[lug] Getting mail out of the Qwest/MSN mire

[Sean Reifschneider]

On Thu, Jul 06, 2006 at 07:13:52AM -0600, John Bray wrote:
>dynamic DNS service so people can find it. But I keep finding that my
>emails are being blocked by companies that assume all Qwest DSL

Yeah, it's not really recommended to run a mail server on "end-user" IP
blocks.  These blocks originate a LOT of spam.  I used to run the "DUL"
RBLs, but I've switched to just using the RBLs as part of scoring with
SpamAssassin.  However, as I've gotten spam through to our mailboxes from
DSL and cable modem blocks, I've been blocking them.

It's a bummer that I've had to do it, but some people ruin the fun for the
rest of us...

Now, as far as relaying it through your friend's server.  I've got two
suggestions beyond the SMTP AUTH.

One would be to use a tunnel or VPN or tunnel between your box and the
other server.  So, your public IP may change, but you could allow the other
server to allow relaying from your VPN/tunnel IP address.  That way you
don't need SMTP AUTH.

The other is to check to see if you can relay out through QWest's SMTP
servers.  They probably wouldn't require SMTP AUTH on their own IP blocks,
and that's typically what you should be doing for these sort of consumer
connections.  This makes it much easier for QWest to put reasonable spam
prevention measures in place on outbound mail.  This is the recommendation
for users in "dynamic" IP blocks.

Thanks,
Sean
-- 
 Get your data structures correct first, and the rest of the program will
 write itself.  -- David Jones
Sean Reifschneider, Member of Technical Staff <jafo at tummy.com>
tummy.com, ltd. - Linux Consulting since 1995: Ask me about High Availability