This one time, at band camp, Sandip P Deshmukh said: > well, here is what i discovered wrt questions shyamal had asked. > > i am yet to understand the term smtp smart host. > > the way i look at it is, i am connected to the net. i have dns servers > resolving hostnames for me. do i still need something else *on some > other machine* to send mails? > > anyway, here are answers: > > so far as smarthost is concerned, i do not know yet! but frankly, i > think a machine with the net access and dns access should be in a > position to send e-mails independent of other machines (read - > smarthost). of course, correct me if i am wrong > > yes. i can do dns lookup from my machine. dig throws back some numbers > - but doesnt report an error. dig -t A returned some nice looking > data. so dns lookup seems not to be a problem. by the way, do not all > machines who have a dns server entry have dns lookup ability? > > so, some solution on this? > > thanx again > > -sandip One thing to consider is that when your SMTP demon makes a connection to your recipients mail hub, there is an exchange between the two computers, beginning with your computer saying HELO (or EHLO) and then identifying itself. Many mailservers reject mail if the announced name does not match the name received by DNS lookup. What this means is that if you don't have a static IP address (which you won't on a dialup line) there will be some hosts that you cannot send mail to. Using a smarthost, which has a static IP and passes the reverse DNS check, will allow you to send mail to these hosts. HTH, Steve -- "It's not just a computer -- it's your ass." -- Cal Keegan
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