How do you contact?

[TheCotMan]

Are you sure?

Even though authoritative DNS for a domain may specify a cache timeout for lookups, the requesting DNS may not respect the authoritative DNS cache timeout. I have seen some broken ISP that will cache MX and CNAME/A information for 5 days if the cache time specified by the authoritative DNS is less than 12 hours.

Looking at the MX record information for the defcon.org domain reveals the following:

defcon.org mail exchanger = 10 mail-1.datamerica.com.
defcon.org mail exchanger = 20 mail-2.datamerica.com.

Checking for service running on the standard mail port for MX host entries in order of precedence:

$ telnet mail-1.datamerica.com 25
Trying 216.231.63.44...
Connected to mail-1.datamerica.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 colossus.datamerica.com ESMTP Sun, 30 May 2004 12:48:33 -0700 (PDT)

500 5.5.1 Command unrecognized: ""
quit
221 2.0.0 colossus.datamerica.com closing connection
Connection closed by foreign host.

and

$ telnet mail-2.datamerica.com 25
Trying 216.231.63.45...
Connected to mail-2.datamerica.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 guardian.datamerica.com ESMTP Sun, 30 May 2004 05:42:41 -0700 (PDT)

500 5.5.1 Command unrecognized: ""
quit
221 2.0.0 guardian.datamerica.com closing connection
Connection closed by foreign host.

shows that there is a service listening on the SMTP port for both MX hosts.

Your Mail message bounce states that your mail relay/host was Persistent Transient Failure.

If this is a caching issue of your ISP, you can always try registering an account at hotmail, yahoo, etc. and see if delivery issues persist when you mail them from that location. If that message works while mail from through your ISP SMTP relay fails, then complain to your ISP.

HTH

[TheCotMan]

I tried emailing from multiple accounts through multiple ISPs, all fail the same way.

This suggests it is not a caching issue, but it may have been a caching issue if you have not tried to mail them from another ISP recently. I would try mailing from places like hotmail or yahoo if you last tried from another more than a few days ago.

Check this out:

$ telnet mail-1.datamerica.com 25
Trying 216.231.63.44...
Connected to mail-1.datamerica.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 colossus.datamerica.com ESMTP Sun, 30 May 2004 13:05:55 -0700 (PDT)
HELO MYDOMAIN
250 colossus.datamerica.com Hello MYDOMAIN [MYIP], pleased to meet
you
MAIL From:<me@MYDOMAIN>
250 2.1.0 <me@MYDOMAIN>... Sender ok
RCPT To:<blackbeetle@defcon.org>
250 2.1.5 <blackbeetle@defcon.org>... Recipient ok
DATA
354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself
Subject: User reports mail delivery failure for your address at DC.org

Hello,


This is a test message to see if/why mail delivery to this address may be a
problem.
See:
http://forum.defcon.org/showthread.php?p=45465

For details

.
250 2.0.0 i4UK5sKM002183 Message accepted for delivery
quit
221 2.0.0 colossus.datamerica.com closing connection
Connection closed by foreign host.

Perhaps this server will bounce back to me. If it does, I'll followup with the results.

However, if it was a mail server issue for these MX hosts, I would not expect to see this:
"250 2.0.0 i4UK5sKM002183 Message accepted for delivery"

HTH

[Chris]

1. Dude, take a fucking chill pill.
2. If you're going to run a contest, perhaps you should check to make sure the contest's email is working.

My email to blackbeetle was for the artwork/logo contest -- that closes on 1-June-2004.
I tried emailing from multiple accounts through multiple ISPs, all fail the same way.

Consider this:
For Defcon 11, there were 5 pages of backgrounds and 11 pages of logos.
For Defcon 12, there are only 5 pages of logos.
Are fewer people submitting?
Or is the email not working?

Since I'm getting bounced emails, I'd suggest you consider becoming "customer fucking support" and make sure that you don't have unhappy campers.

Defcon (and Blackhat) seems to be getting more and more unhappy people each year -- talk quality is dropping, and people's concerns are not being responded to in a reasonable fashion. And your "customer fucking support" doesn't make people happier. This year I'm still planning of Defcon/Blackhat, but next year I'll probably join the masses and hit Toorcon/Usenix instead -- Toorcon is more in tune with the hacking culture (and not just focused on drinking), Usenix is more cutting edge than Blackhat, both act more professional, and their attendees don't leave angry ("I couldn't get in to any speakers", "I couldn't get on the wireless", "They had that talk last year").

Ok, first of all, Phobal is not DC or BH staff. He is a forum member, just like you. He can say he sin't customer fucking support all he wants, and he is right. He has nothing to do with DefCon/Black Hat other than attending.

Now, as to your problem, it could be your ISP (as pointed out). I have been excahning mail with BB for the past two days with no problems whatsoever.

[phobal]

Since I'm getting bounced emails, I'd suggest you consider becoming "customer fucking support" and make sure that you don't have unhappy campers.

Defcon (and Blackhat) seems to be getting more and more unhappy people each year -- talk quality is dropping, and people's concerns are not being responded to in a reasonable fashion. And your "customer fucking support" doesn't make people happier. This year I'm still planning of Defcon/Blackhat, but next year I'll probably join the masses and hit Toorcon/Usenix instead -- Toorcon is more in tune with the hacking culture (and not just focused on drinking), Usenix is more cutting edge than Blackhat, both act more professional, and their attendees don't leave angry ("I couldn't get in to any speakers", "I couldn't get on the wireless", "They had that talk last year").

This is the first complaint I have ever heard from anyone in regards to DC, beyond "could you space the seats out next year? it would be more comfortable that way". If you don't like this, then why don't you prove to everyone that you mean more than crying and PM someone rather than burdening 99 percent of the people on the forums who have nothing to do with the organization? Why don't you close your account and join the Usenix forums?