Nagarjuna G. on Thu, Aug 24, 2000 rearranged electrons thusly:
> On Thu, 24 Aug 2000, Ashwin wrote:
> ->I use a dial-up to send and receive mail, by default my host in
> ->Sendmail.cf is set to smtp.eth.net. Now if I use another ISP to connect -
> ->ie. Mantra, Iam able to receive mail but not send ith the message to the
> ->effect that relaying denied. How can I get around this? I use RH 6.2,
> ->sendmail, fetchmail.
> Either you look for a smarthost that promiscuously relays all mails, I heard
> there is one such mailserver in vsnl backbone, or dont assign any smarthost
There are dozens of such around the world - and most of them sooner or later
end up on anti-spam blacklists such as the one at http://www.mail-abuse.org -
these cut them off from about 40% of the Internet (either at smtp or bgp
(router) level. One would be stupid to keep using such a relay - or if that
person is an admin, it would be criminal folly.
> option. In the latter case the mails may take a long time to deliver but it
> works with all the ISPs.
Lots of dialup ip blocks are on the MAPS DUL list - which blocks mails from all
ip blocks belonging to known dialup pools. http://www.mail-abuse.org/dul for
more - vsnl's dialups (in the metros at least) have been placed in the dul
(most ISPs do this voluntarily).
So, the best thing to do is:
Have three or four lines in your sendmail.cf as follows -
DS bom4.vsnl.net.in
# DS smtp.mantraonline.com
# DS some.other.smtp.server.net.in
etc etc.
If you want to connect to some other ISP than vsnl bombay - just login as root
and ..
# /etc/rc.d/init.d/sendmail stop [on redhat etc at least]
# vim /etc/sendmail.cf [use pico, jed, joe whatever]
Mow, comment out the DS bom4 ... line with a # and uncomment the line which
lists the smtp server of the ISP you want to connect to.
# /etc/rc.d/init.d/sendmail start [restart sendmail]
If you dont want this hassle switch to a client like netscape / kmail and
change your ISP's smtp server in the settings.
Don't ever use an open relay to send out mail -
1. It is blacklisted
2. You have not authorized to use that server (either as a user or as an admin)
In fact, if the open relay's admin greps his logs and notices relays / attempts
to relay, he is perfectly within his rights to complain to your ISP and have
you disconnected.
http://www.india.cauce.org / http://spam.abuse.net etc for more.
--
Suresh Ramasubramanian + President, CAUCE India
http://india.cauce.org + Stopping Spam In India
The number of UNIX installations has grown to 10, with more expected.
-- The Unix Programmer's Manual, 2nd Edition, June 1972
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