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Comcast and Sorbs

For a while now my users have been complaining about emails that are delayed. Here is a sample of the delivery status notification.

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.      

Delivery to the following recipients is still underway after 7.0 hour(s):

  * user@domain.com

Will keep trying and contact you if the message can't be delivered permanently.

--------------I305M09060309060P_327613100986200
Content-Type: message/delivery-status; charset=UTF-8;
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Reporting-MTA: dns; qmta11.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net [76.96.27.211]
Received-From-MTA: dns; omta20.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net [76.96.30.87]
Arrival-Date: Thu, 07 Jul 2011 21:19:28 +0000

Final-recipient: rfc822; user@domain.com
Action: delayed
Status: 4.1.1
Last-attempt-Date: Fri, 08 Jul 2011 04:17:00 +0000

I have searched the internet and the only solution I could find said the recipients email address is spelled incorrectly. I was positive that the email address was correct. In addition the message would eventually be delivered or possibly timeout. The reason we were receiving the delayed notifications with a status of 4.1.1 is because Comcast has many outbound mail servers located in either Emeryville or West Chester, many of which are listed on theSORBS (Spam and Open Relay Blocking System) blacklist. We happen to be using Spamhaus (sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org) and SORBS (dnsbl.sorbs.net).

Because of this we were having trouble receiving email from Comcast.net accounts. In addition we were also having trouble from small businesses, who own their own domain, host their own email on a mail server, weather it be Microsoft Exchange or otherwise, and route their outgoing email through Comcast as a smart host.

This problem was easy enough for me to fix. Since we happen to use Sonicwall routers and email security devices, I simply disabled the SORBS blacklist. If for some reason you are on the other end of this situation and are trying to send email to someone who is blocking SORBS, If you own your own domain name, I suggest that you do not route you email through a host such as Comcast. Your mail server should be configured to send email via DNS or you should switch to a professionally configured mail service.

Community &Internet &Networking admin 08 Jul 2011 No Comments

Favicon for WordPress

Did you ever notice the little icon to the left of the address bar in your browser? These icons are also displayed on the individual tabs in Firefox and Internet Explorer. The icon defines your website with an image that stands out from the text. Normally the favicon is a smaller version of your logo or something that represents your brand.

To create your own favicon you first you need to create the image with software that allows you to save the format as .ico. I recommend using GIMP since it is free. Once you have your image you will need to save the size as 16×16 pixels and name it favicon.ico. Gimp will ask you if you want to compress the image please do not choose this option.

Next, you must upload the favicon.ico image to your website root directory and to the root directory of the template you are using. Once you have uploaded the image you will now need to place this line of code under the <head> tag in your header.php file. This is located under Design, Theme Editor, and then Header on the right hand side menu.

Once you have updated your template you will need to clear your browser’s cache and close it before it will recgonize your new favicon. Below are a few samples to get you started.

Internet &Marketing josh 20 Jun 2008 7 Comments

OpenDNS and Content Filtering

OpenDNS is a free service that provides additional features including content filtering, phishing protection, domain blocking, adult site blocking, and web proxy blocking. Normally, we use the content filtering provided by SonicWall which requires a yearly subscription but I will be testing this out on my next installation for a small office.

The service is great for savvy parents who want to provide filtering for their children or even the small office know-it-all. Once you have signed up for a free account you can begin configuring your desired settings. If you are using a dynamic IP you will need to install a dynamic IP updater, I recommend DirectUpdate because it will allow you to update multiple services at the same time (DynDNS).

You will need to change the DNS servers from your ISP to 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. There are many tutorials based on what type of setup you have from 1 computer to popular routers to an enterprise system. Once OpenDNS knows your IP address you need to create a network and begin choosing your settings. The service will track your stats if you choose and you can begin picking blocked categories.

If someone visits a website on the block list they will be directed to block page. You can even customize a message for them to view. Overall the service is well documented and offers many options. I was impressed and then my wheels started spinning. It wouldn’t be too difficult to bypass this sort of system unless users couldn’t change their local DNS entries. For IT administrators a group policy setting to deny users access to changing these entries would be required. For home users an account with limited access would also do the trick.

