Re: [exim] Smarthost with smtp-auth

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Author: Phil Pennock
Date:  
To: Andrew Radamis
CC: exim-users
Subject: Re: [exim] Smarthost with smtp-auth
On 2007-06-11 at 01:19 -0400, Andrew Radamis wrote:
> My wonderful ISP has suddenly (like today I think) decided that I can no
> longer send any mail anywhere on port 25, including there own mail servers.
> They do however allow it through port 587, with smtp-auth. This breaks my
> smart host and I cannot find how to setup the smart host to send smtp-auth.
> I know I'm probably just missing this somewhere, can someone point me in the
> right direction please?


The Exim Specification, Section 33.5. Authentication by an Exim client
"spec.txt" comes with the Exim source; the doc is also available online
as web-pages and for download in various formats. www.exim.org, see
docs link on left. That also provides historical documentation
versions, so if you're not running 4.6x then you can find the exact
documentation you need there; the client-side auth stuff hasn't changed
much recently (that I recall).

http://www.exim.org/exim-html-current/doc/html/spec_html/ch33.html#SECID170

You basically want to copy/paste the generic remote_smtp transport to a
new one called isp_smarthost_smtp, then change the smarthost Router to
use this. Then adjust isp_smarthost_smtp to specify "port" and
"hosts_require_auth"/"hosts_try_auth".

You then have authenticators in the authenticators section; one or more
of them will need to be configured for client authentication. If you
telnet to your smarthost on 587 and type EHLO then you should see an
AUTH capability listed, with parameters indicating which mechanisms the
ISP supports. One of your client authenticators will need to implement
one of those mechanisms.

Sections 34 through 38 (inclusive) of the Spec cover the various
authenticators. If you have to use the plaintext authenticator (for
PLAIN or LOGIN) then please consider ensuring that you set up TLS client
support too.

Regards,
-Phil