78 lines
3.4 KiB
HTML
78 lines
3.4 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
|
|
<!--Converted with LaTeX2HTML 96.1-c (Feb 29, 1996) by Nikos Drakos (nikos@cbl.leeds.ac.uk), CBLU, University of Leeds -->
|
|
<HTML>
|
|
<HEAD>
|
|
<TITLE>Forcing Mail into Misconfigured Remote Sites</TITLE>
|
|
</HEAD>
|
|
<BODY LANG="EN">
|
|
<A HREF="node1.html"><IMG WIDTH=65 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="contents" SRC="contents_motif.gif"></A> <BR>
|
|
<B> Next:</B> <A HREF="node249.html">Forcing Mail to be </A>
|
|
<B>Up:</B> <A HREF="node246.html">Administrivia and Stupid Mail </A>
|
|
<B> Previous:</B> <A HREF="node247.html">Forwarding Mail to a </A>
|
|
<BR> <P>
|
|
<H2><A NAME="SECTION0017620000">Forcing Mail into Misconfigured Remote Sites</A></H2>
|
|
<P>
|
|
<A NAME="8463"></A>
|
|
<A NAME="8464"></A>
|
|
<P>
|
|
Frequently, Internet hosts will have trouble getting mail into misconfigured
|
|
remote sites. There are several variants of this problem, but the general
|
|
symptom is that mail is bounced by the remote system or never gets there at
|
|
all.
|
|
<P>
|
|
These problems can put the local system administrator in a bad position
|
|
because your users generally don't care that you don't personally administer
|
|
every system worldwide (or know how to get the remote administrator to fix
|
|
the problem). They just know that their mail didn't get through to the
|
|
desired recipient on the other end and that you're a likely person to complain
|
|
to.
|
|
<P>
|
|
A remote site's configuration is their problem, not yours. In all cases, be
|
|
certain to <em>not</em> break your site in order to communicate with a
|
|
misconfigured remote site. If you can't get in touch with the Postmaster at
|
|
the remote site to get them to fix their configuration in a timely manner,
|
|
you have two options.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<UL><LI>
|
|
It is generally possible to force mail into the remote system
|
|
successfully, although since the remote system is misconfigured,
|
|
replies on the remote end might not work...but then that's the
|
|
remote administrator's problem.
|
|
<P>
|
|
You can fix the bad headers in the envelope on your outgoing messages
|
|
only by using a domaintable entry for their host/domain that
|
|
results in the invalid information being corrected in mail
|
|
originating from your site:
|
|
<P>
|
|
<P><P><LI>
|
|
Frequently, misconfigured sites `bounce' mail back to the sending
|
|
system and effectively say ``that mail isn't for this site'' because
|
|
they do not have their PSEUDONYMNS or equivalent set
|
|
properly in their configuration. It is possible to totally strip off
|
|
all hostname and domain information from the envelope of messages
|
|
going from your site to them.
|
|
<P>
|
|
The ! in the following mailertable delivers mail to
|
|
their remote site making it appear to their sendmail as if it
|
|
had originated locally on their system. Note that this changes only
|
|
the envelope address, so the proper return address will still show up
|
|
in the message.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<P><P></UL>
|
|
<P>
|
|
Regardless, even if you get mail into their system, there is no guarantee that
|
|
they can reply to your message (they're broken, remember...) but then their
|
|
users are yelling at their administrators rather than your users yelling at
|
|
you.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<HR><A HREF="node1.html"><IMG WIDTH=65 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="contents" SRC="contents_motif.gif"></A> <BR>
|
|
<B> Next:</B> <A HREF="node249.html">Forcing Mail to be </A>
|
|
<B>Up:</B> <A HREF="node246.html">Administrivia and Stupid Mail </A>
|
|
<B> Previous:</B> <A HREF="node247.html">Forwarding Mail to a </A>
|
|
<P><ADDRESS>
|
|
<I>Andrew Anderson <BR>
|
|
Thu Mar 7 23:22:06 EST 1996</I>
|
|
</ADDRESS>
|
|
</BODY>
|
|
</HTML>
|