Re: [tlug] gstewart@example.com mail not working

[Curt Sampson <cjs@example.com>]

On 2010-03-14 14:30 +0000 (Sun), Godwin Stewart wrote:

> It is not down.

Ok. Let me correct that. You're trying to look as if you're not blocking
mail but instead your server is down.

> Most of Asia is in a firewall blocking access to port 25.
> ...
> > and another on a GOL business connection (priv.dyadic.cynic.net).
> Nor is 122.103.239.153 [allowed].

So it's clear, you really do want to block not just compromised hosts
sending spam, but regular mail from most businesses, groups like TLUG,
and so on.

So what mystifies me is,

    a) what are you doing on an Asian list where most people on the
    list can't send you a reply to the address in your From: line, and

    b) why do you want to make people think they've reached you when
    they haven't, and make the issue hard to debug, wasting their and
    their sysadmins time?

Or are you just completely unaware that you could avoid rudely wasting
people's time by allowing the connection and sending a standard "554
5.7.1 Service unavailable; Client host [1.2.3.4] blocked because I
refuse mail from all Asian hosts" or whatever?

> Attacks from numerous netblocks in APNIC space were hammering my
> server and bringing it to its knees.

Attacks via SMTP? I'm not buying this, though feel free to prove me
wrong.

> If you're caught up in the blacklisting then I'm sorry about that and
> I appreciate your frustration....

Hey, it's a simple fix for me: if you're seriously going to be so rude
as to a) advertise specifically to Internet users in Japan a service
that you then don't actually provide them, and b) make it very hard to
diagnose what's going on, I'll just tell my MTAs to reject any mail with
@bonivet.net in the From: header.

If your particular strategy is actually due to choice, rather than just
ignorance, my opinion would also be, get the heck off the TLUG list:
you're not welcome here.

cjs
-- 
Curt Sampson         <cjs@example.com>         +81 90 7737 2974
             http://www.starling-software.com
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism
by those who have not got it.    --George Bernard Shaw