[Grid-announcements] NIC Mail Server Configuration Update

[Brandon Davidson]

The configuration of the NIC mail server will be updated shortly to 
hopefully resolve some mail routing loops. These issues should not have 
been visible to any users, as we do not currently offer e-mail services 
besides a few mailing lists.

Issue:

There is a mail loop between smtp.nic.uoregon.edu and 
mserve[1-4].uoregon.edu that occurs when mail is sent to 
<host>.nic.uoregon.edu. All hosts have MX records that point to 
mail.nic.uoregon.edu, but Mail does not perform local delivery for these 
hosts; instead it forwards them on to its smarthosts, the main 
uoregon.edu mail servers. These servers then bounce it back, and the 
loop continues until the message hits its relay limit and is dropped.

Resolution:

mail.nic.uoregon.edu is going to be configured to accept mail for all 
nic.uoregon.edu subdomains and hosts.

Impact:

Configuring the NIC mail server to accept mail for these hosts should 
allow it to immediately drop messages to addresses at these hosts 
instead of wasting time looping them around. All of the messages I have 
seen to these hosts are actually Message IDs mistakenly harvested by 
spammers as e-mail addresses. If anyone is actually relying on mail 
passing through the NIC mail server in this format, please let me know 
and I will make sure that mail is routed correctly to your host.

Brandon Davidson
Systems Administrator
Neuroinformatics Center
University of Oregon
brandond at uoregon.edu
(541) 346-2417
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