Topic: Sending E-mail to Webserver

[Paul]

I am running version 4.1 and for some
reason I cannot send e-mail to the webserver.
Everything is working fine, and I am using a
static IP address.
I recieve this error

The MMS SMTP Relay is returning your message because:
Unable to deliver to recipient on remote mail host:
- 550 Command RCPT User not OK

Any suggestions????

[Quade]

Are you sending e-mail inside your local network, or from outside?

By default, all external sendmail relays are turned off because of the security risk and the risk of being abused by spammers.

If you are outside your local network, you should use the webmail that comes installed with 4.1

HTH
-Quade

[Paul]

I am sending my mail from outside my network.
But isn't that a a big bonus with getting a domain
name. So you can have people send you e-mail to
whatever@yourdomain.com.
Can I activate this sendmail relay???
To me this is an important feature, and I bet could drive people
away from this type of server.
Lets say you have a business card , you can't even put your
e-mail on there because of this...
There must be a way....

[Quade]

There is a way. However, there's no authentication in SMTP servers (there should be, but there's not), and that means that anyone, including John Q. Spammer can use your SMTP server to send out thousands of E-mails per day, making you an accessory to the crime of spam.

However, you can visit http://www.sendmail.org/tips/relaying.html for some ideas of how to open a relay. E-smith uses a different mail client (obtuse mail or qmail or something like that), but they all configure the same way. I know--I've successfully opened mine up before, but have since closed it to reduce spam.

Also, search this forum for "SMTP relay", which should return some interesting discussions on this topic.

As to the glory of owning and controlling your own domain, yes you can do just about anything. But with such power comes responsibilities. Just know that when you open up an SMTP relay for your users, you're doing so for practically anyone on the Internet with a desire to spam innocent Internet users.

So in answer to your question, yes, you can do it. It takes a little tweaking E-smith to do it, which really isn't that hard.

[Bill Talcott]

You sound a bit confused... Are you trying to send the mail from or to the e-smith server?

If you're sending mail from the e-smith to somewhere else, the built-in SMTP server (outgoing mail) will only allow users on the LAN to send mail through. As was stated before, there's no authentication on SMTP. If you open it up to the outside connection, ANYONE can use your server to send mail. Having an "open relay" server like this will get the server put on lists, and some servers will automatically reject mail from this list of servers. See www.orbz.org or do a Google search on "open mail relays" for more info...

If you want to send mail while connected from outside your e-smith, you should use the SMTP server of whatever ISP you're using, like mail.aol.com or whatever. Most ISPs' SMTP servers are closed (just like the e-smith's), so they will only work when you connect through their service. In other words, you couldn't use mail.localisp.net to send mail when you're connected through AOL.

In short, SMTP is totally separate from your domain name mail. It won't change the email address or anything. It's just the server where the email starts its trip across the internet. To keep spammers out, most SMTP servers only allow local users (on the e-smith's LAN or the ISP's network, etc.) send mail. If you don't have access to an SMTP server from your ISP or whatever, and really need to send mail from outside the e-smith, you can get packages that allow you to check your email (with your username and password) via POP3, then allow you to use SMTP once you've successfully authenticated with POP3.