[exim] Configuration progress; was Re (2): Configuring exim…

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Author: peter
Date:  
To: exim-users
Subject: [exim] Configuration progress; was Re (2): Configuring exim to use an non-TLS connection to port 587.
From:    Andrew C Aitchison via Exim-users <exim-users@???>
Date:    Thu, 13 Apr 2023 11:06:24 +0100 (BST)

> Jeremy's last message mentioned that this failure was correct given
> the content of /etc/exim4/passwd.client


> I think that means you need a line for easthope.ca in
> /etc/exim4/passwd.client - a line for mail.easthope.ca is not the same
> thing.


According to
https://islandhosting.com/knowledgebase/21/How-do-I-configure-my-email-client.html
my target smarthost is mail.easthope.ca. Confirmed when I log in to
my Island Hosting account and see the instructions adapted to the
specific account.

Therefore according to the comment providing internal documentation,
/etc/exim4/passwd.client has this.

$ tail -n 2 /etc/exim4/passwd.client
### target.mail.server.example:login:password
mail.easthope.ca:peter@???:<myliteralpassword>

I acknowledge what you say about easthope.ca but haven't found
documentation suggesting easthope.ca accompany mail.easthope.ca. More
about easthope.ca below.

After the tests yesterday, noticed the following in
https://manpages.debian.org/testing/exim4-config/exim4_passwd_client.5.en.html

"Please note that target.mail.server.example is currently the value
that exim can read from reverse DNS: It first follows the host name of
the target system until it finds an IP address, and then looks up the
reverse DNS for that IP address to use the outcome of this query (or
the IP address itself should the query fail) as index into
/etc/exim4/passwd.client."

Documentation afterthought? "dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config" ignores
it? =8~/ Incidentally, if my niece wrote the paragraph as homework
and asked for feedback, I'd explain how to make it more understandable
with fewer words. =8~)

$ nslookup mail.easthope.ca
Server:         192.168.0.1
Address:        192.168.0.1#53


Non-authoritative answer:
mail.easthope.ca        canonical name = easthope.ca.
Name:   easthope.ca
Address: 158.69.159.172


$ host 158.69.159.172
172.159.69.158.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer
hornby.islandhosting.com.

$ nslookup hornby.islandhosting.com
Server:         192.168.0.1
Address:        192.168.0.1#53


Non-authoritative answer:
Name: hornby.islandhosting.com
Address: 158.69.159.172
Name: hornby.islandhosting.com
Address: 2607:5300:203:66b5::

So the content of /etc/exim4/passwd.client stated above is WRONG!
Should be this.

### target.mail.server.example:login:password
hornby.islandhosting.com:peter@???:<myliteralpassword>

> **BUT**   do not do this until tls is working, otherwise you will  
> ******
> *******   send your password across the internet in plain text.    
> ******


Acknowledged. Now that permissions on passwd.client might be OK(?)
and the target smarthost might be OK(?), I should think about TLS
again.

ANOTHER FOOTNOTE
The smarthost being mail.easthope.ca and test recipient
peter@??? is a source of confusion. "easthope.ca" appears in
too many places. Better to test with a distinct domain. gmail.com for
example.

Thx,          ... P.