PRTG Manual: SMTP&POP3 Round Trip Sensor
The SMTP&POP3 Round Trip sensor monitors the time it takes for an email to reach a Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3) mailbox after being sent using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). It sends an email using the parent device as SMTP server and then scans a dedicated POP3 mailbox until the email comes in.
The SMTP&POP3 Round Trip sensor automatically deletes these emails from the mailbox as soon as PRTG has retrieved them. Emails only remain in the mailbox if a timeout or a restart of the PRTG server occurred during sensor runtime.
The sensor can show the following:
- Response time of the SMTP server
- Response time of the POP3 server
- Sum of both response times
SMTP&POP3 Round Trip Sensor
Dutch: SMTP & POP3 Round Trip, French: Durée de boucle SMTP&POP3, German: SMTP&POP3-Übermittlung, Japanese: SMTP&POP3ラウンドトリップ, Portuguese: SMTP&POP3 Viagem de ida e volta, Russian: Цикл SMTP и POP3, Simplified Chinese: SMTP 和 POP3 往返, Spanish: SMTP&POP3 Round Trip
- This sensor does not support Secure Remote Password (SRP) ciphers.
- Use dedicated email accounts with this sensor. If you use more sensors of this type, make sure that each sensor uses its own email accounts.
The Add Sensor dialog appears when you manually add a new sensor to a device. It only shows the setting fields that are required for creating the sensor. Therefore, you do not see all setting fields in this dialog. You can change (nearly) all settings in the sensor's Settings tab later.
We recommend that you only add this sensor to an SMTP server device because the settings of this sensor are optimized for this scenario.
On the details page of a sensor, click the Settings tab to change its settings.
Usually, a sensor connects to the IP Address or DNS Name of the parent device on which you created the sensor. See the Device Settings for details. For some sensors, you can explicitly define the monitoring target in the sensor settings. See below for details on available settings.
Basic Sensor Settings |
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Sensor Name |
Enter a meaningful name to identify the sensor. By default, PRTG shows this name in the device tree, as well as in alarms, logs, notifications, reports, maps, libraries, and tickets. |
Parent Tags |
Shows Tags that this sensor inherits from its parent device, group, and probe. This setting is shown for your information only and cannot be changed here. |
Tags |
Enter one or more Tags, separated by spaces or commas. You can use tags to group sensors and use tag–filtered views later on. Tags are not case sensitive. We recommend that you use the default value. There are default tags that are automatically predefined in a sensor's settings when you add a sensor. See section Default Tags below. You can add additional tags to the sensor if you like. Other tags are automatically inherited from objects further up in the device tree. These are visible above as Parent Tags.
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Priority |
Select a priority for the sensor. This setting determines where the sensor is placed in sensor lists. A sensor with a top priority is at the top of a list. Choose from one star (low priority) to five stars (top priority). |
pop3sensor, roundtrip, mailsensor
Email Settings |
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From |
Specify the email address of the email's sender. Enter a valid email address. |
To |
Specify the address that PRTG sends the emails to. Enter a valid email address. |
HELO Ident |
Enter a server name for the HELO part of the mail protocol. For some mail servers, the HELO identifier must be the valid principal host domain name for the client host. For more information, see SMTP RFC 2821. |
Step 1: Send Email with Parent Device as SMTP Server |
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Port |
Enter the number of the port that the sensor uses to send an email via SMTP. For non-secure connections, port 25 is ususally used, for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)/Transport Layer Security (TLS) connections, port 465 or 587. The actual setting depends on the server you connect to. Enter an integer value. We recommend that you use the default value. If you do not get a connection, try another port number. |
Timeout for SMTP Connection (Sec.) |
Enter a timeout in seconds for the request. If the reply takes longer than this value, the sensor cancels the request and shows a corresponding error message. Enter an integer value. The maximum value is 900 seconds (15 minutes). |
SMTP Authentication Type |
Define if you want to use authentication for the SMTP connection:
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Username |
This field is only visible if you enable Username/password above. Enter a username for SMTP authentication. Enter a string. |
Password |
This field is only visible if you enable Username/password above. Enter a password for SMTP authentication. Enter a string. |
Additional Text for Email Subject |
PRTG automatically creates the subject part of the round trip email. It consists of the string PRTG Roundtrip Mail:, followed by a unique globally unique identifier (GUID) to correctly identify the email in the POP3 mailbox, for example, PRTG Roundtrip Mail: {5E858D9C-AC70-466A-9B2A-55630165D276}. Use this field to place your custom text before the automatically created text. |
Transport-Level Security |
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SMTP Specific |
Define the security level for the sensor connection:
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Step 2: Check a POP3 Mailbox Until Email Arrives |
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IP Address/DNS Name |
Specify the POP3 server. Enter a valid IP address or Domain Name System (DNS) name. |
Port |
Specify the port that the sensor uses for the POP3 connection. For non-secure connections, port 110 is usually used, for SSL/TLS connections port 995. The actual setting depends on the server you are connecting to. Enter an integer value. We recommend that you use the default value. If you do not get a connection, try another port number. |
Connection Interval (Sec.) |
Enter the number of seconds the sensor waits between two connections to the POP3 server. PRTG continuously checks the mailbox in this scanning interval until the email arrives. Enter an integer value. |
Maximum Trip Time (Sec.) |
