After\u00a0the recent attack on my WordPress \u00a0software, I moved identityblog to a new more powerful and\u00a0securable\u00a0server (I'm sticking with TextDrive\u00a0– they're good guys and it is helpful for me to get a feel for what it's like to be “hosted”).<\/p>\n
Recently I got a flock\u00a0of messages like this one:<\/p>\n
I tried again to comment using my card. It says it is sending me a mail. I waited 24 hours and nothing arrived. Are you sure your code is working and your sender address is not blocked by hotmail?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Of course I was sure – NOT<\/strong>.\u00a0 I tested it out and my messages were definitely disappearing into\u00a0a worm hole\u00a0at hotmail, though getting through to a number of other mailboxes.<\/p>\n
Yikes.\u00a0 My first reaction was to wallow in the irony of it all.\u00a0 But eventually reason prevailed and I started to look at the headers:<\/p>\n
Received: by z07191AA.textdrive.com<\/strong> (Postfix, from userid 80)
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0id 1749D1280F; Sun,\u00a0\u00a02 Dec 2007 19:43:24 +0000 (GMT)<\/p><\/blockquote>\nInstead of\u00a0\u00a0z07191AA.textdrive.com, the header should have read identityblog.com<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
Somehow I had not succeeded in configuring the hosted mailserver on my TextDrive accelerator to use the right hostname.\u00a0 Hotmail was smart enough to figure this out and give me the finger.\u00a0 I guess that's why I get relatively little spam at hotmail.<\/p>\n
Now I think I've fixed it, but it will probably take a while for the hostname to propagate.<\/p>\n
So, my apologies to people who were trying to comment or try out Information Cards and couldn't register.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On a side note, when I was reinstalling my blogging software to get all the latest fixes, I was reminded what a fantastic job Pamela Dingle<\/a> has done\u00a0in making it easy to configure the PamelaWare plugin <\/a>that adds both Information Card and now OpenID support to WordPress.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It provides\u00a0the best\u00a0diagnostics Ive ever seen<\/em>\u00a0when using certificates and something goes wrong.\u00a0 I wonder if it would be possible for her plugin to send out an email message and analyse the headers to make sure they are set up\u00a0in such a way that\u00a0the registration messages will get through spam filters?\u00a0 That would be very cool.<\/p>\n