Re: switching from exim to postfix
On 02/05/12 02:00, brian m. carlson wrote:
> On Tue, May 01, 2012 at 07:47:08PM +0100, Roger Lynn wrote:
>> I have enabled accept_8bitmime in every exim I've installed for the last
>> 10 years and no one has reported any problems. I think the risk of
>> encountering a truly 7 bit MTA in this decade is low enough to be
>> ignored for most purposes. Anyone still using one is likely to find that
>> a substantial fraction of their incoming mail is corrupted.
>
> I actually use Sendmail's strict 8BITMIME support to help catch spam. I
> agree that 7-bit MTAs are essentially gone, but with the volume of spam
> I receive, I set my mail software to be extremely strict with regard to
> protocols. Legitimate software (of any sort) generally generates
> protocol-compliant messages. Malicious and illicit software (and that
> created by Microsoft) generally does not. Legitimate software also
> generally has a userbase that will complain about rejected data if the
> software is not protocol-compliant, which often leads to fixes.
>
> I've complained to the listmasters that they send 8-bit data that is not
> MIME (virtually all of which is spam) under the auspices of the 8BITMIME
> extension; they refuse to fix this, and as a consequence they have to
> deal with the occasional piece of undeliverable mail. This is not a
> knock against the listmasters, just an observation that if you violate
> the protocols, some places will reject your data.
Many MUAs have options for sending 8 bit mail[0]. Do they take notice of
whether the MTA they're talking to is 8 bit capable? It will be a while
until I have a chance to experiment.
Roger
[0] For example, in Iceape: "For messages that contain 8-bit characters,
use 'quoted printable' MIME encoding. Leave unchecked to send the
messages as is.
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