Subj : Re: Feedback re: Fidonet.org MX
To   : Nick Andre
From : Paul Hayton
Date : Sat Nov 28 2015 14:36:54

On 11/24/15, Nick Andre pondered and said...
 
 NA> Hello,

Hi Nick.

 NA> I am in the process of provisioning the fidonet.org domain onto my own
 NA> DNS servers. These servers are located in a major data center in
 NA> downtown Toronto.

Good stuff, was wondering how things were going.

 NA> The DNS for the domain is a freaking mess.

History eh?

 NA> custom script was written in Perl to allegedly "cull" the nodelist and
 NA> generate MX entries. I will not be publishing that script, at least not
 NA> at this point, until I can get some feedback as to its purpose. I did
 NA> not write that script, it has been inherited from its author, more or

Sounds like a filter of sorts, perhaps with some old political overtones? Not
needed now I'd suggest.

 NA> The majority of MX entries in DNS are being generated for Zone 2, and it
 NA> is my understanding that there is a lot of Russian Sysops that are
 NA> making use of routing Internet email via. those entries. Upon suggesting

Didn't know that, but then again probably another example of built up history
of the domain - and by the sounds of it - something that has been in place and
running (well?) for some time - dunno...

 NA> The problem I have with allowing Sysops to have their own MX entry in
 NA> DNS is that if that Sysop vanishes, the domain incurs traffic from the
 NA> Internet for anyone (mostly spammers) who attempt to route mail for that
 NA> system. In addition, from a security perspective, if a Sysop runs an 
 NA> improperly-configured SMTP server, spammers have a field day exploiting
 NA> that system and the domain as a whole suffers as a result.

Noted.

 NA> I would not want to yank the MX records, at least not at this point,
 NA> until I get some serious feedback from anyone who has an MX entry in DNS
 NA> for routing Internet email. Is having a fidonet.org email address THAT
 NA> important?
 NA> 
 NA> I am NOT against reinstating the IEEE gateway, I have the means to do
 NA> so, but I am not yet seeing the benefits of having an "open address
 NA> system" again.

This is really at the heart of it. What does the Fidonet community want for
email services using the fidonet.org domain name? Asides an A or AAAA
record the MX record comes pretty near top of the food chain for most DNS
entries. There's a reason for that - most folks expect in todays internet
connected world to be able to send an email to myname.org and that it makes
it to someone on the other end :)

So, for my part I think it would be good for sysops and the BBS scene to have
the ability to be contactable via the domain name. If one of the goals of
doing the work on fidonet.org is to breath life in to it then arguably email
is a core feature set worth setting up :)

My hope with fidonet.org (and indeed any other html presences of Fidonet
information) is that we can work collaboratively to publish current
information about Fidonet and how to join, who's involved, how much fun it
can be etc. It's a great hobby BBS... and Fidonet (and othernets) are a key
part of enjoying it.

HTML and WWW is the 'shop front window' of the Internet to 99.9% of users
online in 2015 - those of us who want to promote BBS, Fido etc. have an
opportunity to reach them if we can ensure our own Fidonet content is current
and consistant in message. At the moment some sites you reach when you Google
Fidonet would have you believe it died a long time ago along with BBS :(

Keep up the good work Nick... sing out if you need any help etc.

Best, Paul

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