Blocking IP address

[Steve Lamb]

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Tuesday, September 19, 2000, 8:00:49 PM, Dr. wrote:
> As I read this the mail was blocked not because of spamming by Sarras
> but because the IP address has been blacklisted, possibly from MAPS
> or ORBS.   There is a procedure to get on and get off the list, and
> your history will be documented if you are on it.   Go to:

    If it were MAPS or ORBS (Isn't ORBS depreciated now?) I'd be on a LOT more
blocked lists including several people that I mail on a daily basis.
Furthermore it was from two separate SMTP servers.  One was the one for
rpglink.com/dmiyu.org, the other was internal to Earthlink.  If the ELNK
server were on MAPS or ORBS I'd know because of the volume of mail and talent
behind that one as well.  :)

> If you can't get through to <postmaster> try <root>.    If that fails,
> do a lookup for the owner.   If that fails, run a trace route and contact
> their upstream.

    Nah.  If postmaster is blocked the rest are blocked because the dimwit
running the server doesn't read his RFCs.  Considering the owner and upstream
are in a different country than me and this is not a professional list (IE,
out of my own pocket) I'm not about to make international calls to resolve
someone else's broken mail configs.

> FYI it is not at all unusual for postmaster to be blocked or even not
> enabled.  I run into it frequently.

    Regardless, RFC822 is clear on that matter.

   6.3.  RESERVED ADDRESS

          It often is necessary to send mail to a site, without  know-
     ing  any  of its valid addresses.  For example, there may be mail
     system dysfunctions, or a user may wish to find  out  a  person's
     correct address, at that site.

          This standard specifies a single, reserved  mailbox  address
     (local-part)  which  is  to  be valid at each site.  Mail sent to
     that address is to be routed to  a  person  responsible  for  the
     site's mail system or to a person with responsibility for general
     site operation.  The name of the reserved local-part address is:

                                Postmaster

     so that "Postmaster@domain" is required to be valid.

     Note:  This reserved local-part must be  matched  without  sensi-
            tivity to alphabetic case, so that "POSTMASTER", "postmas-
            ter", and even "poStmASteR" is to be accepted.


    "This standard specified a single, reserved mailbox address (local-part)
***which is to be vali at each site.***  Mail sent to that address ***is to be
routed to a person responsible for the site's mail system or to a person with
responsibility for general site operation.***

    Emphasis mine, of course.  But those two lines say, in short, postmaster
must be valid, must be accepted, must be routed.  Blocking postmaster fails
the third directive.  :)


> Please report back what you find as I am sure it would interest other
> list members.  This kind of communication breakdown will become more
> important as time passes.

> Jeffrey Race

> On Tue, 19 Sep 2000 07:52:08 -0700, Steve Lamb wrote:

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>>    Whomever Alexander is going through for mail is being stupid.  Blocking
>>postmaster which according to RFC is /ALWAYS/ supposed to be open for
>>administrative messages.  Always.  I even tried from my work account and they
>>were doing the same crap there, blocking postmaster for spamming.  From an
>>internal company mail server that is locked down tight.  :(
>>
>>===================Original message text===============
>>From: Mail Delivery System <Mailer-Daemon@rpglink.com>
>>To: grey@dmiyu.org <grey@dmiyu.org>
>>Date: Tuesday, September 19, 2000, 7:45:13 AM
>>Subject: Mail delivery failed: returning message to sender
>>
>>This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.
>>
>>A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
>>recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:
>>
>>  postmaster@ap.univie.ac.at:
>>    SMTP error from remote mailer after RCPT TO:<postmaster@ap.univie.ac.at>:
>>    host merlin.ap.univie.ac.at [131.130.11.52]:
>>    550 On Blacklist (rule I2-20) !\r
>>    421 No way. You should better give it up spamming us.




- --
         Steve C. Lamb         | I'm your priest, I'm your shrink, I'm your
         ICQ: 5107343          | main connection to the switchboard of souls.
- -------------------------------+---------------------------------------------

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