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

Tue May 19 13:56:15 UTC 2009

Derek,

Drop it.

Derek Broughton wrote:
> Christopher Chan wrote:
>   
>>>   
>>>       
>> I perceive that you are talking about a SMTP proxy and not a blinking
>> http proxy server being repurposed. It appears we have been arguing
>> about different things 
>>     
>
> I pointed that out to you right off the top.  You said proxying SMTP was a 
> bad idea, and I said that under the right circumstances, and then described 
> the circumstances, it might not be.
>
>   
I doubt that you will disagree that proxying SMTP through SQUID is a bad 
idea no matter what the circumstances are because SQUID ain't designed 
for that. Since we neither clearly made clear our assumptions as to the 
software involved, just drop it.

>>> I know what they do - and any mail you get from me would come through
>>> gmail (also my mx) so it's not a problem.
>>>   
>>>       
>> smtp.gmail.com != gmail.com mx. 
>>     
>
> Ahem.  Try checking the mx for pointerstop.ca.
>   

You are just asking for a fight are you not? How convenient of you to 
cut out the rest of that paragraph that says: "

But then there are those who do not 
separate their incoming and outgoing delivery so this is just a minor nitpick."

But since you are spoiling for a fight, here goes:

dig smtp.gmail.com

;; ANSWER SECTION:
smtp.gmail.com.		300	IN	CNAME	gmail-smtp-msa.l.google.com.
gmail-smtp-msa.l.google.com. 300 IN	A	209.85.201.109
gmail-smtp-msa.l.google.com. 300 IN	A	209.85.201.111

dig pointerstop.ca mx

;; ANSWER SECTION:
pointerstop.ca.		3600	IN	MX	10 ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.
pointerstop.ca.		3600	IN	MX	10 ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.
pointerstop.ca.		3600	IN	MX	10 ASPMX4.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.
pointerstop.ca.		3600	IN	MX	10 ASPMX5.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.
pointerstop.ca.		3600	IN	MX	1 ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
pointerstop.ca.		3600	IN	MX	5 ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
pointerstop.ca.		3600	IN	MX	5 ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.

I wonder what the ips of these mx hosts will be...hmm...

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.	10	IN	A	209.85.216.54
ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. 37	IN	A	74.125.45.114
ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. 22	IN	A	209.85.201.114
ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.	2148	IN	A	209.85.135.27
ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.	1147	IN	A	209.85.199.27
ASPMX4.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.	1234	IN	A	66.249.93.27
ASPMX5.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.	1135	IN	A	74.125.45.27

Thanks, you just proved my point. smtp.gmail.com != gmail.com mx. Tada! Arigato. Merci beaucoup mon ami. Please allow me to rub the salt in.

Hmm...what about smtp.pointerstop.ca?

dig smtp.pointerstop.ca
;; ANSWER SECTION:
smtp.pointerstop.ca.	3600	IN	CNAME	ghs.google.com.
ghs.google.com.		484254	IN	CNAME	ghs.l.google.com.
ghs.l.google.com.	23	IN	A	72.14.235.121

Shucks, pal, are you saying you have no idea what you are talking about?

BTW, the msa in 'gmail-smtp-msa.l.google.com.' stands for mail submission agent and 'grep submission /etc/services' gives you: 
submission	587/tcp				# Submission [RFC2476]

So yeah, port 587 is the way to instruct clients to get around firewalls. I am pretty sure a lot of service providers provide instructions on that. Say, why don't you follow Google's instructions? http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=13287

Come back when you have spent a few years as a lousy MTA administrator like me. Crappy MTA administrators like me probably throw in the towel after a few years of being on call 24/7 and spending around ten to twelve hours for five days a week fighting spam and mail delivery problems due to spam. In fact, I do not care about getting to run a mail system anymore and I get loads of laughs watching the antics of amateurs trying to build mail systems but do not know anything about port 587 or 465 and their differences and even better, those who use Exchange. Really funny that such chums cannot do any better than a dumb MTA administrator like me. Of course, they probably are paid much better than what I was paid to do mail admin (10/12 hours per working day for less than 20K) so I finally got smart (took a few years, slow aren't I?) and found some other IT job with better pay and less work.

You better make sure your smtp proxy software (not ever used one myself so I my doubts about that stuff) never hits any mx because you can bet that mail admins who have their lives ruined/half-ruined by spam, bounce floods due to joe jobs, DDOS attacks will be more than happy to shoot first and ask later.