On Fri, 7 Jun 1996 22:29:05 EDT, Roger Fajman wrote:
>> I have recently been getting queries from the subscribers asking why they
>> are receiving error posts.
>>
>> The posts are Rejected posts originating from other subscribers.
 
If the errors are from subscribers other than the From address, then the
mail system bouncing them is truly FUBAR.
 
>Some email systems send bounce messages to the From address of the message,
>rather than the SMTP MAIL FROM (envelope from) address, which is the place
>that Internet Mail standards call for error messages to be sent.
 
The standard is RFC 1123.  I persistently write back to the postmaster at
every site I find doing that and ask that they configure their mail
software to conform to the standard; otherwise, I promise to filter that
host and urge other list owners to do so as well.  My memory says that RFC
1123 dates from 1989 (but perhaps it is from 1987?).  At any rate, in the
years since I've been asking postmasters to conform to Internet standards,
I've run into only one bozo who insists that his system must be okay (sysop
at sdoct.com, apparently a BBS that gateways to the Internet via
Netcom--Netcom passes the buck by saying it's up to the local administrator
to configure properly) because he purchased it from eSoft and because they
are the largest (really?) producer of BBS software, they must have it
right.
 
In the couple of months since I've communicated with sdoct.com, the sysop
may have gotten his act together, but I would view ANY subscriptions from
that system as suspect until proven otherwise.  As far as I know, EVERY
other postmaster I've contacted has addressed the problem (or subscribers
from the host have disappeared from lists that I own or subscribe to and I
can no longer tell), and over the last 7 years or so I've contacted
hundreds.
 
As the Net grows ever larger (and the RFC's get older and more generally
incorporated into current mail and gateway software), it is less and less
feasible to tolerate those who put up hosts without an adequate idea of how
to manage them.  I propose a general policy of world-wide filtering of
hosts that can't manage to configure mail daemons properly (after a
reasonable time to correct errors and other unintended glitches).
 
/s Murphy A. Sewall <[log in to unmask]>      (860) 486-2489 voice
   Professor of Marketing                          (860) 456-7725 fax
   http://mktg.sba.uconn.edu/MKT/Faculty/Sewall.html