Re: [exim] email notification

On 2 Dec 2004, Brent Clark wrote:

> I have setup fetchmail to fetch a multidrop account, Exim is setup to
> reject all unknow users. Error 550.
> When fetchmail fetch the mail I can see it reject unknow e-mail with
> error 550 and flush the mail, but know it does not send out a notice to
> the sender.

You're trying to address the problem in the wrong place, architecturally.
You need to get whoever is handling your mail upstream to reject the bad
recipients outright, before they end up in your POP3 box.

Otherwise, even if you configure Exim to accept all usernames and create
bounces for bad ones, you will just end up sending out so-called
collateral spam (that is, bounces to forged addresses). It wasn't such a
big problem a few years back but these days it is.

If you really can't get your upstream to reject bad recipients before they
accept the message, I would suggest:

1. Find someone who will

2. Live with your configuration as it is; it's unreliable in the sense
that mail can "disappear", but at least it's not causing any problems to
anyone else, so it's probably the best you can do in the circumstances.


Tim