Re: exim4 vs. frontier.com
On Thu 10 Nov 2022 at 19:27:06 (+0000), mike.junk.46@att.net wrote:
> I've struggled off and on for months to get outbound mail via exim4 through frontier.com with no joy.
Must be a couple of years now?
> I'm on a single user system using mutt and exim4 plus fetchmail. Inbound is no problem.
Excellent, as I don't use fetchmail myself.
> Outbound I see this in /var/log/exim4/mainlog:
> 554 5.7.1 <>: Sender address rejected: Access denied
The empty <> means that your MAIL FROM: is blank, as it was in May.
> /etc/email-addresses has the proper frontier email address in it.
Mine only has the original comments. My envelope address is
constrained by the smarthosts' operators, so that, for example,
the email address that satisfies my ISP is one that I don't
want any mail sent to as I never check it.
> >From web search I created /etc/exim4/conf.d/rewrite/10_from_rewrite containing this line:
> * "$header_from:" F
> This supposedly tells exim4 to set the Envelope header the same as the From header.
> I think Sent = Envelope headers, admittedly not sure about that.
I would be very surprised if you really had to touch files in
/etc/exim4/conf.d/ in order to send mail. Searching the web is
unlikely to be very helpful because AIUI Debian sets up exim in
its own, distinct manner.
> If there is anyone on the list who has exim4 talking to Frontier.com please help.
A simple way of testing whether you're using the correct information
is to try sending an email directly from mutt. You can do this by
adding the following (adjusted) to your muttrc configuration file:
set smtp_authenticators="plain"
set smtp_pass="myPassWd"
set smtp_url="smtp://mikemcclain.46@frontier.com@smtp.frontier.com:587"
set envelope_from_address="mikemcclain.46@frontier.com"
set use_envelope_from
I'm assuming that your credentials are mikemcclain.46@frontier.com
and myPassWd. The From: header in the email can be different if
you wish—I see you use mike.junk.46@att.net here, presumably so
that your incoming mail arrives at that address.
(Particular addresses observed by mutt in the current email
automatically trigger a choice of From: address to use in
any replies I send.)
If you run mutt with -d 5 added to its commandline, mutt will
write a huge ~/.muttdebug* file that includes its conversation with
the smarthost when you send an email¹. Search for 'Sending message...'
to find the start of the interesting bit. Other important strings
that should follow this are:
… … 7> AUTH PLAIN ABC… … ← revealing this line is a security risk!
… … 7< 235 2.7.0 Authentication successful
… … 7> MAIL FROM:<mikemcclain.46@frontier.com>
… … 7< 250 2.1.0 Ok
… … RCPT TO:<whomsoeveryouchose@somewhere.net>
… … 7< 250 2.1.5 Ok
… … Sending message... 0K/0.8K (0%)
… … 7> DATA
… … 7< 250 2.0.0 Ok: queued as 123ABC45678
… … 7> QUIT
… … Mail sent.
If and when that works, it should be simple to get exim to send
to the smarthost in the same manner. It should involve only the
two files /etc/exim4/{passwd.client,update-exim4.conf.conf} in
most cases.
(Remove the .muttdebug file as it contains password information.
Certainly don't send it to anybody.)
¹ The debug file makes up for the fact that there's no log in
/var/log/exim4/ because exim doesn't touch it.
Cheers,
David.
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