Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!masscomp!peora!tarpit!pixie!rd From: rd@pixie.aii.com (Bob Thrush) Newsgroups: news.software.b Subject: Re: warning to all sinners in regard to current C News patches Message-ID: Date: 4 Apr 91 21:45:36 GMT References: <1991Mar24.035259.20738@zoo.toronto.edu> <1991Mar31.055947.18653@looking.on.ca> <1991Apr03.033233.16633@buster.stafford.tx.us> <1991Apr3.172825.27190@zoo.toronto.edu> Sender: rd@pixie.aii.com (Bob Thrush) Organization: Automation Intelligence, Inc. Lines: 243 In-Reply-To: henry@zoo.toronto.edu's message of 3 Apr 91 17: 28:25 GMT In article <1991Apr3.172825.27190@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: >In article <1991Apr03.033233.16633@buster.stafford.tx.us> rli@buster.stafford.tx.us writes: >>... everyone would have to continue accepting the out of spec >>articles for a period of time while we track down and notify the >>source of the bad articles. > >Unfortunately, it's hard to make this work. The combination of header >rewriting at B News sites and apathy/inertia/workload of sysadmins would >make it relatively difficult to get results this way. > >The intent of the "bad articles" reports in newsdaily's output was to >achieve the same thing, on a more local level and with teeth: sysadmins >can report to their neighbors that articles are being dropped for bad >headers. Ok. I've alerted my neighbors for the "bad articles" that they have generated. >>... Simply dropping the offensive articles on the >>floor is not an acceptable answer. > >It's hard to do anything else. Bouncing them back to the author is not >a viable approach. Not only does it easily result in the originator >getting hundreds of mail messages, but *the originator is usually an >innocent victim of bad software*. We judged that having a gateway >machine tell its neighbor "everything you send us is being dropped" >was much more effective, and had a better chance of getting the message >to people who could do something about it. What should the response be? For the record, this site has rejected over 400 articles since installing the 24Mar91 version of C News on March 28. 6 of those articles were (as best I can determine) generated by downstream sites who have been duly notified. Maybe it's time to compare notes and alert offending sites. To that end I have appended the summary of the first 400 "bad articles" from 174 sites that we have rejected as a result of the tighter header checking. Does anyone have any suggestions about 1) a better way to determine which sites are generating offending articles, and 2) how to alert these offending sites. Or should we just let well enough alone and hope that the offending sites will become aware of their silent disconnections and eventually "do the right thing". ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Summary of "bad articles" The summary does not include a few "older than 30 days" articles. The sitename was determined by using the string following the '@' in the Message-ID. Each entry contains the total no. of offending articles, sitename (as above), and reason. For the few sites with multiple reasons, the results are combined into one entry. Use the following legend to translate the terse reason back to the original C News log reason: nofrom = no From: header nonheader = article "header" contains non-header line nodate = no Date: header nosubject = no Subject: header unparsable = unparsable Date: `some-bad-date-string' 22 bria nonheader 4 nofrom 18 14 goofy.Apple.COM nonheader 12 sequent.UUCP nonheader 11 sequent.cs.qmw.ac.uk nonheader 10 novell.com nodate 10 maraba.tamu.edu nonheader 9 husc6.harvard.edu nonheader 8 umriscc.isc.umr.edu nonheader 8 nntp-server.caltech.edu nonheader 7 jarthur.Claremont.EDU nonheader 7 athena.mit.edu nonheader 5 nosubject 2 6 sirius.ucs.adelaide.edu.au nonheader 5 wsl.dec.com unparsable 5 sun13.scri.fsu.edu nonheader 5 eecs.nwu.edu nonheader 2 unparsable 3 5 dogface nofrom 5 amigash.UUCP unparsable 5 amc-gw.amc.com nonheader 4 rodan.acs.syr.edu nonheader 4 rex.cs.tulane.edu nonheader 4 relay1.UU.NET nofrom 4 puck.mrcu nonheader 4 occrsh.ATT.COM unparsable 4 murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU nonheader 1 nosubject 3 4 dog.ee.lbl.gov nonheader 4 darkstar.ucsc.edu nonheader 4 cbnewsl.att.com nonheader 4 casbah.acns.nwu.edu nonheader 4 bu.edu.bu.edu nonheader 4 bolero.ati.com nonheader 4 andrew.cmu.edu nonheader 3 wet.UUCP nonheader 3 ut-emx.uucp nonheader 3 ucselx.sdsu.edu nonheader 3 tippy nofrom 3 scorn.sco.COM nonheader 3 lectroid.sw.stratus.com nonheader 3 hydra.gatech.EDU nonheader 3 helios.TAMU.EDU nonheader 3 erg.sri.com nosubject 3 brewing.cts.com nonheader 2 watdragon.waterloo.edu nonheader 2 ux.acs.umn.edu nonheader 2 unix.cis.pitt.edu nonheader 2 ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU nonheader 2 sunfish.bellcore.com unparsable 2 stewart.UUCP nonheader 2 ssdc.honeywell.com nodate 2 shlump.nac.dec.com nonheader 2 pt.cs.cmu.edu nonheader 2 pasteur.Berkeley.EDU nonheader 2 netcom.COM nonheader 2 munnari.oz.au nonheader 2 milton.u.washington.edu nonheader 2 linac.fnal.gov nonheader 2 lib.tmc.edu nonheader 2 leland.Stanford.EDU nonheader 2 island.COM nonheader 2 hpwala.wal.hp.com nonheader 2 hplabsz.hplabs.hpl.hp.com nonheader 2 fcom.cc.utah.edu nonheader 2 enuxha.eas.asu.edu nonheader 2 crg5.UUCP nonheader 2 cogsci.cog.jhu.edu nofrom 2 cbnewse.att.com nosubject 2 cbnewsd.att.com nonheader 2 cbnewsc.att.com nonheader 2 castle.ed.ac.uk nonheader 2 cadillac.CAD.MCC.COM nonheader 2 brunix.UUCP nonheader 2 archive.BBN.COM nonheader 2 actrix.gen.nz nonheader 1 zardoz.eng.ohio-state.edu nonheader 1 xyzoom.UUCP nonheader 1 vicstoy.UUCP nodate 1 venera.isi.edu nonheader 1 ux1.cso.uiuc.edu nonheader 1 unisoft.UUCP nonheader 1 tymix.Tymnet.COM nonheader 1 ttidca.TTI.COM nonheader 1 trantor.harris-atd.com nonheader 1 tokyo07.UUCP nonheader 1 terminator.cc.umich.edu nonheader 1 techbook.com nonheader 1 tamarack12.timbuk nonheader 1 tahoe.unr.edu nonheader 1 swindj.UUCP nonheader 1 suns9.crosfield.co.uk nonheader 1 suns4.crosfield.co.uk nonheader 1 sun3.crosfield.co.uk nonheader 1 stsci.EDU nonheader 1 stl.stc.co.uk nonheader 1 spdcc.SPDCC.COM nonheader 1 solo.csci.unt.edu nofrom 1 server2.crosfield.co.uk nonheader 1 secola.Columbia.NCR.COM nonheader 1 saturn.uucp nofrom 1 salt.bellcore.com nonheader 1 ryn.mro4.dec.com nonheader 1 ronquil.cs.washington.edu nonheader 1 riscy.enet.dec.com nonheader 1 rins.ryukoku.ac.jp nonheader 1 rice.edu nosubject 1 prometheus.UUCP nonheader 1 powys.x.co.uk nonheader 1 pmafire.inel.gov nonheader 1 platypus.uofs.edu nonheader 1 panix.uucp nosubject 1 orca.wv.tek.com nonheader 1 oracle.com nonheader 1 odin.corp.sgi.com nonheader 1 oasys.dt.navy.mil nonheader 1 noname.edu nonheader 1 newsserver.sfu.ca nonheader 1 ncsu.edu nonheader 1 ncrwat.Waterloo.NCR.COM nonheader 1 nas.nasa.gov nosubject 1 murtoa.cs.mu.oz.au nonheader 1 mswind.UUCP nofrom 1 mnopltd.UUCP nonheader 1 mmc.mmmg.com nonheader 1 minnow.sp.unisys.com nonheader 1 microsoft.UUCP nonheader 1 mcdphx.phx.mcd.mot.com nonheader 1 maverick.ksu.ksu.edu nonheader 1 math.lsa.umich.edu nonheader 1 marlin.jcu.edu.au nonheader 1 manatee.UUCP nofrom 1 mack.uit.no nonheader 1 mace.cc.purdue.edu nonheader 1 lynx.CS.ORST.EDU nonheader 1 linus.mitre.org nonheader 1 levelland.cs.utexas.edu nonheader 1 kodak.kodak.com nonheader 1 jornada.nmsu.edu nonheader 1 jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU nonheader 1 jethro.Corp.Sun.COM nonheader 1 jabbahybrid nofrom 1 iphase.UUCP nonheader 1 infonode.ingr.com nonheader 1 idunno.Princeton.EDU nonheader 1 groucho nonheader 1 giaea.gi.oz nonheader 1 flash.bellcore.com nosubject 1 europa.asd.contel.com nonheader 1 encore.Encore.COM nonheader 1 duke.cs.duke.edu nonheader 1 dsd.es.com nonheader 1 cybaswan.UUCP nonheader 1 csc.canberra.edu.au nonheader 1 cs.utk.edu nonheader 1 crpmks.UUCP nonheader 1 chpc.utexas.edu nonheader 1 chorus.fr nonheader 1 cgl.ucsf.EDU nonheader 1 ccncsu.ColoState.EDU nonheader 1 cci632.UUCP nonheader 1 cbmvax.commodore.com nonheader 1 bwdls61.bnr.ca nonheader 1 bunny.GTE.COM nonheader 1 borg.cs.unc.edu nonheader 1 bnlux1.bnl.gov nonheader 1 atari.UUCP nonheader 1 atacama.cs.utexas.edu nonheader 1 argosy.UUCP nonheader 1 aquarium.buffalo.ny.us nonheader 1 apple.com nonheader 1 apollo.HP.COM nonheader 1 amdahl.uts.amdahl.com nonheader 1 agora.rain.com nonheader 1 agate.berkeley.edu nonheader 1 aber-cs.UUCP nonheader 1 Think.COM nosubject 1 Shiva.COM nonheader -- Bob Thrush rd@aii.com Automation Intelligence,Inc.,1200 W. Colonial Drive, Orlando, FL 32804