Support

Admin Tools

#40638 problem with e-mail notification

Posted in ‘Admin Tools for Joomla! 4 & 5’
This is a public ticket

Everybody will be able to see its contents. Do not include usernames, passwords or any other sensitive information.

Environment Information

Joomla! version
5.0.3
PHP version
8.2
Admin Tools version
7.5.2

Latest post by nicholas on Monday, 29 April 2024 09:27 CDT

HKai

Since two weeks, I dont't get e-mail notification about ip-blocking. Other messages, like 'critical file modification' and so on works. Before the 2 weeks I get all messages. Have I to check a plugin or module from joomla? The test e-mail from joomla works and until the 2 weeks before, all works fine and I have only updated some other plugins:

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

Clearly, if you are receiving all other emails your problem is not your email setup.

Maybe it's because no IP addresses are blocked?

Or maybe you removed your email address from the relevant box in the Configure WAF page?

Maybe you disabled / removed the mail template for these emails?

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡·Greek: native πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§English: excellent πŸ‡«πŸ‡·French: basic β€’ πŸ• My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

HKai

There are ip's blocked, I see in the log file. The configuration of the WAF is correct. The e-mail templates are available. Is it possible there is a problem with my e-mail provider? I have 3 webpages in use and all 3 have the same behaviour.

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

Just to make sure we're (literally) on the same page, where do you see the IPs being blocked?

Please keep in mind that what you see in the Blocked Requests Log is not an IP-level block, it's a request-level block. You will get an email with the "Admin Tools: Blocked request" template if and only if you have an email address in the "Email this address on blocked request" box and you have NOT added the block reason in the "Do not send email notifications for these reasons".

What you see in the Auto Blocked IP Addresses is an automatically blocked IP which results in an email with the "Admin Tools: Automatic IP blocking" email template. The same limitations as above apply. Moreover, IP addresses will only be automatically blocked when "IP blocking of repeat offenders" is set to Yes, and the IP address gets blocked equal or more times within the time period specified in the top part of the Aut-ban tab of the Configure WAF page.

This is why I have been asking you if you are certain IPs have been blocked. Many people don't read the documentation and mistakenly think that a blocked request is an instant IP block. This is never the case with any security software. Think about how fail2ban works and why and you'll see why Admin Tools works in the exact same way.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡·Greek: native πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§English: excellent πŸ‡«πŸ‡·French: basic β€’ πŸ• My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

HKai

I have added two pictures to explain. Picture 1 (ProblemLog01.jpg) shows the logging settings (log blocked requests is on). The e-mail adress is set to my e-mail account. And there are logged requests, shown on picture2 (ProblemLog02.jpg). But I don't get an e-mail. I have nothing changed in the settings, but since 2 weeksΒ  (new release) I don't get the e-mail.

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

As per the second paragraph of my previous reply, the second screenshot shows blocked requests, NOT blocked IP addresses. These are two very different things, as I explained in my previous reply and have already documented. Repeated blocked requests may lead to blocked IP addresses based on the settings of the Auto-ban tab.

I will, therefore, have to assume that the title of your ticket and your description of the problem is wrong. What you really mean is that you are not receiving emails for blocked requests. That's a different problem.

Unfortunately, you have not provided the information I described in the second paragraph of my previous replies, therefore I cannot tell you if there is a configuration problem.

Your first screenshot is cut off at the IP Lookup Service line, therefore it does not show me the "Email this address on blocked request" line right below it. If that's empty, no you will not receive any emails. That's what leaving this field empty means.

Likewise, I do not see the "Do not send email notifications for these reasons" line right below it. They only blocked request reason I see is 404Shield. If this reason is included in the "Do not send email notifications for these reasons" setting then, of course, no email will be sent for these blocked requests because that's what Admin Tools is configured to do.

I will, therefore, need a screenshot of the entire Logging & Reporting tab, not just the first few lines which tell me practically nothing.

Furthermore, I do not know if you have the "Admin Tools: Blocked request" email template, whether it's published, and whether it's misconfigured. You will have to go to System, Mail Templates, filter by Admin Tools, and check for that email template. Then screenshot all of its tabs in their entirety and send me those screenshots in your next reply.

Finally, have you tried sending a test email from your site's Global Configuration page? Going through all the settings I described would be pointless if you are not certain that your site sends emails at all. While you are checking that, also check whether any such emails end up in your spam inbox, especially if you are using an email address hosted by Google (Gmail, or G Suite). The latter is important; a misconfigured or missing SPF, DKIM, or DMARC on your site's DNS configuration would result in emails from your site not being delivered to your email account at all.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡·Greek: native πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§English: excellent πŸ‡«πŸ‡·French: basic β€’ πŸ• My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

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