Re: exim sending problems (dial-up) need to be masqed?
Lo, on Thursday, October 11, Geoff Beaumont did write:
> On Thu, 11 Oct 2001 20:45:45 +0000
> "john smith" <inquirer23@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I am stll having trouble with exim. I need to have my header re-written
> > in
> > order to be able to send messages over the internet since I get this
> > error
> > when sending a test message:
> >
> > <snipped>
> > This message was created automatically by mail delivery software (Exim).
> >
> > A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
> > recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:
> >
> > inquirer23@hotmail.com
> > SMTP error from remote mailer after MAIL FROM:<jx@vegeta> SIZE=1498:
> > host smtp.earthlink.net [207.217.120.200]: 501 5.1.8 <jx@vegeta>...
> > Sender domain must exist
> >
> > OF course jx@vegeta doesn't exist (bec I'm on a dial-up line) so I need
> > to change that so I can fool smtp.earthlink.net to sending my
> > message. I tinkered aroung with exim.conf's qualified_ domain,
> > qualify-recipient,localdomains,etc but it still won't work. I need to
> > masq as @hotmail if possible since I have spambouncer installed so I
> > can send messages (cc myself) without spambouncer getting
> > suspicious... if I can't be @hotmail, then probably Mailer-Daemon or
> > Postmaster@earthlink.net would be nice too...
>
> You can't do what you're suggesting - effectively stealing other peoples
> DNS records ;-) The mail server at the other end is looking up the reverse
> DNS for your IP number, so it has to be a valid public domain name. This
> is done to protect against SPAM, as a lot of it originates from mail
> servers without DNS records.
Really? I thought this type of spam-block involved looking up the hostname
in DNS, rather than doing a reverse DNS lookup on the IP address. I could
be wrong, though.
> The answer here is to avoid the problem. Your ISP will have at least one
> mail server which will relay mail their dial-up users - you need to get
> the name of this machine from their tech support (or it may_ be on their
> web site). Set this as the 'smarthost' in exim.conf and exim will pass all
> your mail to this machine, which will_ have a valid DNS record.
Well, yes, use your ISP's smarthost, but they don't always translate the
headers correctly: they're set up primarily for folks using, e.g., Netscape
Communicator for mail rather than a local MTA. I've learned through
experience that you do need to have your local MTA set up to masquerade the
headers and envelopes, even when you're using the smarthost.
John, I don't know if you'll be able to masquerade as @hotmail, and you
really don't want to appear as Mailer-Daemon or Postmaster, but I *do* know
that you'll be able to masquerade as @earthlink.net, because I do much the
same thing. My local hostname is ankh-morpork.cobbe.net, and my ISP is
airmail.net, so I want all of my outgoing headers and such to reflect
airmail's domain. Two-step process:
1) Configure your MUA to have the correct `from' address. I use VM/GNUS,
so I do this with a (setq user-mail-address "cobbe@airmail.net"), but
this will of course vary from MUA to MUA.
2) Set exim up correctly. The relevant lines from my exim.conf are
qualify_domain = airmail.net
qualify_recipient = localhost
local_domains = localhost:cobbe.net
## probably not completely necessary, but what the heck:
local_domains_include_host = true
local_domains_include_host_literals = true
## where to send outgoing mail:
smarthost:
driver = domainlist
transport = remote_smtp
route_list = "* mail.airmail.net bydns_a"
end
You will of course need to replace `airmail.net' with the string you
want to appear in your outgoing messages, `cobbe.net with `vegeta',
and `mail.airmail.net' with the name of your ISP's smarthost.
I should probably change `cobbe.net' to `cobbe.home' in case somebody snaps
up the domain `cobbe.net' (although that's pretty unlikely; there aren't
too many folks around who spell Cobbe the way I do).
That should get you going.
Richard
Reply to: