configuring sendmail to cope with AOL

configuring sendmail to cope with AOL

[Haines Brown]

I'm using sendmail as my mta, but recently experienced AOL's refusal
to accept mail from "residential" sources having dynamic IP
addresses. This primitive method to cope with spam has apparently been
causing pain for several years, but for some reason it's only now
biting me.

I get the impression that the way around this is to reroute outgoing
mail to *@aol.com (and perhaps *@netscape.com) to my ISP's mail
server.

I've heard of people configuring their qmail and postfix to do this,
but I'm runnng sendmail and haven't a clue on what to do. Hand-holding
would be appreciated.

A simple question: What's involved in using an ISP's mail server? Do
all ISP's have such a server available for their customers? Do I need
permission to use it? Is it likely to involve an additional charge?

Haines Brown  
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Re: configuring sendmail to cope with AOL

[Ray Olszewski]

At 03:52 PM 5/22/2003 -0400, Haines Brown wrote:
>I'm using sendmail as my mta, but recently experienced AOL's refusal
>to accept mail from "residential" sources having dynamic IP
>addresses. This primitive method to cope with spam has apparently been
>causing pain for several years, but for some reason it's only now
>biting me.

You have a dynamic address? I wouldn't guess it from your whois and DNS 
records.

>I get the impression that the way around this is to reroute outgoing
>mail to *@aol.com (and perhaps *@netscape.com) to my ISP's mail
>server.

Mail relay or forwarder, not server. Might be the same host as the mail 
server, or it might be different. The mail server accepts incoming mail; 
the mail relay or forwarder processes outgoing mail.

>I've heard of people configuring their qmail and postfix to do this,
>but I'm runnng sendmail and haven't a clue on what to do. Hand-holding
>would be appreciated.

I don't use sendmail here, so I can't be specific. If you want to set up 
sendmail so that it forwards *all* outoing mail to the ISP's relay, that is 
(usually) pretty easy. In most MTAs, it is a standard configuration 
setting. For help with sendmail, try this URL (or do a Google search 
yourself ... I found this in a minute) --

https://listman.redhat.com/pipermail/ redhat-list/2003-January/163892.html

If you want to use the ISP's relay *only* for AOL and Netscape mail, that 
is harder, because the MTA now has to take different actions based on the 
destination. sendmail can do that too, but it requires more intricate 
configuration. You will need a real sendmail reference for this, or a real 
sendmail expert, since it is not a common setup.

>A simple question: What's involved in using an ISP's mail server? Do
>all ISP's have such a server available for their customers? Do I need
>permission to use it? Is it likely to involve an additional charge?

The canonical answer to all of this is : it depends on your ISP. These 
really are not Linux questions.

Some rule-of-thumb generalizations: Any ISP that sells service with dynamic 
addresses is likely to provide a forwarder. Windows workstations that are 
directly connected to the Internet (though I shudder at the thought) need 
an MTA to send mail through, another reason for an ISP providing one. 
Usually, the name is something like smtp.ispsname.com on mail.ispsname.com, 
but that part really does have to come from your ISP. I've never seen an 
ISP that charged extra for this service, but who knows in your case. To use 
it, either you tell your MUA to use it directly (the typical setup for a 
WIndows host) or tell your MTA to use it as a relay.



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Re: configuring sendmail to cope with AOL

[Haines Brown]

> You have a dynamic address? I wouldn't guess it from your whois and
> DNS records.

Yes. Each time I connect, I have a different address. I configure my
address to be 0.0.0.0.

> If you want to use the ISP's relay *only* for AOL and Netscape mail,
> that is harder, because the MTA now has to take different actions
> based on the destination. sendmail can do that too, but it requires
> more intricate configuration. You will need a real sendmail
> reference for this, or a real sendmail expert, since it is not a
> common setup.

That's what I was afraid of. Apparently much easier to do in other
MTAs. I've tangled with sendmail before and am now gun-shy. Since I'm
migrating from the distribution I've been using for many years to
another, it will offer an opportunity to jump from sendmail to another
MTA as well. Meanwhile I'll see if I can scrape up some specific
directions. 

Maybe something will come up in a google search.

> Some rule-of-thumb generalizations: Any ISP that sells service with
> dynamic addresses is likely to provide a forwarder.

Well, at least the thought is comforting.

Thanks.

Haines Brown
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Re: configuring sendmail to cope with AOL

[Amin]

In message <200305230143.h4N1hhRp019819@hartford-hwp.com>, Haines Brown writes:
> That's what I was afraid of. Apparently much easier to do in other
> MTAs. I've tangled with sendmail before and am now gun-shy. Since I'm
> migrating from the distribution I've been using for many years to
> another, it will offer an opportunity to jump from sendmail to another
> MTA as well. Meanwhile I'll see if I can scrape up some specific
> directions. 
> 
> Maybe something will come up in a google search.

Maybe Red Hat's Sendmail HOWTO will be of help:
http://www.redhat.com/support/resources/howto/RH-sendmail-HOWTO/book1.html.
I think their section devoted to the home user (Section 4.1)
is pretty good, it worked for me.

