On Fri, Dec 16, 2022 at 10:40:53AM +1100, raf <post...@raf.org> wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 15, 2022 at 03:54:38PM -0600, Richard Raether > <rraet...@cct.lsu.edu> wrote: > > > Dear users wiser than me (probably everyone), > > > > We have a legitimate domain, einsteintoolkit.org, but I'm getting mail for > > einsteintoolkit.org.s9b1.psmtp.com, which postfix doesn't allow through > > because it doesn't recognize it as a legitimate domain. What am I > > misunderstanding about psmtp and how it works, and does anyone know how I > > can get these emails properly delivered? > > > > Any advice is welcome. > > > > Thanks, > > > > Richard Raether > > Sysadmin > > Center for Computation and Technology > > Louisiana State University > > [Warning: Rhetorical questions ahead] > > Why do you want them to be delivered? > They are not for your domain. > > How are they getting to your server? > There is no MX record for that domain. > psmtp.com has NS/SOA/TXT(spf) records, > but that's it (I think). None of the > subdomains seem to have any records at all. > So no remote server should be sending > such emails to your server. > > Are those emails generated locally on your > server? If not, it could be a malicious server > targetting your server (bcause it's not following > the normal protocols for working out where to > send an email). > > And sorry, I have no idea how psmtp.com works > or what it's supposed to do. Googling shows these: > > The Science behind Mail Delivery > https://litmus.com/community/discussions/46-the-science-behind-mail-delivery > > Which mentions something called postini > > and: > > MX records explained > https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=000385607&type=1 > > Which shows an example where a similar domain is the name used > in salesforce.com's MX records, but in that case, the similar > domains had IP addresses (at the time). The domain you mentioned > doesn't. > > It looks like maybe postini (or your organisation's > instance) is defunct. Actually, googling postini shows > that it is probably globally dead: > > Why Postini is Moving to the Google Graveyard > https://sendgrid.com/blog/postini-moving-google-graveyard/ > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postini > > So it looks like it's been dead since 2015. > > Perhaps that means that some server somewhere is using > seven year old cached DNS records. But that doesn't > sound possible. > > It might not be worth worrying about, unless it is, in > which case you should probably try to contact whoever > is sending them and get them to stop using seven year > old MX records. But you really shouldn't have to ask > someone to do that. Just letting the emails bounce > should server that purpose adequately. Whoever is > sending them will know that it's not working and can > contact their email administrator for help. > > Your logs should show the IP address or hostname of the > server that connected to your server and tried to send > those emails. Perhaps you can contact its postmaster > and alert them to the problem. > > cheers, > raf Actually, the sender can't just be using old old MX records since there's no corresponding A records that would point to your server. But something wierdly broken is happening at the sender end. cheers, raf
