Re: [exim] requiring outbound AUTH at SMTP time

On 3/28/2005 12:48, "Rick Ennis" <rge1@???> wrote:

> I'm wondering how I can make this a little more user friendly.
> Specifically I'd like to have the message rejected at SMTP time so the
> sender can tell when they hit 'Send' in their mail client instead of
> having to wait for a possible bounce. So I'm thinking this has to be in
> my check_rcpt_acl. And since it really hinges on which host the message
> gets routed *TO* I'd like to be able to compare that host with my list
> of +known_hosts.

Sending to MUAs at SMTP time can cause many problems.
1. Keep the message short and on one line...if you or Exim split the
message into more than one line, some MUAs manage OK, some show only the
first line of message, some show only the last line. I think it takes
intervention by Exchange for the message to go away entirely and be replaced
by some form of "unknown user", and you likely don't have that situation.

2. For those MUAs which don't present a clear message and those users who
don't read what it says anyhow, and which send pending mail before checking
for new mail, you'll get calls about "I can't receive mail". (Or worse, "I
can't connect to the Internet.")

You have a much better idea that we (here on the list) do what your universe
of users and MUAs is. In our particular universe (retail ISP in a general
user market), sending errors during submission ranges somewhere between bad
and disaster. (Having separated our submission address(es) from our MX
address(es) some time ago has made it much easier to not reject at
submission time on those addresses but to reject at SMTP time on the MX
addresses.)

--John