And about ISPs providing outgoing mail servers: I think they
do it.  You send your outgoing mail to, say, mail.isp.com,
or smtp.isp.com, and it gets relayed onwards.  Only you have
to make sure the messages appear to be from the address
you're getting from the ISP, hence masquerading (Section
4.1.2).  (Hopefully!) very simple.

Yawar Amin
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Re: configuring sendmail to cope with AOL

[Haines Brown]

Amin,

Thanks. I'm reading the RedHat sendmail HOWTO now. Thanks for the
pointer. I find it challenging, though.

Haines
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RE: configuring sendmail to cope with AOL

[Riley Williams]

Hi Haines.

 > Yes. Each time I connect, I have a different address. I configure
 > my address to be 0.0.0.0.

Is that the address you tell sendmail to use? If so, that's probably
the real problem with AOL refusing to permit your emails.

Incidentally, the sendmail setting that is SUPPOSED to forward ALL
email through a particular system is the SmartRelay setting, which
would read as follows...

	DSmailrelay.isp.lan

...to forward all outgoing emails to mailrelay.isp.lan from your
system. Just find the line beginning DS and put the full domain name
of your ISP's SMTP host (aka mail relay aka mail forwarder) there.

It works for me, and as far as the recipient is concerned, all that
changes is that there's an extra Received: line in the header.

Also, there's no requirement that you are using an email address in
that ISP's domain, only that you are connecting to the Internet through
them.

Best wishes from Riley.
---
 * Nothing as pretty as a smile, nothing as ugly as a frown.


 > -----Original Message-----
 > From: linux-newbie-owner@vger.kernel.org
 > [mailto:linux-newbie-owner@vger.kernel.org]On Behalf Of Haines Brown
 > Sent: Friday, May 23, 2003 2:44 AM
 > To: ray@comarre.com
 > Cc: linux-newbie@vger.kernel.org
 > Subject: Re: configuring sendmail to cope with AOL
 > 
 > 
 > > You have a dynamic address? I wouldn't guess it from your whois and
 > > DNS records.
 > 
 > 
 > > If you want to use the ISP's relay *only* for AOL and Netscape mail,
 > > that is harder, because the MTA now has to take different actions
 > > based on the destination. sendmail can do that too, but it requires
 > > more intricate configuration. You will need a real sendmail
 > > reference for this, or a real sendmail expert, since it is not a
 > > common setup.
 > 
 > That's what I was afraid of. Apparently much easier to do in other
 > MTAs. I've tangled with sendmail before and am now gun-shy. Since I'm
 > migrating from the distribution I've been using for many years to
 > another, it will offer an opportunity to jump from sendmail to another
 > MTA as well. Meanwhile I'll see if I can scrape up some specific
 > directions. 
 > 
 > Maybe something will come up in a google search.
 > 
 > > Some rule-of-thumb generalizations: Any ISP that sells service with
 > > dynamic addresses is likely to provide a forwarder.
 > 
 > Well, at least the thought is comforting.
 > 
 > Thanks.
 > 
 > Haines Brown
 > -
 > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe 
 > linux-newbie" in
 > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
 > More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
 > Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs
 > 
 > ---
 > Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
 > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
 > Version: 6.0.483 / Virus Database: 279 - Release Date: 19-May-2003
 > 
---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.483 / Virus Database: 279 - Release Date: 19-May-2003

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RE: configuring sendmail to cope with AOL

[Ray Olszewski]

At 08:06 AM 5/23/2003 +0100, Riley Williams wrote:
>Hi Haines.
>
>  > Yes. Each time I connect, I have a different address. I configure
>  > my address to be 0.0.0.0.
>
>Is that the address you tell sendmail to use? If so, that's probably
>the real problem with AOL refusing to permit your emails.
[remainder deleted]

Good thought, Riley. I don't think that is what he is doing, but you may 
have hit on the real problem nonetheless.

If you look at the Received: headers, you'll see that Haines purports to be 
sending mail from hartford-hwp.com, and that the actual IP address, being 
assigned dynamically, changes. For example:

>Received: from 69.0.54.70.adsl.snet.net ([69.0.54.70]:6042 "EHLO
>         hartford-hwp.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S263571AbTEWBbI
>         (ORCPT <rfc822;linux-newbie@vger.kernel.org>);

But the IP address hartford-hwp.com resolves to is (or seems to be) static. 
In any case, it is different from his actual IP address, and a reverse 
lookup on it does not succeed. To wit:

>ray@kuryakin:~$ host hartford-hwp.com
>hartford-hwp.com        A       64.227.154.66
>ray@kuryakin:~$ host  64.227.154.66
>64.227.154.66 does not exist, try again

This means his outgoing mail will fail the spoofed-source test that is 
commonly applied by MTAs to SMTP connections.

That said, going through his ISP's e-mail relay will fix that problem too.

(BTW, he gets by with this DNS, I think, because hartford-hwp.com has a 
functional MX entry. This is also why i was surprised to see Haines say 
that his address is dynamic ... I'd checked the DNS listing and the whois 
record, but not the Received: headers.)



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