16:54 AM System -50001 -11

Mon 2013/09/30 12:30:01 PM System -50001 -11

Mon 2013/09/30 06:42:07 PM System -50001 -11

Mon 2013/09/30 07:21:50 PM System -50001 -11

Tue 2013/10/01 07:17:17 AM System -50001 -11

Tue 2013/10/01 07:37:22 AM System -10 n/a

Tue 2013/10/01 08:43:23 AM System -50001 -11

Tue 2013/10/01 09:08:44 AM System -50001 -11

Tue 2013/10/01 12:30:02 PM System -50001 -11

Tue 2013/10/01 06:29:29 PM System -50001 -11

Tue 2013/10/01 07:17:03 PM System -50001 -11

Wed 2013/10/02 07:17:49 AM System -50001 -11

Wed 2013/10/02 08:58:31 AM System -50001 -11

Wed 2013/10/02 09:22:33 AM System -50001 -11

Wed 2013/10/02 12:30:02 PM System -50001 -11

Wed 2013/10/02 07:10:51 PM System -50001 -11

Wed 2013/10/02 07:19:21 PM System -50001 -11

Wed 2013/10/02 07:19:36 PM System -50001 -11

Wed 2013/10/02 07:39:39 PM System -50001 -11

Thu 2013/10/03 03:00:16 AM System -10 n/a

Thu 2013/10/03 03:17:00 AM System -60006 Stopping retries/next cycle

Thu 2013/10/03 07:18:22 AM System -50001 -11

Thu 2013/10/03 08:21:56 AM System -50001 -11

Thu 2013/10/03 08:59:00 AM System -50001 -11

Thu 2013/10/03 09:00:22 AM System -50001 -11

Thu 2013/10/03 12:30:02 PM System -50001 -11

Thu 2013/10/03 06:45:40 PM System -50001 -11

Thu 2013/10/03 07:15:47 PM System -50001 -11

Fri 2013/10/04 03:00:11 AM System -10 n/a

Fri 2013/10/04 03:00:46 AM System -10 n/a

Fri 2013/10/04 07:18:55 AM System -50001 -11

Fri 2013/10/04 08:34:27 AM System -50001 -11

Fri 2013/10/04 09:57:47 AM System -50001 -11

Fri 2013/10/04 12:30:03 PM System -50001 -11

Fri 2013/10/04 07:00:32 PM System -50001 -11

Fri 2013/10/04 07:48:37 PM System -50001 -11

Sat 2013/10/05 07:19:28 AM System -50001 -11

Sat 2013/10/05 07:19:34 AM System -10 n/a

Sat 2013/10/05 09:01:54 AM System -50001 -11

Sat 2013/10/05 09:31:23 AM System -50001 -11

Sat 2013/10/05 07:07:19 PM System -50001 -11

Sat 2013/10/05 07:13:05 PM System -50001 -11

Sat 2013/10/05 07:13:20 PM System -50001 -11

Sat 2013/10/05 08:18:24 PM System -50001 -11

Sun 2013/10/06 03:18:12 AM System -60006 Stopping retries/next cycle

Sun 2013/10/06 07:20:01 AM System -50001 -11

Sun 2013/10/06 08:59:25 AM System -50001 -11

Sun 2013/10/06 09:17:33 AM System -50001 -11

Sun 2013/10/06 10:56:45 AM System -50001 -11

Mon 2013/10/07 03:00:06 AM System -10 n/a

Mon 2013/10/07 03:00:20 AM System -10 n/a

Mon 2013/10/07 07:20:36 AM System -10 n/a

 

Guess when I was on vacation? Or more significantly, guess when I shut down my PC and Outlook? I highlighted the predictable emails that match the sample rule I gave earlier that fires at 12:30.

 

Obviously, this shifts all the blame away from the ISY.

 

I can only assume that my SMTP server no longer accepts emails from the ISY after Outlook has been off for "a while". I suspect that the last time that my Outlook was shut down for any long period of time was before I started sending emails from the ISY. Are there any SMTP experts that can confirm my timeout assumption?

 

So, I guess I need to find another SMTP server, or figure out how to keep this one accepting mail (which I suspect is controlled by my webhost and I have no control over it).

 

My thanks to everybody for the help so far.

[Xathros]

Sounds to me like your server is requiring POP before SMTP. In other words, log in to check the incoming mail before you can send outgoing mail. You might check and see if it can be configured for smtpauth instead of pop before smtp. Otherwise, I'm using gmail smtp with excellent results. Might be an alternative for you.

 

-Xathros

[Techman]

I recently had a similar problem with 50001 - 11 errors and intermittent email notifications. I created a unique email address for the ISY and then whitelisted that address in my server and haven't had an issue since. I also increased the timeout in the ISY.

 

Who are you using for your smtp server?

[WayneW]

To close the loop on this thread, and hang my head in shame, I think I found the problem. I am using my own domain host for SMTP. But when I set up the ISY notifications, I failed to enter an SMTP user ID & password. I don't remember why, but it worked fine without it when I was testing it. Now I assume that was because Outlook (mine or the wifes) had been running the whole time I was testing.

 

I had all email activity shut down overnight last night and tested my ISY notifications this morning. It failed, as expected, which was a good thing this time. I then added my username and password to the ISY, then I re-tested ISY, which worked.

 

Thanks for the advice about using gmail, I will keep that in mind.