ahd@kendra.kew.com (Drew Derbyshire) (09/25/90)
From article <5376@thebes.Thalatta.COM>, by campbell@Thalatta.COM (Bill Campbell): > Has anyone come up with a standard set of aliases such as: > postmaster > support > info > usenet > > This would help standardize requests for information when you > don't know anyone at the site. I have had mail bounced when > addressed to site!postmaster, and I thought that that was > supposed to be universal! If postmaster doesn't work, call them up on the telephone and yell at them. It's NOT required on uucp sites, but is on internet sites, and generally a nice practice. -ahd-
bob@MorningStar.Com (Bob Sutterfield) (09/26/90)
In article <5624@munnari.oz.au> ianr@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au (Ian ROWLANDS) writes:
Anyway, what's wrong with mailing to root?
Some operating systems don't call their idea of a superuser "root".wisner@hayes.fai.alaska.edu (Bill Wisner) (09/26/90)
In article <5624@munnari.oz.au> ianr@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au (Ian ROWLANDS) writes: > Anyway, what's wrong with mailing to root? At least they could >put you onto the real person (although at my site, I could alias it to >anybody). Ever sent mail to a VMS machine? Bill Wisner <wisner@hayes.fai.alaska.edu> Gryphon Gang Fairbanks AK 99775 "Of course, this isn't really the best way to do it. But seeing as you're not quite as clever as I am -- in fact, none of you are anywhere near as clever as I am -- we'll do it this way."
jeh@dcs.simpact.com (09/26/90)
In article <BOB.90Sep25132519@volitans.MorningStar.Com>, bob@MorningStar.Com (Bob Sutterfield) writes: > In article <5624@munnari.oz.au> ianr@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au (Ian ROWLANDS) writes: > Anyway, what's wrong with mailing to root? > > Some operating systems don't call their idea of a superuser "root". And on some of them, we never log into the "SYSTEM" account anyway -- it is such an obvious target for penetration attempts that we routinely disable it for interactive logins. Funny thing, but the system startup procedure doesn't bother to read its mail. We already tell DECUS uucp sites to forward "postmaster" to a real person (probably the person reading the installation instructions). If there are other "standard aliases" we should be setting up, please let me know! --- Jamie Hanrahan, Simpact Associates, San Diego CA Chair, VMSnet [DECUS uucp] and Internals Working Groups, DECUS VAX Systems SIG Internet: jeh@dcs.simpact.com, or if that fails, jeh@crash.cts.com Uucp: ...{crash,scubed,decwrl}!simpact!jeh
VERKADE@CTSS.CO.UK (Herman Verkade) (09/27/90)
In article <5624@munnari.oz.au>, ianr@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au (Ian ROWLANDS) writes: > Anyway, what's wrong with mailing to root? %MAIL-E-NOSUCHUSR, no such user ROOT It's not all *IX out there Herman
clarke@acheron.uucp (Ed Clarke/10240000) (09/27/90)
From article <1639.26ffec90@dcs.simpact.com>, by jeh@dcs.simpact.com: > And on some of them, we never log into the "SYSTEM" account anyway -- it is > such an obvious target for penetration attempts that we routinely disable it > We already tell DECUS uucp sites to forward "postmaster" to a real person > (probably the person reading the installation instructions). If there are > other "standard aliases" we should be setting up, please let me know! From the README of comp.mail.maps: # Also, it's a good idea to give a generic address or alias (if your # mail system is capable of providing aliases) like `usenet' or # `postmaster', so that if the contact person leaves the institution or # is re-assigned to other duties, he doesn't keep getting mail about the # system. In a perfect world, people would send notice to the UUCP And my /usr/lib/aliases file (from the University of Illinois): # Following alias is required by the new mail protocol, RFC 822 postmaster:clarke usenet:clarke I don't log in as root either; su is sufficient for most non-maintenance work. What I have done is to put .forwards in the home directories of all maintenance type uids ( root, adm, bin ) to point to me. -- | "Consume waste products, you unclean offspring Ed Clarke | of unmarried parental units! You male infants of acheron!clarke | female canines! May the Prime Builder cast you | into the Void! May --" | --- Computer translation output in Illegal Aliens
ianr@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au (Ian ROWLANDS) (09/27/90)
