From: eah@xenitec.on.ca (Ed Hew)
Newsgroups: biz.sco.general,biz.sco.opendesktop
Subject: scogen mlist turned back on (was Re: Thanks for the Fix!)
Summary: maybe, let's see....
Date: 14 Apr 92 20:14:43 GMT
Followup-To: biz.sco.general
Organization: XeniTec Consulting, Kitchener, Ontario, CANADA

In article <9204131105.aa01732@eng.norstan.COM> eng.norstan.com!sfrazier@watmath.UUCP (Steven E. Frazier) writes:
>Let me be the first to thank you for getting the mailing list fixed!
>
>Thanks a million!

You're welcome.
Now let's see if we've actually managed to solve the problem,
and the only way I can find out is to turn it back on (yeah!)
and watch for fallout.  I've just now done so.

We've had two seperate issues to deal with.

1/	mega-Resent-To: headers which wasted enormous bandwidth
	and were highly annoying to deal with for everyone.  For
years we've been sending our mail upstream to an Internet forwarder
which recently switched MTAs to one which actually obeys RFC822.
It seems that RFC822 (some day I'll actually have to re-read it
comprehensively) dictates that if one includes any "Resent-" lines
in the header, any MTA encountering it should add the rest of the
missing "Resent-" header suite, and this is exactly what happened.
We were sending them multiple-address envelopes in order to conserve
bandwidth, but only included a single "Resent-" header (Resent-From:).
Of course, they used the available info (from the envelope), and
dutifully (and correctly) filled in the blanks.

This gets better.... we switched all (non-redirected) upstream mail
to flow directly down our shiney new smtp channel to our new direct
IP connection (UUNET Canada - uunet.ca).  uunet.ca uses an extremely
RFC822 compliant MTA which is about as picky and perfect as they come.
Since we were now sending them all the addresses in a single envelope,
now we got _hundreds_ of "Resent-To:" lines injected into the headers
when the mailing list mail landed there.

The good news is that I now know the cause, and hence the solution
was simple, either include all the "Resent-" headers when we generate
articles from the news=>mail gateway, or include none at all.  I've
opted for the latter, and this seems to have cured the problem once
and for all.

2/	The rogue gateway.... yuk!  We now know that there was a
	site hidden within BITNET which ceased to exist.  Someone's
mailer-daemon generated the bounces, but instead of respecting the
info in the msg headers, sent the bounces back to our injector
address.  Let's just say that tracking down the culprit was
non-trivial.  We think we've got them nuked now, and we'll all know
in a few days by an anticipated absence of the garbage they were
tossing back at all of us.

(A word to the wise!)
Admins operating internal distribution exploder aliases, take note:  
PLEASE DON'T EVER include "scogen@xenitec.on.ca" in your private
mailing list, otherwise you'll be the cause of the next rogue
gateway to inundate the newsgroup with infinite looping articles.
It took man-WEEKS to hunt down this one, an effort which is not
likely to be repeated.  Don't be responsible for permanent shutdown
of the "scogen" mailing list.

Also, please remember to unsubscribe if your machine, account, or
connectivity is about to dissappear.  Send your deletion request
to "scogen-request@xenitec.on.ca".

"scogen" subscribers should note:  If you used to receive biz.sco.general
by way of the mailing list, but mysteriously got dropped, it's likely
as a result of the hunt for Red October (or was that March :-) ).
If you're affected in this manner, feel free to re-subscribe by
emailing your request to "scogen-request@xenitec.on.ca".  Better
yet, biz.sco.general is now very well propogated by the USENET
NEWS mechanism globally, and all mailing list subscribers are
_STRONGLY ENCOURAGED_ to get a biz.sco.* newsfeed - a much better
way to receive, read, and manipulate these articles.  Anyone who
is not aware of how to go about doing so is welcome to email me,
and I'll do my best to get you started.

...and the Good News (tm):

3/	As aluded to above, the biz.sco.* gateways now reside on
a directly-connected Internet machine (xenitec.xenitec.on.ca), so
propogation times should now be much shorter than before.  :-)

Best regards to all who enjoy, participate, and contribute.

		--ed
--
  Ed. A. Hew,  <edhew@xenitec.on.ca>  ...!uunet!watmath!xenitec!eah
  XeniTec Consulting Services, Kitchener ON, Canada 01+519+570-9848
 [biz.sco.{opendesktop,general,announce} newsgroup/mlists godfather]