Hi all,

I'm trying to get netmail working on my BBS.

I can receive netmail just fine.

Messages to ping@21:3/100 works fine.

Control lines on the ping return seem to be in good shape :

DATE: 2026-07-12 20:43:06
INTL 21:3/100 21:3/242
MSGID: 21:3/242 fc4e0021
PID: SklaffKOM ftntoss
CHRS: UTF-8 4
TZUTC: +0200

But as far as I can tell, whenever I try to send a netmail to an actual person, it doesn't reach the recipient.

On clrghouz.bbs.dege.au I've used the packet debugger many many times,
and as usual, it does not report any issues :

FROM: Peter London (21:3/242.0@fsxnet)
TO: Joakim Melin (21:3/246.0@fsxnet)
FLAGS: private
INTL 21:3/246 21:3/242
MSGID: 21:3/242 02960024
TZUTC: +0200
VIA: 21:3/242 ... CrashMail II/Linux 1.7

Furthermore, on clrghouz.bbs.dege.au, under "Packages and Files Sent",
there are no traces of any outgoing netmail. All incoming netmail + the
ping responses show up there though.

Since binkd can ship my ping messages just fine, I assume my
binkd / crashmail config is in good enough order.

Does routed netmail from 21:3/242 to 21:3/246 via 21:3/100 require
anything else on the hub side, or is there something wrong/missing
in my netmail packet?

Please advise :). Thanks

Peter


--- SklaffKOM v1.33rc1
* Origin: Twilight Node, Solvesborg, Sweden (21:3/242)

Re: Netmail routing error?
By: Peter London to All on Sun Jul 12 2026 11:26 pm

Howdy,

I'm trying to get netmail working on my BBS.
I can receive netmail just fine.
Messages to ping@21:3/100 works fine.

Furthermore, on clrghouz.bbs.dege.au, under "Packages and Files Sent",
there are no traces of any outgoing netmail. All incoming netmail + the
ping responses show up there though.

OK, if you dont see the messages under "Packages and Files Sent", its most likely an indication that they werent processed - I just looked at the inbound and see a bunch of packets from you unprocessed.

Looking at one of them, I can see that clrghouz is tripping up over date processing - I'll need to look at it further to see what it isnt liking...

I'll let you know when I see what the exact issue is (it'll be later tonight).



...ëîåï
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: I'm playing with ANSI+videotex - wanna play too? (21:2/116)

Re: Netmail routing error?
By: deon to Peter London on Mon Jul 13 2026 11:33 am

Howdy,

Furthermore, on clrghouz.bbs.dege.au, under "Packages and Files Sent", there are no traces of any outgoing netmail. All incoming netmail + the ping responses show up there though.

OK I tracked this down, and the netmails were passed onto 21:3/246.

The reason you were not seeing them on 21:3/242 was related to a bug processing the Via line (your VIA lines are not including a timezone), and while it is optional, I was calling a date function with a blank string for a timezone, instead of "null", causing an exception to be thrown.

This bug would only have dropped the VIA line from 3/242, so outbound netmails would have been sent without it - as well as clrghouz not showing them on the "Packets and Files Sent" tab.

However on 3/246, the outgoing messages are listed there, including which packet the message was sent in and the time it was sent.

I'm pushing out a fix for this issue (which will fix the from VIA line), however, it would be useful to know what 3/246 did with the netmails once it received them to see if there is any other issue there...



...ëîåï
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: I'm playing with ANSI+videotex - wanna play too? (21:2/116)

Hi deon,

thank you so much for taking a look at this :).

OK I tracked this down, and the netmails were passed onto 21:3/246.

The reason you were not seeing them on 21:3/242 was related to a bug processing the Via line (your VIA lines are not including a timezone),
and while it is optional, I was calling a date function with a blank
string for a timezone, instead of "null", causing an exception to be
thrown.

