From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/60414 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: David Abrahams Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.general Subject: Re: Gnus with Exim Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2005 21:36:12 -0400 Message-ID: References: <83k6lagmx8.fsf@torus.sehlabs.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1118108254 27065 80.91.229.2 (7 Jun 2005 01:37:34 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 01:37:34 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: ding-owner+M8941@lists.math.uh.edu Tue Jun 07 03:37:32 2005 Return-path: Original-Received: from malifon.math.uh.edu ([129.7.128.13]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DfT17-0007ng-G7 for ding-account@gmane.org; Tue, 07 Jun 2005 03:36:33 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.math.uh.edu ident=lists) by malifon.math.uh.edu with smtp (Exim 3.20 #1) id 1DfT0u-00040m-00; Mon, 06 Jun 2005 20:36:20 -0500 Original-Received: from util2.math.uh.edu ([129.7.128.23]) by malifon.math.uh.edu with esmtp (Exim 3.20 #1) id 1DfT0m-00040g-00 for ding@lists.math.uh.edu; Mon, 06 Jun 2005 20:36:12 -0500 Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by util2.math.uh.edu with esmtp (Exim 4.30) id 1DfT0l-0006mb-Hf for ding@lists.math.uh.edu; Mon, 06 Jun 2005 20:36:11 -0500 Original-Received: from smtp04.mrf.mail.rcn.net ([207.172.4.63]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1DfT0k-00057O-00 for ; Tue, 07 Jun 2005 03:36:10 +0200 Original-Received: from 146-115-127-135.c3-0.smr-ubr2.sbo-smr.ma.cable.rcn.com (HELO I9300.boost-consulting.com) (146.115.127.135) by smtp04.mrf.mail.rcn.net with ESMTP; 06 Jun 2005 21:36:10 -0400 X-IronPort-AV: i="3.93,175,1115006400"; d="scan'208"; a="43910687:sNHT22765312" Original-To: ding@gnus.org In-Reply-To: (Steven E. Harris's message of "Mon, 06 Jun 2005 16:47:15 -0700") User-Agent: Gnus/5.110004 (No Gnus v0.4) Emacs/22.0.50 (windows-nt) X-Spam-Score: -4.9 (----) Precedence: bulk Original-Sender: ding-owner@lists.math.uh.edu Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.gnus.general:60414 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.gnus.general:60414 "Steven E. Harris" writes: > David Abrahams writes: > >> I guess I'm confused. > > I think we fell out of step in our dialogue, so I'll just await any > other specific questions you pose. Okay, I'm going to ask you "what should I do next to configure Exim so that I can send mail from anywhere?" >> Sorry, I should be clear that I'm an ignoramus. > > That's what I know of you from Boost circles. > >> What's an MUA? Mail User Agent? A email client program? > > Yes, Mail User Agent. In this case, it's Gnus. > >> Yes, it's only smtp.rcn.com, AFAIK, that's unresponsive. Except >> that port 25 is blocked to anywhere but smtp.rcn.com > > Good summary. >>> I thought we started out with you saying that this direct >>> sending often caused your MUA to hang, >> >> If by "direct sending" you mean sending directly to the recipients >> smtp server, I'm not allowed by my ISP to do that unless the recipient >> happens to have an rcn.com email address. In other words, I can only >> send to smtp.rcn.com on port 25. > > In this case, by "direct sending" I meant having Gnus talk directly > with some remote SMTP server rather than only talking to your local > exim MTA. I missed your characterization that smtp.rcn.com is the only > SMTP server that you perceive to be slow. I thought you were annoyed > by the lag waiting on any remote SMTP server. OK, truth be told some others are a little slow. And if I have something big to send it doesn't really matter how slow the server is because Gnus or my internet connection will limit things. So OK, I want to run Exim. > [...] > >> Sounds like a reasonable approach to me, unless it soaks a lot of >> cycles to try DNSLookup. The queue should be empty most of the time, >> so it's probably okay. > > I doubt it's cycles so much as just waiting through some tolerant > timeout. > > Another drawback I've found with using the dnslookup/non-smarthost > setup: Some ISPs such as AOL will not accept inbound messages if they > can't do a reverse-DNS lookup on your IP address. When I try to send a > message to a recipient at AOL, exim connects to AOL's SMTP server > which in turn examines my IP address. Since my company does not expose > names for all the internally-assigned IP addresses, the reverse-lookup > fails and AOL rejects the inbound message. I therefore have AOL and a > few others on an exclusion list that forgo the direct SMTP connection > in favor of a smart host. Yes, I've run into that. What's worse, my sysadmin at boost-consulting.com has inserted an intentional response delay to foil spammers (he says it's incredibly effective) and other sysadmins are lowering their reverse-lookup timeout to foil spammers. > Here's a sketch of that router. It says that any mail not destined for > a local user and to anyone at mycompany.com or aol.com should use the > smart host mail.mycompany.com. This router precedes the dnslookup > router we've been discussing. > > ,---- > | non_local_corporate: > | driver = manualroute > | domains = !+local_domains : *mycompany.com : *aol.com > | transport = remote_smtp > | route_list = * mail.mycompany.com > `---- > > I include this just to point out that it's hard to make a firm choice > between smart host relaying and direct SMTP connections. Lots of > policies out of your control govern what you'll find to be possible. Well, I guess I've also occasionally run into places where I can't reach my favorite smtp servers, but I'd be satisfied with a configuration that tried smtp.rcn.com and then fell back to smtp.boost-consulting.com. That scheme seems to work in 99% of all locations. -- Dave Abrahams Boost Consulting www.boost-consulting.com