April 2008 - WLUG - wlug.mailman3.com

Re: [Wlug] SPF

by Keith Wright

> From: Richard Klein <richspk(a)gmail.com> > > Hmm... Have you ever called Speakeasy and asked them to set up reverse DNS > for you? I seem to recall that's something they have to do on their end. Yes. As I said, that was all done years ago. Though actually I never called them. It was done via email. You might think that answering email would be the basic entry level requirement, the sine qua non/nada/zilch, that any moron would learn to do before becoming an ISP. Sadly, most Idiot Service Providers seem to be totally unable to answer email from customers. They are only interested in phone calls from people who have no email. Speakeasy has someone who knows what is and who answers email at 2am Sunday faster than most of them can get an sales droid to pick up the phone during business hours. Anyway, I run a primary name server while they run a couple of secondaries and reverse DNS. I think I may have an officially "dynamic" IP address, but it was set up before DHCP. Speakeasy gave me an address when I signed up and since then neither of us have had any reason to touch it. -- Keith

April 8, 2008

Re: [Wlug] SPF

by Richard Klein

> -----Original Message----- > From: Keith Wright > > Yes, that's a good idea. That's why I did it about four years ago. > > It works well, maybe sending mail through Speakeasy is not > really necessary, but I seem to remember that I had a problem > with rejected mail when I sent it from my own machine. > > Maybe something else was wrong, but it's not too broken now, > so I don't fix it. > > -- Keith Hmm... Have you ever called Speakeasy and asked them to set up reverse DNS for you? I seem to recall that's something they have to do on their end. > PS: The answer to the original question was that I use > SPF for outgoing mail, but not incoming. It works, > but maybe anything else would work as well. > Maybe something else would work better. > > Outgoing SPF requires setting up a Domain Name Server. > Once that works it's easy. Example zone records were in > the original answer. > > Incoming SPF reqires setting up an SMTP server. > Even after the SMTP server is working, setting up SPF is > fairly complicated. Maybe there is a distribution that does > most of the setup for you. Thanks for the reminder. Unfortunately, I don't have an answer to the original question. -- Rich

April 7, 2008

Re: [Wlug] SPF

by Doug Chamberlin

Chaim The Squirrel Keeper wrote: > The relevance is just that you don't need those extra-cost services to > get a domain name. When you get a domain name, and set up your MX, > reverse DNS, and other records properly, other mail servers recognize > your mail server as being part of a legitimate domain instead of just > an anonymous user of an ISP's IP address pool. Except that, as Keith has experienced, and as I have also experienced, some systems recognize the sending IP address as coming from a block of known dynamically assigned addresses and reject the messages/connections even though all the domain info has been set up correctly. I have used TZO's services to work around this in the past. Highly recommended.

April 7, 2008

Re: [Wlug] SPF

by Keith Wright

> From: "Chaim The Squirrel Keeper" <richspk(a)gmail.com> > > On Sun, Apr 6, 2008 at 4:03 PM, Keith Wright <kwright(a)keithdiane.us> wrote: > > > From: "Chaim The Squirrel Keeper" <richspk(a)gmail.com> > > > > > > On Sun, Apr 6, 2008 at 1:46 AM, Keith Wright <kwright(a)keithdiane.us> wrote: > > > > > > mail gets rejected out of hand, just because it > > > comes from a dsl line. > > > > If that's the reason your mail gets rejected, it's pretty cheap to > > get yourself a domain name without hosting or co-lo. > > > > I send mail from a computer in my basement through a DSL > > line. There is no "hosting" or "co-lo" as I understand > > those terms, so I don't see the relevance of your comment. > > The relevance is just that you don't need those extra-cost services to > get a domain name. When you get a domain name, and set up your MX, > reverse DNS, and other records properly, other mail servers recognize > your mail server as being part of a legitimate domain instead of just > an anonymous user of an ISP's IP address pool. Yes, that's a good idea. That's why I did it about four years ago. It works well, maybe sending mail through Speakeasy is not really necessary, but I seem to remember that I had a problem with rejected mail when I sent it from my own machine. Maybe something else was wrong, but it's not too broken now, so I don't fix it. -- Keith PS: The answer to the original question was that I use SPF for outgoing mail, but not incoming. It works, but maybe anything else would work as well. Maybe something else would work better. Outgoing SPF requires setting up a Domain Name Server. Once that works it's easy. Example zone records were in the original answer. Incoming SPF reqires setting up an SMTP server. Even after the SMTP server is working, setting up SPF is fairly complicated. Maybe there is a distribution that does most of the setup for you.

