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Zim · Mar 29, 2003, 12:46 PM

I've been using my own machine to send mail since 10.0.0. Easier than relying on Roadrunner, which has had several multi-day outages in the past year.

Now, hey, I understand AOL is trying to block spam, and in principle I agree (I hate spam).. but I also don't like relying on my ISP for more than I have to, so these two principles are at odds right now.

I get the following bounce message

>>> DATA
<<< 550-The IP address you're using to connect to AOL is either open to the
<<< 550-free relaying of e-mail, is serving as an open proxy, or is a dynamic
<<< 550-(residential) IP address. AOL cannot accept further e-mail
<<< 550-transactions from your server until either your server is closed to free
<<< 550-relaying/proxy, or your ISP removes your IP address from their list of
<<< 550-dynamic IP addresses. For additional information, please visit
<<< 550 http://postmaster.info.aol.com.

Any ideas for work-arounds? Is there a way to have only certain destinations (like AOL) use my ISP smtp-server?

Running pretty much stock 10.2.4 with sendmail enabled, sending mail using elm in Terminal.

Then again, right now, I'm not sure how I tell elm to use something besides my machine for outgoing mail... (LOL).

thanks for any ideas,
Mike

Rainy Day · Mar 30, 2003, 11:22 AM

If you want your local sendmail to route all your out-going mail through your ISP's SMTP server, you can use something like this:

define(`SMART_HOST',`mail.yourisp.net')dnl

You might be able to selectively route only the AOL traffic to your ISP while continuing to handle the other mail yourself using a more complicated mailtertable approach: Using 'mailertable' in Sendmail

glasn0st · Mar 30, 2003, 04:51 PM

Redundant post, the poster ^^ above me already answered the question..
I need to read better

Zim · Mar 31, 2003, 12:12 PM

Originally posted by Rainy Day:
If you want your local sendmail to route all your out-going mail through your ISP's SMTP server, you can use something like this:

define(`SMART_HOST',`mail.yourisp.net')dnl

I consider myself pretty unix-fluent, but not an admin side guru... where does this go? (sendmail.cf or sendmail.mc or ???)

Thanks,
Mike

Rainy Day · Apr 9, 2003, 12:56 AM

It's an m4 directive, so it goes into your sendmail.mc file. Editing of the sendmail.cf file is discouraged.

pimephalis · Apr 9, 2003, 07:07 AM

>>> DATA
<<< 550-The IP address you're using to connect to AOL is either open to the
<<< 550-free relaying of e-mail, is serving as an open proxy, or is a dynamic
<<< 550-(residential) IP address. AOL cannot accept further e-mail
<<< 550-transactions from your server until either your server is closed to free
<<< 550-relaying/proxy, or your ISP removes your IP address from their list of
<<< 550-dynamic IP addresses. For additional information, please visit
<<< 550 http://postmaster.info.aol.com.

Glad to see you got some solid advice from others on how to reconfigure your sendmail to use your ISPs SMTP, but I have a question. Are you certain that it's the dynamic IP problem and that your box isn't a open proxy or open to relaying? If it's one of the latter, your problems are only just beginning.

If you run an open proxy or allow relaying, in all likelihood you'll be hearing from your ISP (they'll be pissed, given the flood of spam complaints they've surely received) and you'll find your IP (or even IP block) dropped into so many private blacklists that you could never find them all.

Zim · Apr 9, 2003, 07:37 AM

Originally posted by pimephalis:
Glad to see you got some solid advice from others on how to reconfigure your sendmail to use your ISPs SMTP, but I have a question. Are you certain that it's the dynamic IP problem and that your box isn't a open proxy or open to relaying? If it's one of the latter, your problems are only just beginning.

If you run an open proxy or allow relaying, in all likelihood you'll be hearing from your ISP (they'll be pissed, given the flood of spam complaints they've surely received) and you'll find your IP (or even IP block) dropped into so many private blacklists that you could never find them all.

Thanks for the doom-and-gloom lecture, but yes, I am certain.

FWIW, since Apple seems to have not included our .mc file anywhere (?), you can just edit your sendmail.cf file and add the ISP relay as shown after DS (for those that wanted to know the effect of the .mc file changes)

DSsmtp-server.nc.rr.com

Mike

Rainy Day · Apr 10, 2003, 05:39 PM

Originally posted by Zim:
Apple seems to have not included our .mc file anywhere (?)

/usr/share/sendmail/conf/cf/generic-darwin.mc

l008com · Apr 13, 2003, 06:12 PM

I started hosting my own mail on 10.1.4. I found out that hard way, what an open relay is. I had no idea, until I started recieving 1000's of emails a night. Every email that couldn't be delivered would sit in my system. It was ugly, but now I know better. Since then I have had no problems. My IP is dynamic but i've never had any trouble sending to anyone, then again, I don't think i've sent email to anyone on AOL in a while. But as far as my ISP's email goes, it often starts randomly rejecting my password, and i usually just disable it and it says off until a restart. Also it started at mediaone.net, then i had to change it to attbi.com, and soon i will again have to change it to comcast.com. Needless to say, i never use that email for anything, all I ever get are a few random informational emails about whos buying my ISP this week.