Re: Fw: [Exim] Sending to a smarthost conditionally (non-bou…

From: "Dave C." <djc@???>
>
> Er, relay control should be either by IP address, or if not possible then
> by POP/before/SMTP or SMTP AUTH.
>
> If you are allowed to relay through that server, the envelope sender you
> use shouldnt matter, as long as it is syntatically correct. This should
> include either localpart at a correct and valid domain, or the null
> sender. Them rejecting the null envelope sender is improper, regardless of
> any relaying issues.

The refusal to relay mail with blank From is apparently
a fairly common, if misguided, attempt to block customers
of the ISP from sending spam. In practical terms, while I agree
that my ISP is violating the RFC, they're doing so in a way
that only impacts people using their service in a way they
specifically don't support, and they're notoriously
incompetent when it comes to administrating their mail
servers -- that's why I'm running my own server in the first
place. At least when I lose mail on my own server, I can
generally fix the problem pretty quick. Before I started
using my own server, I went through a period of about 3 months
where they'd lose about 20% of my mail, and frequently recieve
messages (or message fragments!) addressed to other people. :/

The fact is, since exim supports the option I need (thanks for
the tip, Phil!), it's easier for me to just configure exim to
route around my incompetent ISP. If exim didn't support this,
I'm pretty sure it would actually have been easier for me to get
the source code and hack in the support I needed, believe it or
not, than it would have been to try to get my ISP to configure
their mail servers properly.

- Marc