Lan Barnes wrote:
> On Mon, April 30, 2007 10:08 am, Neil Schneider wrote:
>>
>> Lan Barnes wrote:
>>> Forwarded in its entirety is this mail bounce notice. I need adult
>>> advice on what it means. It looks to me like a Canadian Doctor spam
>>> was sent
>>>
>> <snip>
>>> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: host 139.98.9.13[139.98.9.13] said: 550 5.1.1
>>> Recipient unknown (in reply to RCPT TO command)
>>
>> Unless these IP addresses belong to you, ignore these messages. I
>> suspect the bounce went to the "from" address (yours) instead of back
>> to the server it originated from. I occasionally see these addressed
>> to me. Unless you are running an open relay these are likely
>> misdirected bounces.
>>
>
> If running an open relay is something one does actively, I have never
> done that. I don't know exactly what that means, but from my reading
> it has always sounded like something an ISP might want to do, but not
> a home network ever. I _think_ it means I configure my machine to
> indiscriminately forward any damn email that makes an intermediary
> hop to my box. I can't think why I would want to do that.
>
> The machine in question, a FC5, has postfix installed but not running.
> sendmail isn't even installed. I send no mail from it and read none.
> It is the ssh destination for my firewall, and that's it.
>
> --
> Lan Barnes
>
> SCM Analyst Linux Guy
> Tcl/Tk Enthusiast Biodiesel Brewer
Lan,
An open mail relay is an SMTP (e-mail) server configured in such a
way that it allows anyone on the Internet to relay (i.e. send) e-mail
through it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_mail_relay has the full
explanation. Since you're not running any SMTPd on your server, then you
can't be an open relay. No one wants to run an open relay, but that's a
pretty harsh statement. There might be a reason to run one internally. In
any case, the bounce message is meaningless. Someone somewhere has a
computer that's been compromised, and your email address is in their
addressbook. They randomly picked you as the sender of the bounced email and
you got the bounced message. No big deal, just delete it and move on, I
don't think you have a problem.
Thanks!
Mark Schoonover
IS Manager
American Geotechnical - California, Nevada and Arizona
V-> 858.450.4040 F-> 714.685.3909 C-> 858.472.3816
"Eternity is a very long time, especially towards the end." -- Stephen
Hawking
--
[email protected]
http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
