Re: lots of invalid email trying to come in
On Sun, 7 Oct 2007 13:38:59 -0400
Rick Pasotto <rick@niof.net> wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 07, 2007 at 07:36:40AM -0700, Raquel wrote:
> > On Sat, 6 Oct 2007 20:14:44 -0400
> > Rick Pasotto <rick@niof.net> wrote:
> >
> > > Suddenly I'm getting lots of email to someuser@mywebsite.info
> > > where 'someuser' can be most anything. They're coming from
> > > different ips, some of which have no host name. ('mywebsite'
> > > is not the real name.)
> > >
> > > What's going on? How can I stop it?
> >
> > Welcome to the Internet. You can't stop them from trying to get
> > in (except by taking the machine off-line). You can only keep
> > them from getting in.
>
> Exim was doing a very good job of keeping them from getting in.
> The reason I posted was the fact of all the *different* ips trying
> to send to invalid users at the same host within a relatively
> short period of time. Does that mean that those ips are actually
> zombies that are being used to send email? If so, should their
> owners be notified?
>
This was exactly my point, there's little, if anything, that can be
done. You could contact the IP address, but are you sure that's who
sent the email that didn't get into your system. IP spoofing is
terribly easy and is done all the time. So, your "notified owners"
may be innocent people. Your "bounce-back" is creating a worse
problem than the mail that isn't getting into your machine.
My advice? Ignore it and do something productive.
--
Raquel
============================================================
Watch out for the fellow who talks about putting things in order!
Putting things in order always means getting other people under your
control.
--Denis Diderot
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