Re: [Groff] goodbye to the groff list

[Ted Harding]

On 22-Apr-04 MJ Ray wrote:
> On 2004-04-22 09:21:15 +0100 Jim Reid <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
>> The list's mail system is inadequate. Take a look at the mail headers
>> in the most recent virus/worm message. There's no Message-Id, a good
>> indication the message is bogus.
> 
> Yes, this is a theory that I have come to, too.

Confirmed! When I showed MJR printed headers from some of the mails
yesterday, he spotted this, drew that conclusion, and went on to
surmise that this may be why some of us have not been receiving the
virus mails, and why they have not been appearing in the archives,
since (a) many mailrouters for incoming mail reject mail lacking
an originating Message-Id, (b) so does mailman which hosts the groff
archive.

>> This tells us that the SMTP connection came from 213.139.47.21 and
>> that reverse DNS for this IP address doesn't work. That's another good
>> indication of a spam source.
> 
> No, getting prompt reverse DNS from many ISPs here is tricky, believe 
> me. It's a very unreliable indicator.

Again agreed. The SMTP connection in question may have originated
from an internal router whose IP address is not broadcast to DNS
(supposedly a relay-inhibiting measure).

> [...]
>> [...] Roger has volunteered
>> to provide a new home for the list. We should take up that very kind
>> offer and abandon the ffii.org list to get clogged with spam and virus
>> crap.
> 
> If this list becomes hosted on LSoft Listserv, which was broken last I 
> saw and legally forbids being fixed, then I for one will not 
> subscribe. This problem is partly caused by non-free software 
> inadequacies, so it seems stupid to use more of it.
> 
> I want to try fixing ffii.org before junking it.

I'm in favour, too, of trying to stay with ffii.org provided the
security problems can be fixed. While I don't have views about
Lsoft Listserv, I think it would be (at least for a good while)
a blot on our visibility on the Net to change the list address.

There is an example we could try to emulate: The R mailing list
( address@hidden
  https://www.stat.math.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help )
manages to suppress a lot of virus and spam mail (almost never
does any get through). While they also use mailman for their
archives, I can't make out what program manages their lists.
I'm getting in touch with the list manager (Martin Maechler)
hoping he will be able to pass on details. They do appear to
use Amavis for virus scanning and Spam-Assassin for spam filtering,
but clearly they have it well set up.

I've mailed to Werner and am also trying to get through to the list
server admins at ffii.org, with a view to getting something going.

Best wishes to all,
Ted.


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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <address@hidden>
Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 167 1972
Date: 22-Apr-04                                       Time: 13:10:43
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