I was interviewd for Access Control and Security Systems Magazine. The article makes me sound smart and old. Okay, I guess I'd like to think I am smart, and I am, after all, getting on in years. (I am only 10 years old in "dog years!") The article is The More Things Change….

As I mentioned in System Back-ups, I have and do use SuperDuper! for backups, but since installing Leopard, I also let Time Machine do it's thing. Today, it was showing an error condition. When I queried Time Machine (I opened it then clicked on the little "information" icon, next to the error) it helpfully told me "Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume." I tried again. Same thing. I used Disk Utility to check the disk. No problems.

So, first I did a back-up using SuperDuper! I use a different partition for that. Then I queried the Internet, which, as we know, knows everything. I found the solution.

Apparently, Time Machine was interrupted during the last time it was run. Now, a power outtage can do that, and we had one today. But, this was user error. I turned my machine off last night when going to bed. And I did not check to see if it was running.

It was a simple fix. I found it, via a search for the error message, at the MacCast Forum. The answer, from forum user "karinlord," was:

If Time Machine gets disrupted for any reason during a backup (e.g., hard drive unplugged, power failure) it seems to get stuck. Occasionally it gets stuck for reasons only known to Leopard. It's a known bug on the Apple discussion boards. What has worked for me is the following:

1. ensure hard drive is powered on and connected to computer
2. turn off time machine
3. go to your backup volume, backups.backupd, "your computer name", and then select and trash "In Progress" or "Latest" (it will be the last one in your backup folder listing)
4. turn Time Machine back on
5. either wait for the next backup cycle, or what I do to be sure things are working right: force an immediate backup (control-click on TimeMachine, select "backup now").

This worked for me.

Apparently, in it's never-ending battle to thwart spam, Comcast (apparently) recently started to require that connecting e-mail servers have a valid PTR record so Comcast's email servers can do a PTR (pointer) record lookup. This allows a look-up on your IP address to see if the IP address and the value returned—it should be the computer's domain namematch.

Now, I am not sure of a different way to do it, but Comcast chose a way that many choose. They returned it in a bounced error message.

Providentially, I knew this was coming. For some reason, I checked the mail queue on the server. This is what I saw.

242C7AFEC0D2 9406 Thu Jun 19 12:25:40
listname@example.org (connect to mx1.comcast.net[76.96.62.116]: server refused to talk to me:
554 IMTA08.westchester.pa.mail.comcast.net comcast 66.242.23.142 Comcast requires that all mail servers must have a PTR record with a valid Reverse DNS entry. Currently your mail server does not fill that requirement. For more information, refer to:
http://www.comcast.net/help/faq/index.jsp?faq=SecurityMail_Policy18784)
alpha@comcast.net
charlie3@comcast.net
delta4@comcast.net
echo5@comcast.net
foxtrot6@comcast.net
gold7@comcast.net
hotel8@comcast.net

Later, one of the errors was returned to the list owner (me).

<delta4@comcast.net>: delivery temporarily suspended: connect to mx2.comcast.net[76.96.30.116]: server refused to talk to me: 554 IMTA01.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net comcast 66.242.23.142 Comcast requires that all mail servers must have a PTR record with a valid Reverse DNS entry. Currently your mail server does not fill that requirement. For more information, refer to: http://www.comcast.net/help/faq/index.jsp?faq=SecurityMail_Policy18784

Now, I am fairly Internet, DNS, and SMTP e-mail clueful. What would (what do) the average person do with this error message? They should go to the indicated URL. It suggests going to your email administrator. Many people stop right there, eyes glazed over.

The funny thing in this case? Although the server was not in a Comcast address space, the server domain is a customer of Comcast. I'm thinking the error message could have been clearer.