[pups] Totally off topic question

[pete@dunnington.u-net.com (Peter Turnbull)]

On Mar 21, 19:31, Ian King wrote:
> Yup.  I used to do that, but had an older version of sendmail and got
> 'co-opted' as a relay host for a spammer.  :-(

I've seen a few attempts to do that.  I should point out that even if
you only run sendmail for the benefit of machines on your own network,
and even if you use a dialup (rather than always-on) connection, you
want the ant-relay stuff.  I see regular attempts to connect to port 25
on my hub, even though it's behind a dynamic IP address on an ISDN
dialup (I also see regular attempts to connect to the telnet, ssh, and
ftp ports, and others, maybe 2-3 times a week.  If you run a common
operating system, don't assume that a dynamic IP address, or NAT, or
using a dialup, gives any worthwhile protection).

> FWIW: rather than update sendmail and hack another .cf, I bought a
> Windows-based mail server

Nowadays, it's easy to use m4 to set up sendmail.cf for the common
sorts of home use -- just define the settings for masquerading and
smarthost, and press go (more or less).  The only time you need to hack
it a bit is if you want something unusual, like some mail going to the
local machine and some forwarded to other machines on your network, or
using UUCP.

> Instead, I use my free time to hack 2.11BSD and UNIX v6!  :-)

I have to admit that sounds like a better use of the time :-)

-- 
Pete						Peter Turnbull
						Network Manager
						University of York