In article <900926223920.000010D7@MARVIN.CTSS.CO.UK> VERKADE@CTSS.CO.UK (Herman Verkade) writes: >In article <5624@munnari.oz.au>, ianr@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au (Ian ROWLANDS) writes: >> Anyway, what's wrong with mailing to root? > >%MAIL-E-NOSUCHUSR, no such user ROOT > >It's not all *IX out there Sorry, I'll correct my article as my mailbox is full with replies like this. I'm sorry for assuming the whole world is unix, it's just my whole world is. Ignore my suggestion, and STOP MAILING ME please! Ian Ian Rowlands | ianr@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au (main) Dept. of Electrical Engineering, | ianr@gondwana.ecr.mu.oz.au (including Computer Science) | U431EL122@xvax.ucs.unimelb.edu.au University of Melbourne | munnari!labtam!eyrie!gpark!ianr@uunet.uu.net
dylan@ibmpcug.co.uk (Matthew Farwell) (09/27/90)
In article <5624@munnari.oz.au> ianr@mullian.ee.mu.OZ.AU (Ian ROWLANDS) writes: >In article <1990Sep25.120211.3951@news.clarkson.edu> ahd@kendra.kew.com (Drew Derbyshire) writes: >>From article <5376@thebes.Thalatta.COM>, by campbell@Thalatta.COM (Bill Campbell): >>> Has anyone come up with a standard set of aliases such as: >>> postmaster >> support >> info >> usenet >>If postmaster doesn't work, call them up on the telephone and yell at >>them. It's NOT required on uucp sites, but is on internet sites, and >>generally a nice practice. > Well you can ring me up on the phone, but it would cost a fortune! >On my UUCP site (not the one I'm on now) I can set an alias for the above names >to anybody I like. Funny enough, I alias them to me as it's a single-user >machine! Anyway, what's wrong with mailing to root? At least they could >put you onto the real person (although at my site, I could alias it to >anybody). I think relying on a 'usenet@foo.bar.com' is a bad idea, cos that assumes that that person has news. If you want to contact anyone at a site, the ones to try are postmaster (which really should be there, but some sites don't, either thru not knowing how to or not knowing that they should do), then if that doesn't work try 'root' or 'system'. 'root' won't work on all sites, because not all sites are unix, believe it or not. The best thing is to alias all probable id's to one person. we have defined postmaster, postie, admin, root, system, usenet, sysadmin and even MAILER-DAEMON. All these are aliased to the same people. All it takes is an extra couple of lines in the aliases file. I don't see why people don't do it. Dylan. -- Matthew J Farwell | Email: dylan@ibmpcug.co.uk The IBM PC User Group, PO Box 360,| ...!uunet!ukc!ibmpcug!dylan Harrow HA1 4LQ England | CONNECT - Usenet Access in the UK!! Phone: +44 81-863-1191 | Sun? Don't they make coffee machines?
david@twg.com (David S. Herron) (09/28/90)
In article <1639.26ffec90@dcs.simpact.com> jeh@dcs.simpact.com writes: >In article <BOB.90Sep25132519@volitans.MorningStar.Com>, bob@MorningStar.Com >(Bob Sutterfield) writes: >> In article <5624@munnari.oz.au> ianr@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au (Ian ROWLANDS) writes: >> Anyway, what's wrong with mailing to root? >> >> Some operating systems don't call their idea of a superuser "root". > >And on some of them, we never log into the "SYSTEM" account anyway -- it is >such an obvious target for penetration attempts that we routinely disable it >for interactive logins. Funny thing, but the system startup procedure doesn't >bother to read its mail. > >We already tell DECUS uucp sites to forward "postmaster" to a real person >(probably the person reading the installation instructions). If there are >other "standard aliases" we should be setting up, please let me know! If I were trying to reach your system administrator, and had no idea who that was, I'd try various things like "root" and "sysadm". I wouldn't necessarily try "postmaster" .. On Unix we also rarely have people logging in directly to "root" as their normal course of running the system. Also people rarely read mail as if they are root. Instead normally aliases are installed redirecting root's mail to the interested people/person and they read it as part of their normal mail. I would expect a VMS system to do the same, but substituting "SYSTEM" for "root". -- <- David Herron, an MMDF & WIN/MHS guy, <david@twg.com> <- Formerly: David Herron -- NonResident E-Mail Hack <david@ms.uky.edu> <- <- Sign me up for one "I survived Jaka's Story" T-shirt!
jmaynard@thesis1.hsch.utexas.edu (Jay Maynard) (09/28/90)
In article <7999@gollum.twg.com> david@twg.com (David S. Herron) writes: >In article <1639.26ffec90@dcs.simpact.com> jeh@dcs.simpact.com writes: >>In article <BOB.90Sep25132519@volitans.MorningStar.Com>, bob@MorningStar.Com >>(Bob Sutterfield) writes: >>> Some operating systems don't call their idea of a superuser "root". >>And on some of them, we never log into the "SYSTEM" account anyway (...) >If I were trying to reach your system administrator, and had no idea >who that was, I'd try various things like "root" and "sysadm". I wouldn't >necessarily try "postmaster" .. Neither 'root', nor 'system', nor any other superuser-type ID will get you anything but a bounce-o-gram on the MVS system I'm putting on the Internet... but 'postmaster' will work every time. Some systems don't have any concept of 'system administrator'. Don't assume that any machine on the Internet has an address that 1) isn't in the RFCs as a standard user name, and 2) wasn't given to you by a user on that system. -- Jay Maynard, EMT-P, K5ZC, PP-ASEL | Never ascribe to malice that which can jmaynard@thesis1.hsch.utexas.edu | adequately be explained by stupidity. "It's a hardware bug!" "It's a +--------------------------------------- software bug!" "It's two...two...two bugs in one!" - _Engineer's Rap_
scs@lokkur.dexter.mi.us (Steve Simmons) (09/28/90)
In article <BOB.90Sep25132519@volitans.MorningStar.Com>, bob@MorningStar.Com (Bob Sutterfield) writes: > Some operating systems don't call their idea of a superuser "root". In article <1639.26ffec90@dcs.simpact.com> jeh@dcs.simpact.com writes: >And on some of them, we never log into the "SYSTEM" account anyway -- it is >such an obvious target for penetration attempts that we routinely disable it >for interactive logins. Funny thing, but the system startup procedure doesn't >bother to read its mail. Not logging in a root is an excellent idea, but one hopes that there is an alias of 'root' to 'postmaster'.
jack@cscdec.cs.com (Jack Hudler) (09/29/90)
In article <1990Sep27.161652.8420@ibmpcug.co.uk> dylan@ibmpcug.CO.UK (Matthew Farwell) writes: > >The best thing is to alias all probable id's to one person. we have >defined postmaster, postie, admin, root, system, usenet, sysadmin and >even MAILER-DAEMON. All these are aliased to the same people. Sounds good, but I'll draw the line at 'sysop', this is NOT a BBS, and even 'sysadmin' is getting close. 'postie', that's cute. -- Jack Computer Support Corporation Dallas,Texas Hudler Internet: jack@cscdec.cs.com
ahd@kendra.kew.com (Drew Derbyshire) (09/30/90)
From article <7999@gollum.twg.com>, by david@twg.com (David S. Herron): > In article <1639.26ffec90@dcs.simpact.com> jeh@dcs.simpact.com writes: > If I were trying to reach your system administrator, and had no idea > who that was, I'd try various things like "root" and "sysadm". I wouldn't > necessarily try "postmaster" .. Then I suggest you start doing do. After all, I started this round with the specific comment that POSTMASTER is an Internet standard, and that a reasonable standard like that accepted on a network that big is not a bad idea. Any reason not to? -ahd-
guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris) (10/02/90)
>> Some operating systems don't call their idea of a superuser "root". > >>And on some of them, we never log into the "SYSTEM" account anyway ... > >Not logging in a root is an excellent idea, Especially if the system doesn't *HAVE* an account named "root", as I suspect many (most? all?) VMS systems don't. That's the whole point of many of the other comments in this thread.... >but one hopes that there is an alias of 'root' to 'postmaster'. I assume you mean "one hopes there is an alias of 'SYSTEM' to 'postmaster'," as there's probably no "root" account on that system....
palkovic@linac.fnal.gov (palkovic@linac.fnal.gov (John A. Palkovic)) (10/03/90)
In an article bob@MorningStar.Com (Bob Sutterfield) writes: >Some operating systems don't call their idea of a superuser "root". Under SunOS 4.[01], user ID 0, usually known as root, can have any allowed user name. SunOS is UNIX, right? :-) The user name 'root' is just a convention. Before everyone starts changing the username on their root logins, a warning: lots of things assume that you have to have the user name 'root' in order for them to work (like every installation script I have ever seen). -- John Palkovic (708) 840-3527 tellab5!linac!palkovic, palkovic@linac.fnal.gov University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dept. of Physics Home: johnny%jpmac.UUCP@linac.fnal.gov, tellab5!linac!jpmac!johnny