Hi Everyone!
I have a question that hopefully someone can answer. :)

We have a server and we would like to let people send and receive e-mail. We have the ability to receive mail just fine. But it will only let you send e-mail if you authenticate yourself to the server. I would like to disable that so you don't have to authenticate yourself in order to send e-mail. Can someone explain to me how to fix this problem?

Thanks,
Michael Barker

Originally posted by g333
Hi Everyone!
I have a question that hopefully someone can answer. :)

We have a server and we would like to let people send and receive e-mail. We have the ability to receive mail just fine. But it will only let you send e-mail if you authenticate yourself to the server. I would like to disable that so you don't have to authenticate yourself in order to send e-mail. Can someone explain to me how to fix this problem?

Thanks,
Michael Barker

We *could* answer that question, but....

It wouldn't do you much good, because within days your server would be so bogged down attempting to send spam you wouldn't be able to use it yourself,

In the event you did manage to get some email queued up on the server yourself, It probably wouldn't get where you wanted it to go because your server would be on every spam blacklist there is for open relays.

Your upstream provider would have pulled the plug on your server after the first few (hundred) thousand spam messages, if they are worth having as an upstream provider.

Even in the unlikely event that your provider leaves the server online and it doesn't crash under the load, the rest of us don't want to have to deal with all of the spam coming through your open relay. :)

(disclaimer: the opinions and prognostications expressed herein are opinions and prognostications only and are not to be taken as statements of fact. It may happen that you are able to run an open relay mail server ex[posed to the internet for the rest of your life and never have that server used by unauthorized senders. I don't think so though. )

Exactly right. And there is no reason to turn authentication off anyway - most mail clients can deal with this easily.

DEATH TO SPAM. Life imprisonment to SPAMMERS.

I agree with elsmore1, it wouldn't be wise to remove the authentication features.

Hi

for sending emails, you dont need a relay on your server, don't even think about it! spammers love such a server:mad:

Tel you costimers to use there own ISP smtp.

Like this:

pop3: www.domain.com ( or what ever your pop3 is)
SMTP: SMTP of your ISP ( smtp.isp.com)

It works just fine and you dont have to worry about anything, and it woudnt take effect on the sended mails at all.


Hope this help you.

Regard,
Babak

Maybe I should think about what you said. When you put it that way, it makes me think about it.

Thanks,
Michael Barker

Michael,

The age of chivalry, innocence and open-relay servers is dead!

Now it's the age of economists, spamcops and palmtops.

Cheers
Balaji

use qmail

Originally posted by clocker1996
use qmail

An open-relay server running qmail is no better than one running sendmail, exim or postfix.

Tel you costimers to use there own ISP smtp. IMO that's not an attractive option for many customers, especially in these mobile days. People on the road with laptops need a fixed reliable SMTP they can get to, and many ISP's block access from off their network to their SMTP servers.

Better yet is POP before SMTP or some other authentication scheme that will allow you to provide SMTP services to only your customers.use qmail Not without POP before SMTP or some other scheme...

If you are going the control panel route this type of functionality is delivered to you.

If you are admining the box without the aid of control panel software, so a search on Google for

"pop before smtp" postfix
"pop before smtp" qmail

And also check the home pages for qmail and postfix.org. Definitely some assembly required.