Friday, September 18, 2009
It's the little things
My attention was drawn to something yesterday that I just hadn't registered before. Perhaps because I see it so often I didn't twig to it being special in just that place.
Here are the Received: headers of a bugzilla message I got yesterday. It's just a sample. I've bolded the header names for readability:
Postfix. On a Microsoft server. Hur hur hur.
Keep in mind that Microsoft purchased the ForeFront product line lock stock and barrel. If that company had been using non-MS products as part of their primary message flow, then Microsoft probably kept that up. Next versions just might move to more explicitly MS-branded servers. Or not, you never know. Microsoft has been making placating notes towards Open Source lately. They may keep it.
Here are the Received: headers of a bugzilla message I got yesterday. It's just a sample. I've bolded the header names for readability:
Received: from ExchEdge2.cms.wwu.edu (140.160.248.208) by ExchHubCA1.univ.dir.wwu.edu (140.160.248.102) with Microsoft SMTP Server (TLS) id 8.1.393.1; Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:58:10 -0700
Received: from mail97-va3-R.bigfish.com (216.32.180.112) by
ExchEdge2.cms.wwu.edu (140.160.248.208) with Microsoft SMTP Server (TLS) id 8.1.393.1; Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:58:09 -0700
Received: from mail97-va3 (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by mail97-va3-R.bigfish.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6EFC9AA0138 for me; Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:58:09 +0000 (UTC)
Received: by mail97-va3 (MessageSwitch) id 12530482889694_15241; Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:58:08 +0000 (UCT)
Received: from monroe.provo.novell.com (monroe.provo.novell.com [137.65.250.171]) by mail97-va3.bigfish.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5F7101A58056 for me; Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:58:07 +0000 (UTC)
Received: from soval.provo.novell.com ([137.65.250.5]) by
monroe.provo.novell.com with ESMTP; Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:57:58 -0600
Received: from bugzilla.novell.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by soval.provo.novell.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id A56EECC7CE for me; Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:57:58 -0600 (MDT)
For those who haven't read these kinds of headers before, read from the bottom up. The mail flow is:- Originating server was Bugzilla.novell.com, which mailed to...
- soval.provo.novell.com running Postfix, who forwarded it on to Novell's outbound mailer...
- monroe.provo.novell.com, who attempted to send to us and sent to the server listed in our MX record...
- mail97-va3.bigfish.com running Postfix, who forwarded it on to another mailer on the same machine...
- mail97-ca3-r running something called MessageSwitch, who sent it on to the internal server we set up...
- exchedge2.cms.wwu.edu running Exchange 2007, who send it on to the Client Access Server...
- exchhubca1.univ.dir.wwu.edu for 'terminal delivery'. Actually it went on to one of the Mailbox servers, but that doesn't leave a record in the SMTP headers.
Postfix. On a Microsoft server. Hur hur hur.
Keep in mind that Microsoft purchased the ForeFront product line lock stock and barrel. If that company had been using non-MS products as part of their primary message flow, then Microsoft probably kept that up. Next versions just might move to more explicitly MS-branded servers. Or not, you never know. Microsoft has been making placating notes towards Open Source lately. They may keep it.