Enter the number of seconds an email may take to arrive in the POP3 mailbox. PRTG continuously checks the mailbox in the interval that you specify above until the email arrives. If it does not arrive within the maximum trip time, the sensor triggers an error message. Enter an integer value. |
POP3 Authentication Type |
Select the kind of authentication for the POP3 connection:
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Username |
This field is only visible if you enable an option with login above. Enter a username for POP3 authentication. Enter a string. |
Password |
This field is only visible if you enable an option with login above. Enter a username for POP3 authentication. Enter a string. |
Transport-Level Security |
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POP3 Specific |
Define the security level for the sensor connection:
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Debug Options |
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Sensor Result |
Define what PRTG does with the sensor results:
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This option is not available when the sensor runs on the Sensor Display |
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Primary Channel |
Select a channel from the list to define it as the primary channel. In the device tree, the last value of the primary channel is always displayed below the sensor's name. The available options depend on what channels are available for this sensor.
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Graph Type |
Define how different channels are shown for this sensor:
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Stack Unit |
This field is only visible if you enable Stack channels on top of each other as Graph Type. Select a unit from the list. All channels with this unit are stacked on top of each other. By default, you cannot exclude single channels from stacking if they use the selected unit. However, there is an advanced procedure to do so. |
By default, all of the following settings are inherited from objects that are higher in the hierarchy and should be changed there if necessary. Often, best practice is to change them centrally in the Root group's settings. For more information, see section Inheritance of Settings. To change a setting for this object only, disable inheritance by clicking the button next to inherit from under the corresponding setting name. You then see the options described below.
Scanning Interval |
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Click |
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Scanning Interval |
Select a scanning interval (seconds, minutes, or hours). The scanning interval determines the amount of time that the sensor waits between two scans. You can change the available intervals in the system administration on PRTG on premises installations. |
If a Sensor Query Fails |
Define the number of scanning intervals that the sensor has time to reach and check a device again in case a sensor query fails. Depending on the option that you select, the sensor can try to reach and check a device again several times before the sensor shows a Down status. This can avoid false alarms if the monitored device only has temporary issues. For previous scanning intervals with failed requests, the sensor shows a Warning status. Choose from:
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Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window |
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Schedule |
Select a schedule from the list. Schedules can be used to monitor for a certain time span (days or hours) every week.
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Maintenance Window |
Specify if you want to set up a one-time maintenance window. During a maintenance window, the current object and all child objects are not monitored. They are in a Paused status instead. Choose between:
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Maintenance Begins |
This field is only visible if you enable Set up a one-time maintenance window above. Use the date time picker to enter the start date and time of the maintenance window. |
Maintenance Ends |
This field is only visible if you enable Set up a one-time maintenance window above. Use the date time picker to enter the end date and time of the maintenance window. |
Dependency Type |
Define a dependency type. You can use dependencies to pause monitoring for an object depending on the status of another object. You can choose from:
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Dependency |
This field is only visible if you enable Select a sensor above. Click the Search button and use the object selector to select a sensor on which the current object will depend. |
Dependency Delay (Sec.) |
This field is only visible if you enable Select a sensor above. Define a time span in seconds for dependency delay. After the master sensor for this dependency comes back to an Up status, monitoring of the dependent objects is additionally delayed by the defined time span. This can help avoid false alarms, for example, after a server restart, by giving systems more time for all services to start up. Enter an integer value.
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Access Rights |
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Click |
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User Group Access |
Define the user groups that have access to the selected object. A table with user groups and types of access rights is shown. It contains all user groups from your setup. For each user group, you can choose from the following access rights:
You can create new user groups in the System Administration—User Groups settings. To automatically set all objects further down in the hierarchy to inherit this object's access rights, set a check mark for the Revert children's access rights to inherited option.
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To change display settings, spike filtering, and limits, switch to the sensor's Overview tab and click the gear icon of a specific channel. For detailed information, see section Sensor Channel Settings.
Click the Notification Triggers tab to change notification triggers. For detailed information, see section Sensor Notification Triggers Settings.
For more general information about settings, see section Object Settings.
For information about sensor settings, see the following sections:
