Another Dying Gasp From Email?

Note: This entry has been restored from old archives.

I’ve sporadically been losing emails recently. It turns out this is due to two things.

  1. I changed ISPs and now have a dynamic IP that is in several blacklists.
  2. I’ve been sending emails with the string “configure.ac” in them and this is in several URI blacklists.

Mostly this means I don’t receive my own emails, but sometimes the IP thing seems to catch emails on their way to me from someone else. I do have to wonder who else is not getting my emails though šŸ™

OK, so “dying gasp” is a bit melodramatic. But email seems to become increasingly unreliable. Unless you’re expecting email and will thus miss it when it doesn’t arrive how do you know you’ve missed the unexpected? There’s no way of knowing whether you’re getting all you should be, or others are getting all you’re sending! More and more I use IM and websites for communication, and email becomes an “on the record” and “just a sec, I’ll email you the file” medium.

The listed IP thing is only going to happen to geeks who have local mail relays. I use a local mail relay for work email, so it is kind of important. I guess I’ll have to configure the local MX to not add a received header.

The “configure.ac” thing is just a PITA.