blank "is" report lines in syslog?

[DAve]

Matt Kettler wrote:
> DAve wrote:
> 
>>If I had someone to just stand behind me and beat me on the head with a
>>bat, I could save all this typing, and I would never have to answer the
>>phone. The result at the end of my day, would be the same.
> 
> Easy.. I'm not meaning to flame you, just pointing out the basic truth..

Didn't take it that way. I'm already numb, no bat needed, I'll keep typing.

> Validating recipients isn't that hard, even for qmail users.

Thanks, but I don't consider myself challenged.

> You're in the same basic place that many mail operators were in when spammers
> discovered making use of open relays. At the time open relays were commonly
> accepted.

Why would that be? I'm not an open relay. If you connect to one of my 
MailScanner boxes, milter-ahead will check for the existance of the 
recipient account on my toasters, and accept or reject the connection. 
How does that make me an open relay?

As I said, "I don't blindly accept messages". Please read the entire 
message again. Maybe my point needed an example, or two.

If a message (or a thousand) is accepted based on milter-ahead, and 
MailScanner picks it up from the incoming queue, scans it, places it in 
the outgoing queue, as  a support tech deletes the target domain, 
KAPOW!, the message(s) is(are) bounced. This has happened, to me.

A message comes in on MailScanner box #1, it is a 15mb attachment. It 
takes awhile to get through MailScanner and be delivered to the toaster, 
and for the toaster to update the users quota. But Milter-ahead checked 
  before the message was accepted, and there is room to deliver the 
message. Unfortunately, MailScanner box #2 has a 3mb message that gets 
through a bit faster, lands on the toaster, and gets delivered. Now when 
MailScanner box #1 tries to deliver, the message won't fit within the 
quota. KAPOW!, the message is  bounced. This has happened as well, to me.

This is a result of the way MailScanner works when sitting in front of 
other servers. Those servers can be Exchange, qmail Toasters, Postfix 
campus relays, it doesn't matter. When you have multiple MailScanner 
boxes the problem is compounded.

post-smtp bounces can and will happen.

Milter-ahead has a caching timeout which can be useful here, and 
CHECKUSER has a quota setting which can help to avoid message overlap as 
well (reject at a percentage of full, leaving room for deliveries from 
other queues). I utilise several techniques to minimize failures. But 
problems do arise, messages will get bounced after they are accepted. 
It's a fact of life, it's a fact of SMTP.

I'm tired. I need a drink.