Re: [exim] Delay when connecting to send mail

Graeme Fowler wrote:
> To coin the approach of one W.B.Hacker...
>
> On Tue, 2008-02-05 at 13:14 +0100, Marc Haber wrote:
>> A lot of NAT devices can be configured that way.
>
> Can be. Aren't. Won't be.
>
> [sorry, Bill!]

No apology needed.. Part of the 'appliance-ization' of technology.

>
> In this case, Yves was experiencing a single problem with a single user
> (himself), and had some control over the SMTP part of the equation -
> there's no telling (and we don't want to know, Yves!) whether or not
> similar levels of control over all possible devices in the chain
> existed.
>
> Given that the vast majority of people running an MUA wouldn't know what
> RFC1413 or the instructions for their firewall were if you printed them,
> rolled them up and hit them with the resulting nice bundle of paper,
> getting mass participation in the "play nicely and reject" scenario just
> isn't going to happen.
>
> I appreciate that the advice exists, but there's (usually) a much wider
> remit when providing an SMTP server than simply one person connecting to
> use it as an outbound relay. Setting the appropriate options in Exim's
> config makes it not do the lookup in the first place which, considering
> (a) the reduction in auth/ident services being run, and (b) the
> increasing number of devices which either block or reject ident calls
> outright, is the best place to do it. In my opinion.
>
> Graeme
>
>

Too many old standards (perhaps 80%?) have NOT kept up as well as they
need to with shifting use, bending of rules - and originally unforseen
abuse.

smtp has lagged - but nowhere near as badly as ident.

Reality dictates that the 'general case' is to no longer support it, nor
expect it to be supported by others. Anywhere.

Bill