CDONTS problem on Windows Server 2003

[Mathachew]

The company I work for was using CDONTs on our Windows 2000 Server for over 4 years, but we have just moved over to a new web host. Since we moved to a new host and got a new dedicated server, it has Windows 2003 Server SE. The problem is that 2003 uses CDOSYS and not CDONTS, but it is possible to add support for CDONTS, which I have done.

I have looked at probably over 25 different forums on what they suggested or recommended, all saying practically the same thing. I have set the permission for IUSR_ and IWAM_ to write in "/mailroot" so that any subfolders will inherite those same permissions. However, I still receive a "Permission Denied" vbscript 70 error. I have a test page that shows what services are installed correctly and allows me to test them (in which it says CDONTS and CDOSYS both are installed and working). I tested CDOSYS fine, but CDONTS is a no go, with the Permission denied error.

Can anyone suggest anything other that I might be able to do to resolve this? We have converted about 135 of the 300+ sites to use CDOSYS, but if we can just get CDONTS working, then we can move on to our other normal work.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

EDIT: Also, I'm intent on getting CDONTS to work, so please no "CDONTS sucks, use CDOSYS" comments; I've grown quite tired of seeing them

 

[RickyC]

I have tried breifly to get CDONTS working with 2003 a while back with no luck. CDONTS is a left over from older NT OS's and was only left in 2000 for compatability reasons. As MS want you to use .NET they got rid of it and prefer the use of System.Web.Mail or CDOSYS which is also in 2000.

Try this step by step guide though:

http://jack.logicalsystems.it/homepage/techinfo/cdonts.asp

Maybe of help

 

[Mathachew]

RickyC:

Thanks for the input, but I've already tried that tutorial. The only other option I have is to disable the 8bit MIME, but I don't see how that affects the "Permission denied" error that I am getting. I'm not entirely up for making the changes that MS listed to disable this, but I may try it later this week.

I just don't see how everything is set as needed and it still will not work. Dunno

 

[Mathachew]

Ok, this was a little odd, but I'll 'splain.

I checked out this thread: http://forum.osnn.net/showthread.php?t=4085&highlight=cdonts

The 2nd post mentioned firewall, and then it clicked. My companies dedicated server is using the Windows Firewall. So I immediately RDP into the server and went into the firewall settings. I saw that the firewall already had the SMTP setting allowed to pass, in port 25. I added my own and specified port 17. I hit ok, let the settings save, and then logged out.

I went to my test page and testing the script. TADA! No "Permission denied" error. I think proceeded to check my email, in which I got nothing. In fact, I wasn't getting any emails whatsoever. I usually get an email or two to my address with the company every hour or so, or at least get an email forwarded from my supervisor's email (I'm her backup, so need to get her emails). I was getting nothing. Thinking I screwed something up (don't see how that could've been since I added 1 thing to the firewall), I quickly RDP back into the server to remove the setting I just added.

By this time, it was around 10:30am. I tested the script around 10:02am. No emails whatsoever. Before I removed the setting in the firewall, I sent several test emails to myself and my supervisor. Nothing was coming back. About to freak, I called the other programmer and 'splained what happened. He said he'd look into it and thought maybe the SMTP needed to be restarted or something.

Well, at around 10:42 (approx. 40 minutes after I used my test script), the email came. WHEW! But the others did not. About to crap on myself, slowly but surely the test emails started coming through. Eventually, my final test message that I sent after the emails started coming was sent and received in less than a minute. So, the problem was fixed.

BUT WAIT! I removed Port 17! I went back to the test page, tested it again and...... no "Permission denied" error! w00t!!!

So now CDONTS is finally working on our 2003 server. Talk about a headache. Just wanted to share a somewhat amusing story (I hope) and share what I did to get it working. I didn't even have to touch 8bitMIME, thank God!!

 

[Mathachew]

Another update on that:

The firewall held 17 open for a while, until the next morning. So the server apparently went through a 'refresh' and closed 17. I added the port again and the next day, probably around the same time, the server 'refreshed' again with this new setting and now CDONTS works again. Now that I know I didn't screw anything up, I'm leaving it!