April 6, 2008

Re: [Wlug] SPF

by Chaim The Squirrel Keeper

On Sun, Apr 6, 2008 at 4:03 PM, Keith Wright <kwright(a)keithdiane.us> wrote: > > From: "Chaim The Squirrel Keeper" <richspk(a)gmail.com> > > > > On Sun, Apr 6, 2008 at 1:46 AM, Keith Wright <kwright(a)keithdiane.us> wrote: > > > > > mail gets rejected out of hand, just because it > > > comes from a dsl line. > > > > If that's the reason your mail gets rejected, it's pretty cheap to > > get yourself a domain name without hosting or co-lo. > > I send mail from a computer in my basement through a DSL > line. There is no "hosting" or "co-lo" as I understand > those terms, so I don't see the relevance of your comment. The relevance is just that you don't need those extra-cost services to get a domain name. When you get a domain name, and set up your MX, reverse DNS, and other records properly, other mail servers recognize your mail server as being part of a legitimate domain instead of just an anonymous user of an ISP's IP address pool. -- Rich

April 6, 2008

Re: [Wlug] SPF

by Keith Wright

> From: "Chaim The Squirrel Keeper" <richspk(a)gmail.com> > > On Sun, Apr 6, 2008 at 1:46 AM, Keith Wright <kwright(a)keithdiane.us> wrote: > > > mail gets rejected out of hand, just because it > > comes from a dsl line. > > If that's the reason your mail gets rejected, it's pretty cheap to > get yourself a domain name without hosting or co-lo. I send mail from a computer in my basement through a DSL line. There is no "hosting" or "co-lo" as I understand those terms, so I don't see the relevance of your comment. -- Keith

April 6, 2008

Linux System Admin recommendations?

by Andrew Schiller

We are a small local company that is trying to do something different. We have chosen open source technologies in building our ideas. As the company has become more successful we need help supporting them. We are looking for a team of folks who are passionate about technology and know open source to provide thoughtful, reliable system administration services for our Redhat linux os systems. We have made some bad choices in the past, and as a result received service that has hurt us. We don't know where to look for guidance in choosing, and we are hoping the user group can recommend some good folks who will be there when we need them with depth of knowledge and abilities in performing routine maintenance as well as emergency support when we need it. Your recommendations would truly mean a lot to us. Mercader

April 6, 2008

Re: [Wlug] DNS settings

by Brian J. Conway

On Sun, 6 Apr 2008 14:44:38 +0530 Deepan <codeshepherd(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Hi All, > I would like to configure my laptop to use > 4.2.2.2/4.2.2.3 as DNS. The problems is everytime > my machines requests for a dynamic IP via DHCP, my > DNS settings get reset. Is it possible to override > this? I am running Fedora 8. > Regards > Deepan > Sudoku Solver: http://www.sudoku-solver.net/ It will depend on the DHCP client you use, of course, but all my OSes have standardized on ISC's dhclient. In that case, it's a matter of editing /etc/dhclient.conf (or /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf) and making use of the following or similar lines: supersede domain-name "example.com"; prepend domain-name-servers 127.0.0.1; I think you can use supersede, prepend, and append for any of the above, but the documentation can tell you for sure. Brian J. Conway

April 6, 2008

Re: [Wlug] Forwarding mail servers, was: SPF

by Dick Goodman

I've had a Speakeasy DSL for -- I think -- about 6 years. I've got two mail servers, serving more than half a dozen domains. I don't forward through Speakeasy and I've never had a problem with rejected mail. Of course my Speakeasy DSL has multiple static IPs, which might make a difference. Keith, I wish I only got 100 spam/day .. across all my accounts its closer to a million/year incoming Dick >On Sun, Apr 6, 2008 at 1:46 AM, Keith Wright <kwright(a)keithdiane.us> wrote: >> I don't use Speakeasy web mail, >> but if I don't forward through Speakeasy, too much >> mail gets rejected out of hand, just because it >> comes from a dsl line. (I think. (It's been >> a while since I tried it, and you never know >> exactly why you have been rejected.)) > >If that's the reason your mail gets rejected, it's pretty cheap to get >yourself a domain name without hosting or co-lo. > >-- >Rich

April 6, 2008

Re: [Wlug] SPF

by Chaim The Squirrel Keeper

On Sun, Apr 6, 2008 at 1:46 AM, Keith Wright <kwright(a)keithdiane.us> wrote: > I don't use Speakeasy web mail, > but if I don't forward through Speakeasy, too much > mail gets rejected out of hand, just because it > comes from a dsl line. (I think. (It's been > a while since I tried it, and you never know > exactly why you have been rejected.)) If that's the reason your mail gets rejected, it's pretty cheap to get yourself a domain name without hosting or co-lo. -- Rich

April 6, 2008