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Re: sendmail?



* jkinz@xxxxxxxx <jkinz@xxxxxxxx> [20081227 17:40]:
> On Sat, Dec 27, 2008 at 11:22:08AM -0500, Sahil Tandon wrote:
> > bill lam wrote:
> > 
> > > On Sat, 27 Dec 2008, David Maus wrote:
> > > > So you *could* set up such software on your box that does the
> > > > delivery but you probably wouldn't be happy with this solution as some
> > > > mail providers do not accept delivery attempts from dynamic ip
> > > > addresses for spam prevention. 
> > > 
> > > More specifically, it needs a mx record in order to delivery email. I
> > > don't think dynamic ip host will provide you a mx record.  If you
> > > register a domain name, you can setup your own mx records, however if
> > > spams were sent, it will be blacklisted.
> > 
> > This is false; you do not need an MX record to send or receive mail.
> 
> True, but many email systems will no longer accept email that
> comes from a system/address with no valid MX record.  Yet another
> spam defense technique. As a result, if you don't have an MX
> record much of your mail may be rejected, so these days having an
> MX record is "almost" a requirement.

I run my own mail server, and used to (note - past tense) use RBL's
and everything else I could get my hands on to filter out spam. Most
effective thing I've come across *by a mile* is greylisting. That
alone stops about 95% of spam before it enters the mail processing on
the server. Amavis/Clam/SA handles most of the rest. I use no RBL's at
all any more as they far too frequently block legit mail, are too
trigger happy blocking large ISP's en-masse and it's a PITA to get
anything removed from them.

To "require" a MX to point back to the sending host before accepting
mail is IMHO disingenious. If it causes legit e-mail to disappear -
it's bad.

The OP wanted to know how to send mail without using his ISP - msmtp,
ssmtp, postfix, exim, sendmail (in increasing complexity to set up) is
available. He can use GMail as relay as well for his own domains
(requires some setting up, I've not bothered with that so don't know
the specifics of *how*).

Just my €0.02

-- 
Anders Rayner-Karlsson <anders@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
All-Round Linux Tinkerer, RHCE and PITA DeLuxe