SMPT connections from GoogleBot?

GoogleBot SMTP connection indexing

[awlane]

I notice in my server logs that there are SMTP connections from a strange IP. We have the SMTP relay closed and I don't usually see anything other than my own IPs there. Today I found 216.239.45.4 has made 6 SMTP connections to my server. I tracert it and it seems to be google. What's the story?

[hakre]

hi awlane,

what do you mean it seems to be google. i would wonder if a robot spiders an smtp. this looks like a mail addy was approved (finger?). did you recently joined google groups or any of their services?

[awlane]

In my logwatch report for one of my servers, it showed 6 SMTP connections from the IP I mentioned. When you tracert it, it appears to belong to google:

Tracing route to 216-239-45-4.google.com [216.239.45.4]

I didn't investigate further but basically it was shown in the log as a connection to port 25 using the smtp protocol.

And I did not use google groups or anything. I do have adwords campaigns and a premium campaign running for some domains that are hosted on the same server but there is no way google would need to make an smtp connection? Very strange.

[aspdesigner]

Maybe a virus on someone's PC at Google? You're right, both a Trace Route and a ARIN check both say it's Google's IP. You may want to ask GoogleGuy if he knows what that specific IP goes to, or you could try contacting their ARIN technical contact for that IP block.

Were these SMTP accesses during business hours, or in the middle of the night?