Re: Why the mail error for domains I don't host?

From: Mark Sergeant (msergeant_at_snsonline.net)
Date: 02/21/05

  • Next message: skip_at_mojam.com: "Re: Hi"
    Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2005 15:26:56 +1000
    To: bv@wjv.com
    
    

    On 21/02/2005, at 14:36, Bill Vermillion wrote:

    > The door open and in walked trouble - disguised as our our old
    > nemesis Blake Swensen, who uttered, at Sun, Feb 20, 2005 at 19:27 :
    >
    >> sendmail[93922]: j1L2kZa5093920: SYSERR(root):
    >> mx1.distinguish.com. config error: mail loops back to me (MX
    >> problem?)
    >
    >> I know everyone has seen this message at least once in their
    >> life from improperly configured sendmail. However, my log is
    >> filling up with these messages for domains I do not host.... and
    >> when I dig the mentioned host, it always resolves to localhost
    >> (127.0.0.1). This happens over and over again on for domain
    >> after domain. Are there really that many unskilled admins who
    >> publish their mail server's address as localhost, or is this
    >> some sort of hack that I should worry about?
    >
    > I won't call myself unskilled - but I have one domain that
    > in desperation I set the MX record to localhost.
    >
    > I was running about 300,000 spam messages PER DAY to that domain.
    >
    > Removing the MX record entirely cut me down to 25,000 to 50,000
    > per day - as people would send the spam to the IP of the
    > web server. [both web and MX are on that one machine for a few
    > domains].
    >
    > I know it's not supposed to be done, but I did this in
    > self-defense.
    >
    > The domain in question has been coming up #1 in Google, MSN, and
    > other search engines for the past 5 or so years - because it's
    > on of those domains that has a great name.
    >
    > During the height of the dot-com boom the owner was offered
    > $250,000 for the domain - $10K in cash in the rest in stock - which
    > was the sign of the times then.
    >
    > We're heading toward our peak which is typically March - and that's
    > about 7000 sessions/day and about 325,000 hits/day.
    >
    > Sorry if this site is giving you problems, but I'm open to any
    > suggestions that will keep the spam away and the 127.0.0.1
    > is the only one I could come up with.

    127.0.0.2 maybe, I can't think that many boxes will actually have that
    bound (apart from my laptop but thats a different matter entirely !).

    >
    > None of the other domains is set up this way - and all the mail
    > we host is for commecial sites - with no end-user/home accounts
    > at all.
    >
    > Bill
    >
    > --
    > Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com
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