Re: Current status?

In article <g9pl82$lh7$4@xxxxxxxxx>,
helbig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Phillip Helbig---remove CLOTHES to reply) writes:
In article <t_Wvk.2076$U5.1028@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Jan-Erik_S=F6derholm?= <jan-erik.soderholm@xxxxxxxxx>
writes:

Log watchers, webcam watchers,
etc, anything which sends notification by email when something
"interesting" happens, using its own built-in mail server;

*Server* ?? I set up my cheap Zyxel DSL modem/router to send
notifications to me, but it not a *server*. It uses whatever mail
server it get's after doing a DSN-MX lookup on the receiver
address, and that should be the official SMTP server of my
ISP, as far as I understand.

Why whould anything just needing to *send* a mail have a
smtp *server* implementation ?

You use "server" to mean "receiving end". A more general use, intended
here, is "handles traffic". Thus, incoming server and outgoing server.
You are sending your email TO the proper receiving server (via MX), but
it is still coming from your machine, not an "official email server".
Technically, there is no problem with your scheme, but in practice, such
machines on dial-up, volatile IP addresses are the main source of spam,
and are thus blocked by more and more people.

Many STMP servers are neither senders nor receivers, but relays.

Actually, the correct terminology is MUA and MTA.
MUA = Mail User Agent.
MUA's originate and terminate email.

MTA = Mail Transport Agent
MTA'a exchange email across the INTERNET.

Nothing but MTA's should talk between email domains. No MUA shoud be
allowed to acess anything but the local MTA. Thus the reason for blocking
port 25 at your firewall for all internal hosts other than your designated
MTA(s). User machines should never be considered MTA's. MTA's are the
machines with the MX record in tghe DNS system. Violating this simple
network engineering principle is why we have the SPAM probledm that we have.
As for relaying, some MTA's relay. One should be very careful about who
one relays for. You shold relay for your internal machines (all the MUA's)
as that is the purpose of an MTA. You should not relay for external
machines and if you do, that is a real quick way to find yourself on
a blacklist.

Email is really not that hard to manage.

bill

--
Bill Gunshannon | de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n. Three wolves
billg999@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx | and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton |
Scranton, Pennsylvania | #include <std.disclaimer.h>
.

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