Matt Robertson wrote: > #2. Choice #1 is like a matador waving a red cape in front of an > arena full of bulls, where your mail server is the matador and the > bulls are all of the other mail servers you are sending to. > > Less colorfully: Dumping everyone into a bcc or cc field is the sign > of a spammer and will attract a lot of unwanted attention to your > mailing.
Not really, though decent spam filters will up the score a bit if the recipient is not in the To or CC. > Worse still is the fact that you do not have an unlimited > number of characters in your TO; field. CF used to enforce an arbitrary limit of 40 recipients per email. This is a server setting that has nothing to do with the capabilities of the protocol. Since in the envelope every recipient is on a separate line and in the header you can string lines together, the number of recipients in the protocol is unlimited. SMTP is the SIMPLE mail transfer protocol. It is pretty much a human intelligeble, plain text protocol that you can easily play with from telnet (just like HTTP). I would highly recommend everybody who works with email to do just that: play with it from telnet. It does wonders for your understanding of the protocol and as long as you only use email addresses of yourself you can not break anything. I have copied the echo of a telnet session to a mailserver below (lines starting with # are comment). Read the RFC and just try it. > Microsoft Windows 2000 [Version 5.00.2195] > (C) Copyright 1985-2000 Microsoft Corp. > > H:\>telnet > > Microsoft (R) Windows 2000 (TM) Version 5.00 (Build 2195) > Welcome to Microsoft Telnet Client > Telnet Client Build 5.00.99206.1 > > Escape Character is 'CTRL+]' > > Microsoft Telnet> set local_echo # make sure what we type is echo'd to the screen. # "set localecho" on windows XP, not needed on Unix > > Microsoft Telnet> open smtp.tudelft.nl 25 # Use your ISPs mailserver, 25 is the port number > > 220 mx1.tudelft.nl ESMTP Postfix # Welcome banner of the mailserver > > EHLO jochemd.office.oli.tudelft.nl # I say helo and tell it who I am (EHLO is not a typo) > > 250-mx1.tudelft.nl > 250-PIPELINING > 250-SIZE 41943040 > 250-VRFY > 250-ETRN > 250 8BITMIME # mailserver tells me which options it supports > > MAIL FROM: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> # I want to send an email from <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > 250 Ok > RCPT TO: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> # recipient is <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > 250 Ok > RCPT TO: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> # other recipient is <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > 250 Ok > DATA # Indicate I want to send the body of the email > > 354 End data with <CR><LF>.<CR><LF> > To: hahaha > From: nobody # I use totally different names, and this is what the recipient # will see in its email client # Yes, faking mail headers is really that easy > > Subject: fake > > fake > > . # period on a line indicates the end of the message > > 250 Ok: queued as 619B7F58B > QUIT > 221 Bye > > > Connection to host lost. > > Press any key to continue... Jochem ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Special thanks to the CF Community Suite Gold Sponsor - CFHosting.net http://www.cfhosting.net Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:183468 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
