[HECnet] Mailing list...

[Johnny Billquist]

Hi, all.

I have an issue with some mail servers/providers that some people use. 
I'm open to some suggestions, but also want to point out something to 
people who are subscribed.

Sometimes I start getting mails bouncing for some subscribers. I do try 
to check why, and occasionally there have been something I could do 
about it, but many times it's simply what I would call a broken mail 
server for which there isn't much I can do. So occasionally I 
unsubscribe people for which I'm just getting bounces all the time.

One such example is one server who claims that 130.238.19.25 don't have 
reverse DNS. Which is clearly incorrect. It have had proper DNS setup 
for at least 20 years. I have no idea how that mail server is set up, 
but I can't do much about it.

Other times mails gets denied because of some blocking service who 
thinks the hecnet mails are just spam, or the host (Update) is 
untrustworthy, or have a bad reputation or what not. Usually not much I 
can do about those either. If people (or companies) decide to make use 
of such services, and such services give that kind of information, it 
essentially just means that you'll not be getting the hecnet mails any more.

There is only so much I'm willing to do to try and sort such things out. 
I do consider such services and solutions to be fundamentally broken to 
start with, but I will of course not say that people can't use them if 
they want to. But chances are that you'll get dropped from the HECnet 
mailing list sooner or later, unless you are using some 
service/technology that actually do work (not sure if any such exists).

An example I got today (actual mailbox names redacted):

> <XXXXXX at xs4all.nl> (expanded from <hecnet-list>): host
>     mx4.xs4all.nl[194.109.24.139] said: 550 5.7.1 Spam message rejected by
>     06ULCRRd021949 on mxdrop301.xs4all.net, reason=CH (in reply to end of DATA
>     command)

reason=CH ?
What does that mean. The mail is rejected because it came from 
Switzerland? (Yes, I do live in Switzerland, and yes, it was a mail I 
sent to the list, but really? Is all mail from Switzerland suspect now?)

> <XXXXXX at me.com> (expanded from <hecnet-list>): host
>     mx01.mail.icloud.com[17.57.152.9] said: 554 5.7.1 [CS01] Message rejected
>     due to local policy. Please visit https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204137
>     (in reply to end of DATA command)
> 
> <XXXXXX at me.com> (expanded from <hecnet-list>): host
>     mx01.mail.icloud.com[17.57.152.9] said: 554 5.7.1 [CS01] Message rejected
>     due to local policy. Please visit https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204137
>     (in reply to end of DATA command)


Rejected due to local policy?
Following the link don't really give an answer, but just various 
recommendation.

Most of those recommendations are already done (and have been the whole 
time) by the HECnet list. SPF and DKIM we don't use. I had that setup 
for a while on a mail server of my own, and came to realize that it hurt 
more than it helped, so I removed it again. I doubt this will be setup 
on Update any time soon, but either way, it's not there now, and it's 
not even clear if that is the reason for the rejects, or some other 
thing. There is also no way to even get in touch with Apple in this 
case, to fix this. So there is a fair chance I'll have to unsubscribe a 
few more addresses in the near future...

I am not really interested in moving the mailing list to some other 
host. Any suggestions from anyone on this topic?

   Johnny

-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se             ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol