Thanks a lot, Thomas. Now I know what to do in future.

Hi folks

I've had an autoreply email returned with the following message:

Received: from spooler by apsarchaeology.co.uk (Mercury/32 v4.52); 19 May 2008 13:19:01 +0100
X-Envelope-To: Electronic Postmaster <Admin@apsarchaeology.co.uk>
To: Electronic Postmaster <Admin@apsarchaeology.co.uk>
From: Electronic Postmaster <postmaster@apsarchaeology.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 19 May 2008 13:18:50 +0100
Subject: Postmaster Notify: Delivery Failure.
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary=16594.-864153718
X-PMFLAGS: 570949760 0 1 YG0A90BI.CNM                      

This message is in MIME format. If you are seeing this text,
then your mailer does not understand this format properly.

--16594.-864153718
Content-type: Text/Plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Disposition: Inline
Content-Description: Reason for delivery failure.

The attached message has failed delivery and has been referred
to you as postmaster. The following error report or reports
were given to explain the problem:

   *** user@comrange.com
   554 5.7.1 <>: Sender address rejected: ACL recipient_nonull - Too many bounces to this recipient

--16594.-864153718
Content-type: Message/RFC822

Received: from spooler by apsarchaeology.co.uk (Mercury/32 v4.52); 19 May 2008 13:18:39 +0100
X-Autoreply-From: <user@lincsheritage.org>
Precedence: Bulk
To: user@comrange.com
From: <user@lincsheritage.org>
Date: Mon, 19 May 2008 13:18:28 +0100
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: Text/Plain
Subject: [Autoreply] Re: Test Text Safehands
Message-ID: <CC7DE4722B7B@apsarchaeology.co.uk>

I am now out of the office until Monday 2nd June. If you have an urgent enquiry or message, please contact ***** *****@lincsheritage.org

--16594.-864153718--

I don't quite understand what this means. Is the original message being returned because the receiver believes that the address is a source of spam (too many bounces)? If so, is the receiver basing its spam classification on address? I don't understand what the 'ACL recipient_nonull' message means - is this an Access Contol List?

Confused.

Thanks for any help with this.

The server is tired of getting this autoreply when you are replying to it's messages.  This looks like you are sending these autoreplies to mailing lists and probably spam with faked addresses. 

The basic answer is that probably 99% of the people sending mail to your email address really do not care that you are going to be gone until 2 June.  ;-)  They do care though that they keep getting these messages in their inbox when they send mail to a list.

That doesn't make sense. An autoreply is innocent. Is it a configuration issue? From what you have said, looks like the mailing list (if that is what is being replied to) should be configured to reject autoreplies. I was on a mailing list where the admins changed it's settings and everyone suddenly started getting autoreplies - it caused quite a furore until it was sorted out, and the admins apologised to the list for the problem.

With regards to spam - that is not an issue. Our email is filtered via MessageLabs and as a result we rarely receive UCM.

Looks like a system to limit DSN floods when the user@comrange.com address has been used by a spammer (joejobbed).

[quote]

554 5.7.1 <>: Sender address rejected: ACL recipient_nonull - Too many bounces to this recipient

[/quote] 

This could be the 571st  message to user@comrange.com from <> (null sender) and their server rejects it.

The autoreply messages envelope sender (MAIL FROM:) is also <> 

Thanks.

I had also wondered why the from field was empty. I wonder if it may be a configuration error here - the return address was not the usual name.surname@domain format - but it would only appear to be happening for this user.

I'll check everything here and see if the problem persists.

Cheers.

OK, I setup Pegasus Mail's Autoreply feature for my own account. I sent a message to my Pegasus account from my Google account. Here is the MercuryE log for the autoreply sent back to the Google account:

13:31:31.000: --- Wed May 21 13:31:31 2008 ---
13:31:31.000: Connect to '64.233.185.114', timeout 60.
13:31:32.000: >> 220 mx.google.com ESMTP 39si2893414wrl.29<cr><lf>
13:31:32.000: << EHLO apsarchaeology.co.uk<cr><lf>
13:31:32.140: >> 250-mx.google.com at your service, [82.69.48.10]<cr><lf>
13:31:32.140: >> 250-SIZE 28311552<cr><lf>
13:31:32.140: >> 250-8BITMIME<cr><lf>
13:31:32.140: >> 250 ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES<cr><lf>
13:31:32.140: << MAIL FROM:<> SIZE=452<cr><lf>
13:31:33.593: >> 250 2.1.0 OK<cr><lf>
13:31:33.593: << RCPT TO:<greenman@googlemail.com><cr><lf>
13:31:33.156: >> 250 2.1.5 OK<cr><lf>
13:31:33.156: << DATA<cr><lf>
13:31:33.312: >> 354 Go ahead<cr><lf>
13:31:33.312: << Received: from Spooler by apsarchaeology.co.uk (Mercury/32 v4.52) ID MO00020C;<cr><lf>    21 May 2008 13:31:33 +0100<cr><lf>
13:31:33.312: << Received: from spooler by apsarchaeology.co.uk (Mercury/32 v4.52); 21 May 2008 13:31:24 +0100<cr><lf>
13:31:33.312: << X-Autoreply-From: <greenman@apsarchaeology.co.uk><cr><lf>
13:31:33.312: << Precedence: Bulk<cr><lf>
13:31:33.312: << To: greenman@googlemail.com<cr><lf>
13:31:33.312: << From: <greenman@apsarchaeology.co.uk><cr><lf>
13:31:33.312: << Date: Wed, 21 May 2008 13:31:13 +0100<cr><lf>
13:31:33.312: << MIME-Version: 1.0<cr><lf>
13:31:33.312: << Content-Type: Text/Plain<cr><lf>
13:31:33.312: << Subject: [Autoreply] Re: AR<cr><lf>
13:31:33.312: << Message-ID: <D6D6581C1340@apsarchaeology.co.uk><cr><lf>
13:31:33.312: << <cr><lf>
13:31:33.312: << <cr><lf>
13:31:33.312: << Hi<cr><lf>
13:31:33.312: << I'm away from the office this afternoon<cr><lf>
13:31:33.312: << .<cr><lf>
13:31:35.796: >> 250 2.0.0 OK 1211373176 39si2893414wrl.29<cr><lf>
13:31:35.796: << QUIT<cr><lf>
13:31:35.921: >> 221 2.0.0 mx.google.com closing connection 39si2893414wrl.29<cr><lf>
13:31:35.921: --- Connection closed normally at Wed May 21 13:31:35 2008. ---
13:31:35.921:

So, assuming the empty 'MAIL From:<>' was the cause for the rejection from the comrange.com domain, can it be fixed? This is how Mercury is sending the mail. Is it a configuration issue?

Also, does anyone know what Precedence: Bulk means please?

Thanks

So, assuming the empty 'MAIL From:<>' was the cause for the

rejection from the comrange.com domain, can it be fixed? This is how

Mercury is sending the mail. Is it a configuration issue?

Probably not the reason.  The MAIL FROM: <> is a valid sender address when a mail server is sending.

Also, does anyone know what Precedence: Bulk means please?

IIRC, Pegasus Mail adds this when the message is being sent to more than 50 addresses. Not sure though that this is a Pegasus Mail message.

To many an autoreply is not innocent, it is spam.  In most cases mailing lists are rejecting the autoreply if there is something in the message to indicate it is an autoreply.  But when the sender replies to the Reply To: field this is in many cases both the list and the original sender.  The one to the list is discarded, the one to the original sender gets the bounce. 

In addition, even the MessageLabs system has a few leakers (unless it has a huge false positive rate) that will get the reply.

[quote user="Thomas R. Stephenson"]

IIRC, Pegasus Mail adds this when the message is being sent to more than 50 addresses. Not sure though that this is a Pegasus Mail message.

[/quote]

This is an autoreply sent from a Pegasus Mail account. It was sent to one address - greenman@googlemail.com

[quote user="Thomas R. Stephenson"]

To many an autoreply is not innocent, it is spam.  In most cases mailing lists are rejecting the autoreply if there is something in the message to indicate it is an autoreply.  But when the sender replies to the Reply To: field this is in many cases both the list and the original sender.  The one to the list is discarded, the one to the original sender gets the bounce. 

In addition, even the MessageLabs system has a few leakers (unless it has a huge false positive rate) that will get the reply.

[/quote]

I just checked the user's email and you are right - the autoreply was sent in reply to a mailing list (how do you know these things?)

With regards to that, wouldn't it be a better use of resources if autoreplies to mailing lists could be silently dropped? Although they may be considered by some to be spam, they perform a very useful function, especially from a business's point of view. Non-business email is a different matter and you are right - I'm not at all interested in when someone is due back in the office. Dropping them from mailing lists though would perhaps benefit everyone.

With regards to that, wouldn't it be a better use of resources if

autoreplies to mailing lists could be silently dropped? Although they

may be considered by some to be spam, they perform a very useful

function, especially from a business's point of view. Non-business

email is a different matter and you are right - I'm not at all

interested in when someone is due back in the office. Dropping them

from mailing lists though would perhaps benefit everyone.

 
How does the sending system detect that the message is from a mailing list and the receiving list server detect that it's an autoreply? 

In the case of Mercury/32 it does add the "Autoreply" header to an autoreply and the Mercury/32  mailing lists will discard messages with that header.  Other mailers do not use this and in many cases it's almost impossible for the receiving list server to know it's an autoreply.  As for the autoreply in Mercury/32 you can setup a AREPLY.KFS kill file to block sending autoreplies to specific addresses.

Mercury will only send an automatic reply to any given address once in any 48-hour period: this prevents mail storms and stops people sending mail regularly from being deluged with autoreply notices. You can also create a file called AREPLY.KFS in your new mail directory containing a list of addresses that should never receive automatic replies, one per line.

This will not solve the problem though where the list server's Reply To: address contains both the sender and the list address.   If people want to send to both the list and the user (like I aways do) then the sender is still going to get these autoreplies unless you add all members of the list in the kill file as well.  Normally the best way to handle this is to either set the list NOMAIL or go to the DIGEST option for the period you use the autoreply.