[Cialug] Administrivia

[Matt]

Sorry, didn't mean to send to the list, and the iPod likes to hide who you are replying to.  Just to clarify, my mail server issue isn't Dave's fault, as I never told him where to point the PTR record.

Matt, the IT Wannabe
http://www.itwannabe.com/

On Apr 9, 2011, at 9:33 AM, Matt <matt at itwannabe.com> wrote:

> My server, hosted by Dave at Internet solver, doesn't resolve properly.  The only place this ever caused me problems was on craigslist, so I never bothered complaining about it.  I'll get in touch with Dave, but I doubt it will be solved before Monday.
> 
> Matt, the IT Wannabe
> http://www.itwannabe.com/
> 
> On Apr 8, 2011, at 9:14 PM, Nicolai <nicolai-cialug at chocolatine.org> wrote:
> 
>> Hello all,
>> 
>> This is a long message but you can skip over it if the following items
>> don't apply to you:
>> 
>> 1. Forward-confirmed reverse DNS for your mailserver, which will soon be
>> required for sending mail to cialug.org.  (Let me know if this applies
>> to you!)
>> 
>> 2. A description of small changes I've made to the cialug.org mail config.
>> 
>> 3. Posts from non-subscriber addresses.  (Let me know if you do!)
>> 
>> First, I want to remind folks that they will soon need to have proper
>> DNS records for machines sending mail to cialug.org.
>> 
>> Who this mainly applies to: people who run their own mail servers.  It
>> should not affect many people.
>> 
>> This requirement will apply only to DNS records, not to your mail server
>> config.  And if you don't run your own mail server, it's exceedingly
>> unlikely this applies to you at all.
>> 
>> What this entails:
>> 
>> This means having matching PTR and A records, also known as
>> Forward-confirmed reverse DNS.  See:
>> 
>> https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Forward-confirmed_reverse_DNS
>> 
>> For example, your trusty cialug.org server sits on 67.224.64.36, which
>> resolves to mail.cialug.org, which in turn resolves to 67.224.64.36.  A
>> perfect match.  The great majority of spamcannons lack matching DNS
>> records, and virtually all legitimate mailservers have them.  And any
>> legit server should be able to get them, if they don't already.
>> 
>> How to verify if your mail server has matching DNS records:
>> 
>> 1. Find its (public, if necessary) IP address.
>> 2. Resolve it via the command dig -x <ip>, ie,
>> 
>>  dig -x 67.224.64.36
>> 
>> 3. Resolve the hostname you got from step #2, if applicable, via
>> dig <hostname>, ie,
>> 
>>  dig mail.cialug.org
>> 
>> If the records match, you're good to go.
>> 
>> However if you get NXDOMAIN for either query, or if the records don't
>> match, you'll need to talk to your ISP.  Explain that you need
>> Forward-confirmed reverse DNS to talk to cialug.org, as described in RFC
>> 1912, specifically section 2.1:
>> 
>> "Every Internet-reachable host should have a name.  The consequences
>>  of this are becoming more and more obvious.  Many services available
>>  on the Internet will not talk to you if you aren't correctly
>>  registered in the DNS.  Make sure your PTR and A records match.  For
>>  every IP address, there should be a matching PTR record in the
>>  in-addr.arpa domain."
>> 
>> If you don't know if this applies to you, send me a private mail with
>> your mail server's IP address and I'd be happy to check for you.
>> 
>> 
>> SECOND, Postfix is now using sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org and is blocking
>> significant amounts of spam.  (Including messages from the forged bryan@
>> botnet of recent fame.)  We don't see this spam on the list but the list
>> admins get copies of it in our mailboxes and have to wade through it
>> while maintaining mailman.  Currently it's 50 - 100 spam messages a day,
>> every day, and would presumably grow much larger as spam levels return
>> to normal after post-Rustock botnet spam levels normalize.
>> 
>> Third, I would prefer to simply discard all non-subscriber posts.  Does
>> anyone actually post from a non-subscriber address?
>> 
>> Nicolai
>> _______________________________________________
>> Cialug mailing list
>> Cialug at cialug.org
>> http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug
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