Message Delay, fix?

[jnalpak]

I just started seeing this from a few users starting Monday...
I dont see any messages waiting in the QUEUE and when i telnet 25 to the mail gateway i get some numbers and *'s instead of something in english (does that count as a response?)

220 ************************************************************0*2*********
******************200********0***0*00

Also, i sent a false message (reallyreallyreallybadaddress@XXXXXX.com) and never received a bounce back....

Your message is delayed
Message for domain XXXXXX.com delayed at XXXXXX.com.
Unable to deliver to domain for 6 hours.
Will continue trying for 42 hours.
No action is required on your part.
Last attempt failed because:
DNS server could not be contacted or generated an unexpected response


what are some other steps i can look at?

 

[N0ktar]

220 ********** simply means the SMTP server sits behind the firewall, most likely Cisco PIX. Did you confim issues with DNS server?