From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Message-ID: <29a2a049442d6be3b50aa8c395da3128@tombob.com>
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Subject: Re: [9fans] how to deal with mail delivery problems
Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 08:55:43 +0000
From: Robert Raschke <rrplan9@tombob.com>
In-Reply-To: <ee9e417a0411190747566fd1d9@mail.gmail.com>
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Hi,

Russ wrote:
> If you change the last part of the line in your /mail/lib/rewrite to
> 
> | "/mail/lib/qmail '\s' 'net!\1'" "'\1!\2'"
> 
> and then change the last line of /mail/lib/remotemail to say:
> 
> if(upas/smtp -h $fd $addr $sender $*)
>     exit 0
> exec upas/smtp -h $fd net!your.gate.way $sender $*
> 
> then I think you'll get the behavior you describe.
> Whether it's useful is of course another matter altogether.

C Forsyth also recommended setting up SPF for my domain
(spf.pobox.com).  I did that first, but that did not solve all my
problems.  Sending mail to web.de just won't work unless I go via my
ISP's smtp server.

With the solution by Russ above, I now have a setup where I fall back
onto my ISP's smtp server if direct delivery did not work.  I also add
a line to a log file that I can check when I send "important" mail:

today=`{date}
if (upas/smtp -h $fd $addr $sender $*) {
	exit 0
}
echo $today : upas/smtp -h $fd net!smtp.blueyonder.co.uk $sender $* >>/sys/log/remotemail
exec upas/smtp -h $fd net!smtp.blueyonder.co.uk $sender $*

I think it's useful for me at the moment.  This way I can at least
check and instantly see if a mail went via a potentially very slow
route.  I know that I can't really be sure either way, but it gives me
a workaround for otherwise unreachable addresses.

I will have to keep watching this space for a while to see if I can't
find a better way.

Thank you for your help,
Robby