[Apologies for sending directly to you before, Bill; reply-to header evidently
isn't set for this list.]
> First off, most of us are mailadmins, sysadmins, or both. While polite, your
> 'needs' indicate that you are about to go head-to-head against [all | part of]
> the policy of your host's [sys | mail | both] admin(s). As these are usually
> driven by company policy, upstream ToS, and the 'laws of the land', that's
> generally seen here as a non-starter.
My needs indicate no such thing, Bill, and I'd appreciate it if you did not assume so.
Basically what is happening is that legitimate mail being sent out is being picked
up by some mechanisms designed to prevent or at least reduce spam and the failure
is particularly ungraceful. The whole system isn't in place yet (tests have
revealed problems) but it happens because mail is generated dynamically by scripts
and so is injected into the system slightly differently to how mailing list mail
is, though the purpose is similar.
I have been in touch with the admins about it. Basically they are unable to change
configuration simply because they use an out-of-the-box solution--I don't know
whether the problem is a technical one or just a knowledge gap, but anyway, there
we have it. But they are happy for me to install scripts and binaries to do, well,
anything pretty much, provided, of course, I do so in a responsible way that
doesn't overload the server or anything like that. Heck, they'd probably be happy
with me running a daemon, though I haven't asked, and definitely don't want to.
> There are scads of MUA and MUA-like tools that can do everything an MTA can do
> and more, from formatting to addressing to fax <=> email and voice-mail <=>
> email to SMS <=> email. These will generelly be tick-the-box, set up a filter,
> or and perhaps a bit of script configurable
An MUA is a possibility, though it would still need to run on the server, not on
another box (mostly due to lack of another box :-)--indeed that's the whole point
of paying to have this host server). Do you have any ideas of ones I should
investigate (Linux)?
> Building an exim, stripped or otherwise, to run in userland over non-reserved
> ports is certainly possible.
Well, that's good news anyway. It wouldn't need to listen on any ports, AFAIK, so
port reservations shouldn't come into it. Can it run successfully without any
daemon, i.e. just run and terminate to deliver mail?
> But it is a lot more work, and will likely get you at cross purposes with the
> admin(s) regardless of how you try to limit it or finesse it.
Yeah, I realise it's more work. But it shouldn't put me at odds with the admins
(unless I botch it :-)). Indeed, what I'm doing is engineering a solution that the
admins don't have the time or inclination to do themselves.
If you or anyone else has further hints, particularly regarding the stuff I raised
in the original email, I would be very appreciative to hear them.
Cheers,
Ben.
Send instant messages to your online friends
http://au.messenger.yahoo.com