Gotcha! :)

To be fair, I couldn't tell for sure wether the netmails to 3/246 (and
others) were delivered or not. It's certainly possible. I was fighting
several battles at once - implementing netmail support myself in my
90's C bbs software, while troubleshooting crashmail configurations
in parallell with expanding my own knowledge on how the ftn protocol
and standards even function to begin with :D. At the same time, trying
to keep the total number of test netmails sent to real people as low
as possible :D. Only once I had the feeling that my configs - and the
way my bbs constructs the netmail .MSG's - both were up to the
standards, I felt I just had to reach out for support ;).

This bug would only have dropped the VIA line from 3/242, so outbound netmails would have been sent without it - as well as clrghouz not
showing them on the "Packets and Files Sent" tab.

Yup, that was the confusing part. I use the "Packets and Files Sent"
tab all the time, to verify inbound and outbound traffic. It has never
failed on me before - which made me assume that as long as the "The
last Netmails received" is empty, it's probably just me doing something
wrong (again) ;).

Btw : To my understanding, Crashmail constructs the VIA line during
SCAN.

We now have :

21:3/242 @20260712.231005 CrashMail II/Linux 1.7

But what we want is :

21:3/242 @20260712.211005.UTC CrashMail II/Linux 1.7

At some point, I might dig into the Crashmail source to see if we can
fix that! :)

Many thanks deon - you're a hero!

Cheers

Peter


--- SklaffKOM v1.33rc1
* Origin: Twilight Node, Solvesborg, Sweden (21:3/242)

Re: Netmail routing error?
By: Peter London to All on Mon Jul 13 2026 12:46 pm

Howdy,

We now have :
21:3/242 @20260712.231005 CrashMail II/Linux 1.7
But what we want is :
21:3/242 @20260712.211005.UTC CrashMail II/Linux 1.7
At some point, I might dig into the Crashmail source to see if we can
fix that! :)

Actually, the spec says the "UTC" is optional - and I'm now assuming UTC if it isnt present.

So dont rush out to fix it :)


...ëîåï
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: I'm playing with ANSI+videotex - wanna play too? (21:2/116)

Patching crashmail was easy enough, my binary now writes :

VIA: 21:3/242 @20260713.105523.UTC CrashMail II/Linux 1.7

... and I finally see my outgoing netmails under the "The last Netmails received" tab.

Mystery solved!

Thanks for investigating, deon :).

Cheers

Peter


--- SklaffKOM v1.33rc1
* Origin: Twilight Node, Solvesborg, Sweden (21:3/242)

I'm pushing out a fix for this issue (which will fix the from VIA line) however, it would be useful to know what 3/246 did with the netmails on received them to see if there is any other issue there...

The four netmails I managed to send out (after having repaird my tosser
config) actually went straight to the receiver. So no problem there. I was
in part being impatient, and again, confused by not seeing anything under
the "Packets and Files Sent" tab.

I received the replies too, which confirms the theory that the netmails
are sent just fine, even without timezone in the VIA line.

Thanks for stepping in though, deon! Truly appreciate it :).

All my best

Peter



--- SklaffKOM v1.33rc1
* Origin: Twilight Node, Solvesborg, Sweden (21:3/242)

Please commit the changes to some repo that still hosts Crashmail.

It's in my fork of course! :)

https://github.com/loppanloppis/crashmail



--- SklaffKOM v1.33rc1
* Origin: Twilight Node, Solvesborg, Sweden (21:3/242)

Patching crashmail was easy enough, my binary now writes :

VIA: 21:3/242 @20260713.105523.UTC CrashMail II/Linux 1.7

... and I finally see my outgoing netmails under the "The last
Netmails
received" tab.

Mystery solved!

Thanks for investigating, deon :).

Cheers

Peter

Please commit the changes to some repo that still hosts Crashmail.


--- NiKom v2.6.0
* Origin: Delta City (deltacity.se, Vallentuna, Sweden) (21:2/130.0)