[Mailman-Users] spam, AOL and server names
Dennis Morgan
dennis at e-aa.org
Thu Mar 22 15:10:46 CET 2007
Thanks for your reply Brad.
Yeah, I read and reread the FAQ. Mailman has one of the best faq's I've
ever seen.
The percentage of our mail that AOL rejects is just huge - around 90% -
I was hoping that maybe someone could see something that we were doing
wrong. It'd be nice to get the rejection rate down.
Dennis
Brad Knowles wrote:
> At 7:59 AM -0500 3/20/07, Dennis Morgan wrote:
>
>> A persistent problem we've had is a significant amount of our users are
>> AOL - and many are clueless. We're pretty ruthless about deleting AOL
>> users when we get a report that someone is using their spam button -
>> but
>> even so a lot (most) of our mail to AOL gets rejected. We've decided
>> that part of the problem is we're using an older version of majordomo.
>
> See also FAQ 3.42.
>
>> I *think* another part of our problem can be found in this bit of our
>> dns report from dnsstuff.com:
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> OK: All of your mailservers have their host name in the greeting:
>>
>> mail.e-aa.org:
>> 220 dedicated.bixbycreek.com ESMTP Sendmail 8.12.10/8.12.10;
>> Tue, 20
>> Mar 2007 05:44:34 -0800
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
>> In other words our mailing domain name is different than our mail
>> server
>> domain name.
>
> That shouldn't be an issue. I send e-mail as brad at shub-internet.org,
> although I may use any number of different servers as my outbound mail
> relay for those messages depending on where I am, what computer I'm
> using and what network it uses to access the Internet, etc....
>
> Only really stupid people check the domain name of your envelope
> sender and require that it be sent from a machine with a matching
> domain name. I've run into some stupid people like this, but I'm
> pretty sure they're not doing this at AOL -- we weeded out that kind
> of stupidity years ago, when I was the Sr. Internet Mail Administrator
> at AOL.
>
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> WARNING: One or more of your mailservers is claiming to be a host other
>> than what it really is (the SMTP greeting should be a 3-digit code,
>> followed by a space or a dash, then the host name). If your mailserver
>> sends out E-mail using this domain in its EHLO or HELO, your E-mail
>> might get blocked by anti-spam software. This is also a technical
>> violation of RFC821 4.3 (and RFC2821 4.3.1). Note that the hostname
>> given in the SMTP greeting should have an A record pointing back to the
>> same server. Note that this one test may use a cached DNS record.
>>
>> mail.eaachat.org claims to be non-existent host dedicated.eaachat.org:
>> 220 dedicated.eaachat.org ESMTP
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> I don't think that this is a problem, either. But I'd need to see for
> myself to be certain.
>
>> I'm assuming that both of the above problems are part of our AOL
>> problems. Am I correct? And if so - does anyone have a tip or two about
>> what to do to resolve it?
>>
>> We're creating an SPF record to see if that helps - we really want at
>> least some of our mail to get through to AOL. We plan to make the
>> switch
>> next week.
>
> Don't use SPF. Don't use it anywhere. It causes way more problems
> than it can possibly solve. Everything I said back in 2004 on this
> subject is still applicable today, if not more so. See
> <http://bradknowles.typepad.com/considered_harmful/2004/05/spf.html>.
>
More information about the Mailman-Users
mailing list