Evolution send mail though proxy setting, how to? -- 2.26.1 still doesn't work!

[Derek Broughton]

Christopher Chan wrote:

> Derek Broughton wrote:
>> Christopher Chan wrote:
>>
>>   
>>> Could be a generic Gnome thing for all I know. I do not use Evolution.
>>> You won't find any proxy setting in Thunderbird. Proxy servers caught
>>> facilitating smtp connections will be firewalled, blocked and placed on
>>> appropriate black lists.
>>>     
>>
>> That's a really poor attitude, and likely to get _your_ servers
>> blacklisted.
>>   
> Ha! You have no idea what you are talking about. Have you heard about
> open proxies?

Of course I have - and if that's what you're blacklisting that's fine, but 
if you're blacklisting servers _purely_ because they're proxying, then you 
_will_ get blacklisted yourself.  You can't be blocking mail sent through 
proper channels.
> 
>> There's nothing inherently wrong with proxying SMTP connections.
>>   
> So long as they are connecting to their smarthosts to submit their email
> and other than the fact that natting is most probably the better way to
> allow smtp/submission/smtps/pop3/imap connections. Oh, that is besides
> the fact that this capability is inherently meant to get around
> firewalls and most likely, therefore, company policy if the network
> administrator did not open up email related connections in the
> firewall/gateway.

So what?  I do, in fact, send my email through an SSH tunnel when I'm in 
this location.  Otherwise, because the client's firewall intercepts _any_ 
attempt to connect to port 25 on any system, and redirects it through its 
own server, my emails would seem to come from the client, not my own 
company's server.  In fact, that's technically a violation of their policy - 
which do you think is more honest?

> Any proxy server connecting to anything other than a smarthost will be
> blacklisted and blocked locally. 

Ah, so now you're backing down from your absolute statement that proxies 
will be blacklisted.

> Using a local SMTP as a smarthost is NOT the same as using a proxy
> server. Period. A proxy server does not follow the rules of mail
> delivery.

A proxy does whatever it is configured to do. 

> It does what it is told by the email client (connect to
> smtp.gmail.com please). A mta looks up the mx of the recipient domain in
> the email and connects accordingly. Any 'mta' that does anything else
> will get itself listed and blocked. Period.

My proxy says "connect to an SMTP server - if the destination is within the 
client's domain, use theirs, otherwise use mine".  If you get email from me, 
it's always routed correctly and if you block it there are blackhole lists 
for admins like you, too.

> The fact that using a proxy server does not work all the
> time is evident that admins with clue know to reject smtp/pop3/imap
> requests.

No, it's evidence that some people don't know how or when to set up such a 
proxy correctly.

> Therefore, I reiterate, email clients are supposed to connect
> directly to their smarthosts.

It's hard to reiterate something that you didn't say in the first place.  I 
agree mail clients should connect to their smarthosts, though that's 
actually counter to normal linux thinking (sysadmins often insist that a 
_client_ should never talk SMTP at all, and should only pipe to sendmail), 
but "directly"?  Not always.
-- 
derek