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Re: Strange problem with sending e-mail that has a hyphen in address

 

 

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wbh at conducive

May 17, 2008, 8:51 PM

Post #1 of 1 (244 views)
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Re: Strange problem with sending e-mail that has a hyphen in address

Bill Casey wrote:
> I am running Exim on a Fedora server. Today I have been encountering
> trouble sending e-mail to an address that contains a hyphen. E-mails
> to this address from my gmail account work fine - but whn they
> originate on this server they appear to be delivered to the SMTP
> server - and then disappear. Here are a couple of log lines - 2
> accounts at the same destination server -
>
> 2008-05-17 23:02:28 1JxZAJ-0000Ad-M1 => not-real[at]sympatico.ca
> R=lookuphost T=remote_smtp H=mxmta.sympatico.ca [67.69.240.19]
> 2008-05-17 23:04:12 1JxZBz-0000Cj-KB => notreal[at]sympatico.ca
> R=lookuphost T=remote_smtp H=mxmta.sympatico.ca [67.69.240.18]
>
> Note - both of these accounts are uniqie, and do exist - but the
> address with the hyphen disappears into thin air - no error message,
> no bounce.
>
> Any ideas what could be causing this?
>

Most likely culprit is a bent REGEXP rule in an anti-spam acl.

If, as you state, you can reach that address from a server other than
your Exim one, then it is indeed your own server that you need to look into.


To find it:

1) use Exim's superb debug facility on a test message

AND/OR

2) Temporarily set 'log_selector = +all' so your logs will show the
fine-detail of specific router/transport handling it AND far-end
response (or NOT).

3) Set up the same sort of account on your own box
(ex: test-me@<your_own_domain>.<tld>

-- Send an 'acl_not_smtp' class message by use of an on-box binary from
a shell account, either by calling Exim directly or:

-- mail -s Test test-me@<your_own_domain>.<tld>
Test
.

- either of which will bypass the acl_smtp_<whatever> rules.

If it succeeds, then your blockage is in an acl_smtp_<whatever> rule.

NB: If using a 'computed' expression for REGEXP, the hyphen may or may
not 'visibly' appear in the rule as such. You may be blocking a range of
characters by binary values that happens to include it.

FWIW - the hyphen *is* RFC-permissable. Most MLM software relies heavily
on these, ('list-owner' et al) so blocking is not ordinarily wise.

HTH,

Bill


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