Internet &Linux &Networking &Software &Windows josh 15 Jun 2008 No Comments

XBMC on Ubuntu

If you have ever owned an original Xbox you are probably familiar with this application, if not the software is a free, open source and very complete media player. It can play an entire spectrum of media formats and includes playlists, audio visualizations, slideshows, and weather forecast functions. XBMC has become a mature graphical user interface replacement for the original Xbox Dashboard, and it is currently also being ported to run natively under Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows operating-system.

XBMC has released Personal Package Archives (PPA) for Ubuntu. There are three PPA’s available; one supported for Gutsy Gibbon and Hardy Heron, one that is considered instable and bleeding edge, and one for SVN.

Gutsy Gibbon 7.10:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc-gutsy/ubuntu gutsy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc-gutsy/ubuntu gutsy main

Hardy Heron 8.04:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc-hardy/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc-hardy/ubuntu hardy main

Unstable:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc/ubuntu gutsy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc/ubuntu gutsy main
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc/ubuntu hardy main

SVN:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc-svn/ubuntu gutsy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc-svn/ubuntu gutsy main
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc-svn/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc-svn/ubuntu hardy main

If you need assistance adding the repositories follow the Ubuntu documentation located here. Once the repositories are added they will be available under Synaptic Package Manager under the name XBMC.

Linux &Software josh 31 May 2008 2 Comments

Google AdSense Video Units

Say hello to video units. Google now features video units for AdSense. The player below features premium video content from YouTube based on categories that you can preselect. This allows you to target visitors on your website by choosing content from individual partners. Check out the video below so see a sample and view the common questions about video units.

Watch the latest videos on YouTube.com

Internet &Marketing &Software josh 30 May 2008 No Comments

PortableApps.com Updater 1.0 ALPHA 9

PortableApps.com now has an automatic updater. Its only an alpha release but it worked quite well for me. In case you’re not familiar with PortableApps.com, its a suite of portable applications that can run from any portable hardware (USB flash drive, iPod, portable hard drive, etc.) without performing a traditional installation.

The problem up until now was that the software is updated frequently and the only way to do it was to download each installer seperately. PortableApps.com Updater will now download the appropirate packages for you and update your USB drive automatically.

There was plenty of clicking “Next” and some applications like OpenOffice.org took longer than others to download and extract but I only had to put minimal thought into the entire process. It saved me so much time determining which software was up-to-date and which needed to be upgraded.

Software josh 28 May 2008 1 Comment

Revo Uninstaller

Every once in a while I come across a software package that is difficult to remove. I have tried the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility but this really only works for Microsoft Office Applications. A co-worker of mine recommended I try Revo Uninstaller.
Revo Uninstaller helps you to uninstall and remove unwanted programs installed on your computer even if you have problems uninstalling and cannot uninstall them from “Windows Add or Remove Programs” control panel applet.
With its advanced and fast algorithm, Revo Uninstaller analyzes an application’s data before uninstall and scans after you uninstall an application. After the program’s regular uninstaller runs, you can remove additional unnecessary files, folders and registry keys that are usually left over on your computer. Even if you have a broken installation, Revo Uninstaller scans for an application’s data on your hard disk drives and in the Windows registry and shows all found files, folders and registry keys so you can delete them.

General &Software josh 28 May 2008 No Comments

Grade Your Website

Website Grader is a free seo tool that measures the marketing effectiveness of a website. It provides a score that incorporates things like website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some basic advice on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective.

Internet &Marketing josh 15 May 2008 No Comments

Digg Labs

Digg has a great new API that allows you to change how you view your news, Visually. The idea behind the different views are pretty interesting. On the main page articles normally have many diggs and are very popular, but in labs you get a chance to see stories as they are submitted in real time. There are 5 different views; stack, swarm, bigspy, arc , and pics . Each view is visually stimulating in its own way. My favorites are bigspy and arc.

General &Internet &News josh 15 May 2008 No Comments

Wake On Lan

Wake on Lan is a great feature for any technician that works on systems remotely. If the comptuer or server you attempting to reach is off, you can send a magic packet that automatically turns the power on. DNSStuff has recently added a new tool to send these magic packets from their website. The setup requires you to enable this feature in your BIOS and forward UDP traffic on the port of your chosing to your local workstation if you are using a Firewall. I decided to forward UDP traffic on port 9 to my local IP address in my NAT based router. I gathered my Wan IP and local Mac address and input these numbers in thier website (before shutting my compuer down) along with port 9 and sure enough, my computer powered on.

Hardware &Internet &Networking admin 13 May 2008 No Comments