[Exim] DNS lookups with Bind 9.1.0 for spam blocking

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Author: Karl Schmidt
Date:  
To: exim-users
Subject: [Exim] DNS lookups with Bind 9.1.0 for spam blocking
I set up some verify features to block spam - and found a nasty time
consuming problem with Bind 9.1.0. (Bind 9.1.0 is the current RedHat release
of bind! Checking at http://www.isc.org shows that they are up to 9.1.3
now ) Named would work - but was flakey - timing out and sending out
temporary blocks to incoming mail some of the time. Checking the logs
revealed nothing, so I turned on some debug logging in named.conf - but it
wouldn't make the new log file, yet ran without any error to the main log.
After checking countless things I found that bind 9 comes with a
"bind-checkzone" utility. Turns out some zone from a friends site had syntax
problems. This would have been reported in bind 8). The format of bind-9
zone files has changed slightly and the old bind-8 format was causing an
un-logged problem. (why doesn't named run "bind-checkzone" when restarted?)

Once the zones were fixed, everything worked - bind started making the log
files that would have pointed out the problem. If you upgrade to bind 9, you
need to be aware of "bind-checkzone" and run it manually.

I also noticed that Exim dose a RBL lookup via DNS on every incoming mail -
perhaps that should be cashed in Exim4?

------------------------------------------------
Karl Schmidt (ks150)     EMail Karl@???
Transtronics, Inc.       WEB http://xtronics.com
3209 West 9th Street     Ph(785) 841-3089
Lawrence, KS 66049       FAX(785) 841-0434



Intermittent time outs in bind.