[FQuest Alert] Email Delays

[Bob]

Currently we are experiencing local delivery delays and the technicians are looking at the issue at this time.

As soon as additional information is available we will post again.

Our apologies,
Bob

[skolnick]

Yesterday I went about 15 minutes without being able to connect to the mail server. I don't know if it is related, but thought I would offer it up.

Mail download was noticeably slow afterwards, but seems to be back to normal performance now.

No complaint, just symptoms that might help you.

dave

[Bob]

Update...

We have determined that one of the RBL lookups is experiencing a DNS lookup problem which has caused mail to be backed up. The technicians are still working on determining exactly which RBL lookup is failing.

Once determined they should be able to either correct the problem or remove that RBL from current lookups until it can be fully resolved.

Again our apologies and we are working as fast as possible to fully resolve this issue.

-Bob

[Bob]

The technicians have identified a RBL that was timing out during lookups and have removed that RBL from processing at this time.

The RBL in question was dob.sibl.support-intelligence.net.

We have seen the mail queues start falling and it will take from one to two hours to get everything back to an even keel.

Again our apologies and thanks to everyone for their patience.

-Bob

[SteveYoung]

The RBL in question was dob.sibl.support-intelligence.net.
Meaning?

[Bob]

That RBL was timing out during lookups in that we could not reach it to check IPs against their database.

-Bob

[ddunlap]

Would this have anything to do with a couple of delayed delivery notices I just received that had the recipients address preceded by "ptswitch-" ?

[SteveYoung]

Oh I see, I am glad it was just a TLA and not a FLA I would have been confused then.

:dopey:

TLA is a three letter abbreviation that people often nod their head in understanding when they are not sure what you are talking about.

FLA is a Four letter abbreviation that people also normally have no clue what it is but are to embarrassed to ask.

So I am guessing that "dob.sibl.support-intelligence.net" normally does good things, but in this case they were doing bad things. Just Guessing though...

[Wassercrats]

I don't even remember what RBL is, but I think the L is list.

I was just going to call someone to ask if I could e-mail them but I think I'll just write.

[Bruce]

Would this have anything to do with a couple of delayed delivery notices I just received that had the recipients address preceded by "ptswitch-" ?The delayed delivery notices were almost certainly caused by the internal delivery delays. The "ptswitch-" prefix however is purely an internal construct used by the front end mail handlers to switch between the set of back end POP toasters.

So I am guessing that "dob.sibl.support-intelligence.net" normally does good things, but in this case they were doing bad things. Just Guessing though...That domain is one of the RBLs used by SpamAssassin to determine if a message is spammy or not. If a lookup on that and other RBLs succeed, SpamAssassin adds additional scores to the total. Since lookups to that domain were timing out, most SpamAssassin scans were taking a very long time (about 10 times the usual), which caused the great pile-up of email.

I don't even remember what RBL is, but I think the L is list.A RBL is a Realtime Blackhole/Blocking List. It is a way of communicating information about which IPs (traditional RBLs) and domain names (called URIBLs) have been used for spam through DNS records.

There are a large number of RBLs in existence. SpamAssassin queries most if not all of the useful ones, and even some of the more questionable ones just for completeness.