Topic: QMail configuration - forwarding mail via ISP

[Steve Curren]

Hello everyone,

I have setup a private (unregistered) domain, say “some.domain.net” and am providing an internal mail service with the e-smith server ie :user@some.domain.net. The e-smith is behind a firewall connected to the outside world by a 56Kbs modem providing web service and mail through a standard account at the ISP for the local LAN.

I can pull down the e-mail from the POP account, to an internal mail account no worries but when mail is sent it leaves as “user@some.domain.net”, an unregistered domain.
Have tried to change the qmail host name but this also changes all messages to the internal mail.

What I would like to do is send all external mail to / as “popuser@isp.net” so that the e-mail address is internet ‘legal’ and replies can be sent to outbound mail while leaving the internal mail service as “user@some.domain.net”.

I have searched the net extensively for an answer (and found a possible solution for sendmail) and would really appreciate any advice anyone may have. Can this be done or is it a lost cause?

[Graeme Robinson]

Steve,
You can set the reply to: field email address to whatever you want on your email
client of choice but this can't be set via qmail AFAIK.  Have the users set
their  preferred email addresses in this way and you should be fine.

If you are using IMP (webmail) I believe you can set the reply to: field there
as well. gl.

[Scott Smith]

Changing the reply to address in the client probably will not help Steve with his problem. It will determine where replies are sent, but it does not change the origin of the message. That is the problem. Most mail servers now seem to check the message origin and will refuse mail from an unknown domain. About a year ago this wasn't a problem -- I routinely setup networks with the domain "domain.xxx" and could send mail to anyone. I then changed to relaying through my ISP's mail server, which worked for a few months -- they would take mail from any authenticated connection. Now that has changed and I now have to use a valid registered and published domain.

[Charlie Brady]

Scott Smith wrote:
>
> Changing the reply to address in the client probably will not
> help Steve with his problem. It will determine where replies
> are sent, but it does not change the origin of the message.
> That is the problem. Most mail servers now seem to check the
> message origin and will refuse mail from an unknown domain.

What exactly do you mean about the "origin" of the message?

If you mean the envelope sender address, then that can be set  via the From: mail header, which in turn can be set by the sender information entered in the mail client.

If you mean the reverse DNS lookup of the IP address, then that is under control of the ISP, and has nothing to do with the configuration of the e-smith server.

If you mean the domain name used in the HELO greeting which is part of SMTP, then that is set by the e-smith server's configured domain name and system name.

Envelope sender addresses are often checked for validity when sending. So be sure to set a valid sender address when sending email out to the internet.

Charlie

[Scott Smith]

> If you mean the reverse DNS lookup of the IP address, then
> that is under control of the ISP, and has nothing to do with
> the configuration of the e-smith server.

This, which most ISPs now seem to be using...

> If you mean the domain name used in the HELO greeting which
> is part of SMTP, then that is set by the e-smith server's
> configured domain name and system name.

...combined with this. Using "mydomain.xxx" or similar _invalid_ or so-called _private_ domain name does not (in my experience) work. Used to, but I think most ISPs are tightening up and refusing such conversations.

> Envelope sender addresses are often checked for validity when
> sending. So be sure to set a valid sender address when
> sending email out to the internet.

I've not found this to be particularly common. I can set darn near anything for the reply to or from headers, and most servers (that I've encountered -- must qualify that!) don't seem to care. What they really seem to be looking at is the domain name used in the SMTP conversation.