Re: [exim] Routing instead of smarthost

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Author: Gedalya
Date:  
To: exim-users
CC: exim-users, tovis
Subject: Re: [exim] Routing instead of smarthost
On 5/20/22 22:10, exim-users--- via Exim-users wrote:
> I would check if it is possible to get rid of the smarthost style config completely and configure as "internet site; mail is sent and received directly
> using SMTP". Exim will lookup MX for outgoing mail in DNS and take care of delivery without any manual configuration. You should implement the usual stuff
> to get your mail properly accepted and not marked as SPAM (you should do that anyways).


These days, the network you're coming from is a very important factor. A subscriber network (business / residential) or so-called "cloud" networks are considered bad reputation, this often applies to the entire network and not to a specific IP address. It can be very difficult to get your mail through, even if you follow the recommendations wrt DKIM, DMARC etc.

The motivation to use a smarthost is clear.

> If you need only some manual routes, Debian has a (imho) nice default configuration prepared for that, which is called hubbed hosts (relevant part of
> exim4.conf.template):
>


>      transport = remote_smtp


> You only need to create /etc/exim4/hubbed_hosts and put a pair of destiantion domain and mailserver(s) per line, (quoting exim4-config_files(5)):


> If necessary, you can put credentials for authorization into /etc/exim4/password.client (one per line).


The remote_smtp transport does not use password.client. remote_smtp_smarthost does.

You can indeed use the hubbed hosts setup, it makes sense to edit /etc/exim4/hubbed_hosts rather than the main config file, but you'd just have to change the transport to remote_smtp_smarthost and then authentication would work.