Mailinglist problems?
Hi,
as of late I'm getting a lot of messages with a couple of days(!) delay delivered. Others from the same thread come in with no noticable delay.
For example
From: Steven Whitehouse <[email protected]>
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: 2.5.68: net/decnet/dn_route.c doesn't compile
got stuck five days in some queue
Received: from vger.kernel.org (EHLO vger.kernel.org) (209.116.70.75)
by mx0.gmx.net (mx011-rz3) with SMTP; 28 Apr 2003 06:09:39 +0200
Received: ([email protected]) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand
id S263532AbTDWTdt (ORCPT <rfc822;[email protected]>); Wed, 23 Apr 2003 15:33:49 -0400
Replies to this came in long before. Anyone else having these sort of problems lately or should I go flame my email provider? :)
Bye
Signature · 4 lines
Oliver Feiler <kiza@(kcore.de|lionking.org|gmx[pro].net)> http://kiza.kcore.de/ <-- homepage PGP-key --> /pgpkey.shtml http://kiza.kcore.de/journal/
Quoted 4 lines · Oliver Feiler
Hi,
as of late I'm getting a lot of messages with a couple of days(!) delay delivered. Others from the same thread come in with no noticable delay.
For some reason (while I was away from network), GMX.NET servers have decided that vger.kernel.org is mail-bombing recipients.
There are some 30-40 recipients of linux-kernel list at GMX.NET, and there are (varying) 100-300 emails per day for each of them.
Quoted 1 line
For example
...
Quoted 2 lines
Replies to this came in long before. Anyone else having these sort of problems lately or should I go flame my email provider? :)
I forwarded to you, and all other GMX.NET domain subscribers the letter
I have already sent to [email protected] -- but you (as their
customers) may have more weight that an external nobody, like myself...
Most common troubles that users have are:
- "Relaying denied" (in its many forms
--> http://vger.kernel.org/mxverify.html )
- "Mailbox full" (these lists are of HIGH VOLUME!)
- DNS-lookup/connection timed out for 4+ days
Then come various weird things, like overzealous reg-expr message content filters, broken MTA configurations (don't people ever test that their changes do work ?), etc...
Quoted 6 lines
Bye
Signature · 4 lines
Oliver Feiler <kiza@(kcore.de|lionking.org|gmx[pro].net)> http://kiza.kcore.de/ <-- homepage PGP-key --> /pgpkey.shtml http://kiza.kcore.de/journal/
/Matti Aarnio -- co-postmaster of vger.kernel.org
Hi,
Quoted 2 lines · Matti Aarnio
For some reason (while I was away from network), GMX.NET servers have decided that vger.kernel.org is mail-bombing recipients.
Ugh, not good. Ok, I switched of that mail-bombing filter. Let's see if it makes a difference.
Quoted 10 lines
I forwarded to you, and all other GMX.NET domain subscribers the letter
I have already sent to [email protected] -- but you (as their
customers) may have more weight that an external nobody, like myself...Most common troubles that users have are:
- "Relaying denied" (in its many forms
--> http://vger.kernel.org/mxverify.html )
- "Mailbox full" (these lists are of HIGH VOLUME!)
- DNS-lookup/connection timed out for 4+ days
Quoted 3 lines
Then come various weird things, like overzealous reg-expr message content filters, broken MTA configurations (don't people ever test that their changes do work ?), etc...
Ok, I'll try contacting their support about this. That filter never was a problem earlier, maybe they changed something that f*cked it up. Hey, I have a paid account there, maybe they listen to me. ;)
Thanks for the quick reply.
Signature · 4 lines
Oliver Feiler <kiza@(kcore.de|lionking.org|gmx[pro].net)> http://kiza.kcore.de/ <-- homepage PGP-key --> /pgpkey.shtml http://kiza.kcore.de/journal/
Quoted 3 lines
Quoted 3 lines
Most common troubles that users have are:
- "Relaying denied" (in its many forms
--> http://vger.kernel.org/mxverify.html )
Btw. I tried mxverify script on my SMTP.
At the bottom it says:
Testing server at address: IPv6 3ffe:8320:2:18::57
ERROR: Failed to create AF_INET6 type socket! err='Address family not supported by protocol'
I am IP6 enabled, so is my SMTP, so it appears that host the script is running is not ip6 enabled.
Just letting you know.
Regards,
Maciej
Quoted 3 lines · Matti Aarnio
Then come various weird things, like overzealous reg-expr message content filters, broken MTA configurations (don't people ever test that their changes do work ?), etc...
Smaller operators and a number of company Intranets have SysAdmins who don't have a clue how to test changes in their configuration. They don't have "outside" accounts, not even ones a Yahoo or other web-mail places, so they can't evaluate their changes. They also run exactly one mail server suite, the production servers, and make changes willy-nilly to the live system without fear of consequences. (Smart mail admins have a test server and a way of exercising it -- Mail Admin 101.)
So many clueless Mail Admins I've seen have strange letters, like MCSE, after their name. Also RHCE, I'm sorry to say. (It's amazing how many people put stock in certification, only to learn that it's no bar to true twits. Any sorry tech who knows how to take exams can get most of the first- and second-level certifications with ease. Still sorry admins, but sorry admins with paper.)
Developers haven't helped much. For example, one feature I loved in IPCHAINS was the ability to run packets through the software in a testing mode and see what happened to them. I haven't found a similar function in IPTABLES yet. From this comment in the IPTABLES man page, it isn't there yet:
Quoted 2 lines
BUGS
Check is not implemented (yet).
(And some joker removed this from later versions of IPTABLES, but there is still no "check" option!)
Now, how many MTAs have you encountered that let you "play" mail through them to see what happens? I've used fetchmail to do the job (inject a mailstream) on a test system, and that helps quite a bit, but then again I know about fetchmail because I once had to deal with ConcentricNet (XO) and wanting to run mail sent to my account there through my spam filters, and I have quite a corpus of spam mail I have saved just for the purpose.
Getting back to our mutton, until the marketplace requires a certain amount of USEFUL knowledge in its administrators (something like the NSFnet days) the things you are talking about will continue to be there.
OK, I'll shut up now.
Satch
--
X -> unknown; Spurt -> drip of water under pressure Expert -> X-Spurt -> Unknown drip under pressure.