Subj : Netmail in the insecure inbound
To   : Kai Richter
From : Alan Ianson
Date : Sat Apr 24 2021 04:15:03

Hello Kai,

 AI>> It is normal to receive netmail in the insecure inbound.

 KR> Yes, because it's the only way to establish a first contact with the
 KR> sysop. At this point the netmail is still not tossed and stored in the
 KR> insec inbound.

Netmail that arrives uncompressed is tossed from the insecure directory.

Even if that netmail is compressed hpt peeks inside the bundle to see who it is from and if it is an unconfigured node the bundle is renamed to .sec.

If echomail is found it should be so, if netmail is found it should be tossed?

 AI>> I wonder if it is possible for hpt to unpack those arcmail
 AI>> bundles and toss the packets within if they are netmail.

 KR> Yes, it is. Negotiate a password with the sending sysop.

I get/send netmail to/from that node periodically. I would be happy to link with that node if there was any reason to. We only exchange netmail once in a while so we have never setup a secure link. Echomail has never come into it so far but if it ever does then I would request a password/link.

 AI>> Echomail should not be tossed from the insecure inbound, but
 AI>> netmail in the insecure inbound should?

 KR> Unsecured echomail bundles are a configuration error in most cases.

Yes, that should never happen and if echomail is found in the insecure inbound it should be left there for investigation and solution.

 KR> Sending echomail bundles without negotating with the sysop first is
 KR> annoying behavior if it's "wanted" echomail and xab if it's any form
 KR> of spam.

Agreed.

 KR> In any case there is need to talk to the sending sysop.

This sysop, I suspect just wanted to test the route on the return trip. No need to talk about that. Unless there is a problem and if there is I would like to get to work on the solution. I hope that node received his reply.

 KR> And that is why i do dislike the existence of PING. It's results are
 KR> mostly useless. A PING result would tell me that mailer, tosser and
 KR> PING bot are up and running - but for any other problems i do need a
 KR> contact with the sysop. I need a human being on the other side or we
 KR> are generating a network of lonley PING bots.

I don't care much for pings either, or BBS ads, new file announcements, rules posts.. but each of those things has a role to play.

I wish ping/trace could tell us what isn't working and why but it can only tell us what is working.

 Ttyl :-),
         Al

--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
 * Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

.