anyone good with exim4 or debian config files?

[Mark E. Mallett]

On Tue, Mar 13, 2007 at 04:13:54PM -0700, Jesse Lazar wrote:
> hello,
> 
> i am having an email problem on my debian sarge desktop system. it goes
> like this: some of my email does not get through to the recipient, some
> of my email takes days to get through and some of it seems to do the 
> right thing. it seems to me like it is dependant on the recipients spam
> settings.

I take it that there is different behaviour for different recipients?
That is understandable to me, based on:


> the above does not return any errors. but i must say that i am just 
> guessing at what do. when i look at the message i just sent i see the
> line:
> 
> Received: from localhost.localdomain (unverified [4.233.164.63]) by
> mail21.cisp.com
>  (Rockliffe SMTPRA 7.0.6) with ESMTP id <B0001389299 at mail21.cisp.com> 
> for <jlazar_nospam_ at basicisp.net>;
>  Sat, 10 Mar 2007 11:58:40 +0000

Several things there.  It looks like you are HELOing as
"localhost.localdomain" .  Some receivers will treat that HELO pattern
specifically as a bad sign, perhaps rejecting it or scoring it negatively.
Ditto for any HELO name that doesn't resolve, or doesn't resolve to the
connecting system.  It depends on how draconian the receiver is.

The 'unverified' likely means that your RDNS doesn't map back to your
IP address.  And indeed:

553% host 4.233.164.63
63.164.233.4.IN-ADDR.ARPA domain name pointer dialup-4.233.164.63.Dial1.Manchester1.Level3.net
554% host dialup-4.233.164.63.dial1.manchester.level3.net
Host not found.

tsk tsk, level3 :)
again, some receivers may block based on that, or score negatively based
on it so that mail ends up in the bit bucket or in quarantine.

Not only that, but some receivers may block on certain RDNS patterns,
including things starting with "dialup-" and containing things looking
like your IP address.

Additionally:

555% dnsblc 4.233.164.63
4.233.164.63 against sorbs/dul:  positive
4.233.164.63 against spamhaus-zen/pbl11:  positive

i.e., that IP address is listed on the SORBS DUL; sorbs thinks it is
a dialup IP (understandably!).  Some receivers block/score based on that.
The IP is also listed on the PBL, meaning that it is thought that that
IP address (by policy) should not be connecting directly to port 25.
See http://www.spamhaus.org/pbl
Some receivers (well, you get the mantra).  At least you can remove
yourself from the PBL.

At any rate, logs would probably show what's going on.

Since you have taken steps to smarthost via your ISP, you may have
cured some of the problems.

Just some thoughts,
mm