Re: [exim] MX name with _ : all relevant MX records point to…

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Author: mbneto
Date:  
To: exim-users
Subject: Re: [exim] MX name with _ : all relevant MX records point to non-existent hosts
Hi,

First of all thanks for all the reply I've received.

I'd like to address what I consider the relevant topics in one message.

1) First of all the solution, so hopefully the next person with the same
problem will find it easier than me.

I've added this as my first router.

myrouter:
driver = manualroute
domains = domain.that.should.not.be.named.com
transport = remote_smtp
route_list = * ip.registered.to.the.mx.that.contains.the.underscore
no_more

This worked and will make all messages to that domain to be routed to that
IP.

2) The real solution

In a perfect world where people have the time, responsability and all the
knowledge necessary to do their business and are not self-centered the
solution would be : contact the admin of the offending domain and ask
him/her to rename the server.

In the real world, if you manage to reach the admin (which by the way does
not have a root/admin account - hopefully a postmaster), he/she will tell
you that :
a) gmail/yahoo/hotmail users does not complain about it
b) the 'rest' of the world (that probably uses sendmail) does not complain
about it
c) this setting was already there when he/she got the job
d) I'll do it when I have time (i.e never)
e) this must be an error on your side, fix it!

I am not trying to say nobody uses exim, just that for historical reasons
there are a lot of servers which use another MTA that does not care about
this problem. It is really difficult, in my experience, to find people that
reaches item d).

It is not easy when you run a business and your users do not care how things
works. They simply want their email sent. Try to convince them about rfcs,
that this is not right etc. Since we are not talking about doing something
illegal (in terms of law) they will simply switch to a diffrent server that
does not care about it.

I can not afford the price of being right in this case.

3) The domain.com example

I usually only give the specifics of a problem when they are relevant to the
solution, which is not the case. Whatever domain uses the _ will have the
same problem so the replacement to protect the innocent (or guilty) :)

I was not aware that this was a sensitive issue so my apologies for that.

Thanks again.


PS. Bill replying in a rude manner surely is not the best way to do it
specially if the sender did not intentionally was trying to offend you...


On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 4:54 PM, mbneto <mbneto@???> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Some clever admin configured the MX of a domain pointing to
> server_01.domain.com.
>
> My users are unable to send email to that domain and attempts to contact
> the admin and tell him that _ is not allowed resulted in 'every body else
> works'.
>
> So, is there any workaround this issue?
>
> Regards.
>