Re: [exim] listed at Backscatterer.org

On Tue, 29 Jun 2010, Ian Eiloart wrote:

> --On 29 June 2010 10:51:00 +0100 David Woodhouse <dwmw2@???>
> wrote:
>
> > Users still won't bother to read them, and will prefer to ask a sysadmin
> > who will have read the words on the user's screen to them, before the
> > user actually understands.

Some of those users have no interest in hearing the sysadmin read the
words to them or having an understanding of what they mean; they are
showing them to the sysadmin purely so that he'll do something to make the
problem go away.

> Well, that will often be the case. I'm just saying that a bounce message
> has more chance of conveying useful information if its created by the
> receiving server than the sending server. Why? Because the best the
> sending server can do is try to interpret the SMTP (enhanced?) error
> code, and wrap the SMTP error text.

Not to mention that if you issue multi-line rejection messages, you may
find that the sender receives back an error report with one of:

1. all of your carefully crafted lines;

2. the first line;

3. the last line; or

4. none of them, and to boot, an incorrect or misleading error message
resulting from invalid assumptions by the sending server.

Jethro.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Jethro R Binks
Computing Officer, IT Services, University Of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK