Re: [exim] Spamhaus Lookup

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Author: Pete
Date:  
To: exim users
Subject: Re: [exim] Spamhaus Lookup
On Fri, 2010-11-05 at 21:47 -0400, W B Hacker wrote:
> Pete wrote:
> > Hello all,
> >
> > This afternoon I noticed that incoming mail was being temporarily
> > rejected. The usual suspects basically included just myself at first.
> > I've recently set up a new Debian Squeeze install running Exim 4.72.
> >
> > Suffice it to say that I now seem to have found the cause of the
> > temporary rejections. After including a section
> > in /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template as shown below, mail flow was
> > disrupted :
> >
> >    deny
> >      hosts = !*.domain.example : !*.another.example \
> >              : !.onemore.example
> >      message = Access denied. Listed at $dnslist_domain.
> >      dnslists = zen.spamhaus.org

> >


[snip]

Marvellous. Please note that I've modified my original example in this
email to emphasise the problem found, and also to correct syntax with
regard to line endings etc.

>
>
> No need to guess. Exim will happily TELL you wot's wot.
>
> A debug run of that acl should tell the tale. At any given moment, anyway.
>


Exim did indeed reveal the secret after I ran a test debugging session
using an external IP address known to myself, with the following
command :

exim -d -bh xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

After running through the usual 'mail from:' and 'rcpt to:' commands,
the output then revealed this blooper on my behalf :

no IP address found for host .onemore.example (during SMTP connection
from test.example [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx])

In other words I'd omitted to put in a wildcard '*' before one of the
entries in the 'hosts' section. Nothing whatsoever to do with
zen.spamhaus.org. I don't know how many times I looked at that part of
the ACL and told myself the problem has 'got' to lie elsewhere ...

Thanks very much for the help Bill. All is working ok now, including
zen.spamhaus.org.

Regards,

Pete.