I run mailinglists.org a non-profitable mailing list server. Several people
have complained to me over the last few days about people on various lists
not getting mail. The only common thread was that the users were on AOL.
Contacting AOL did no good, as it was always a "problem with the list server".
Well, it turns out that it is a problem with AOL that NANOG folks might
be interested in:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/546689.asp?0nm=C14R&cp1=1
Now, since AOL told everyone that *MY* service was faulty, what can I do?
*SIGH*
AlanC
Well, it turns out that it is a problem with AOL that NANOG folks might
be interested in:
MSNBC News - Breaking News and News Today | Latest News
Actually it appears to be a problem with earthlink (nee mindspring). I've
been gettting a lot of spam from their server lately, and judging from the
headers it appears the mindspring servers are configured to relay mail
from any system that puts [mail.]mindspring.com in the HELO banner.
For example:
> Received: from mail.mindspring.com (pool-63.49.172.115.troy.grid.net
> [63.49.172.115]) by smtp10.atl.mindspring.net (8.9.3/8.8.5) with SMTP
> id VAA09132; Mon, 19 Mar 2001 21:24:44 -0500 (EST)
I've probably gotten a couple of dozen such spams over the past week,
sourced from all over, with the common flag being [mail.]mindspring.com in
the source spammer's HELO banner.
Of course I've tried to tell earthlink/mindspring about it but all I get
back is a stupid form letter and no action.
AOL's servers did the right thing if this is what they reacted to.
There's been talk on SPAM-L that AOL has been forming its own "ORBS-like list" of open relays, and reacting/rejecting/dropping according to some internal criteria. Seems that if you send mail to AOL, then (according to Lorin), they "will feel free to test your server for relayability" (paraphrased)...
Considering how poorly lots of Earthlink servers have historically been configured, it doesn't surprise me at all that a bunch of them were listed and had their mail dropped as probable spam.
Now, if only AOL would make the list available for public use, we could all block Earthlink. 
D
Unless the network is lying to me again, Eric A. Hall said:
Actually it appears to be a problem with earthlink (nee mindspring). I've
been gettting a lot of spam from their server lately, and judging from the
headers it appears the mindspring servers are configured to relay mail
from any system that puts [mail.]mindspring.com in the HELO banner.
That may be the case, but the fix is not to put any server that generates
"lots of mail" into the bitbucket. I've been getting complaints from a
number of list members (no spam or relaying from mailinglists.org, I
promise) that folks on AOL suddenly stopped getting the majority of their
list mail.
If the MSNBC article is anywhere near correct (yeah, a big assumption) then
what AOL was doing was black-holing any "high-volume" source. While that
is a noble goal, the fact that any mailing list would fall into that
category is pretty lame.
It seems to me that if you were an AOL client and suddenly all your
nanog@merit.edu mail vanished, you might consider that what they did
was NOT the right thing.
I decided to contact AOL and called their "press relations" number. I
talked to "Keith" and he basically admitted to what the article said.
Of-course they were unable to connect me with anyone with real clue, but
they did take my number and I'm awaiting a call back. "I talked to
someone in that group earlier today and there are about 70 calls they
are working on, so it may be a while"
This seems to have NOT been targeted against Earthlink/Mindspring, but
against anyone generating a high-volume e-mail stream.
AlanC
Alan Clegg wrote:
I decided to contact AOL and called their "press relations" number. I
talked to "Keith" and he basically admitted to what the article said.
Of-course they were unable to connect me with anyone with real clue, but
they did take my number and I'm awaiting a call back. "I talked to
someone in that group earlier today and there are about 70 calls they
are working on, so it may be a while"
This seems to have NOT been targeted against Earthlink/Mindspring, but
against anyone generating a high-volume e-mail stream.
I've got two contacts at AOL. One is a mail server system architect,
the other one heads the abuse desk. I'm going to see what they say about
this.
This is not surprising. I'm an Earthlink DSL customer, and when I
alert them to misconfigurations that stop hundreds of their own IPs from
sending mail, they respond several days later with a form letter and
the problem doesn't go away.
If you get an IP in a certain range, you just have to drop and reconnect
if you want to send email through their server. And, of course, their
dialup ranges (including DSL ranges) are all in ORBS, so you have to use
their mail server.
This basically means AOL is violating the very spirit of SMTP - you
say '250 message accepted', and you deliver it to all recipients you
specified acceptance for, or produce bounces.
Greetz, Peter.
Peter-
This is nothing new - AOL was silently discarding e-mail a year
ago. What's worse, when I contacted them I was told that they have an
automated system *which does NOT generate reports for the human
postmasters* so the staff does not know what domains are being blackholed
without grepping through the logs on scores of SMTP servers. I find it
difficult to believe that anyone could run a business like that but, hey,
they seem to have a lot of customers who either don't care if e-mail gets
through or don't know how much AOL loses for them.
David Leonard
ShaysNet