I won't argue too strongly on this (though I should because I *have* configured 
sendmail systems and its just not that hard, if you're a developer. And I have 
rolled my own Perl scripts that talked enough SMTP to connect directly, so its 
not that big a deal, again for a developer), but my point was that the 
arguments that said "don't use sendmail, it won't get through firewalls that 
block port 25" are just wrong.

Now, if someone had said "Apple's default firewall only lets Mail.app connect 
out through port 25", I'd have gone home and taken a look because I wasn't 
aware of that capability being in the box.  That's why I use Little Snitch.

The points being made about some users not having an SMTP-able email server is 
quite valid.  Though people using gmail can still do smtp, as far as I'm aware.

http://lifehacker.com/software/email-apps/how-to-use-gmail-as-your-smtp-server-111166.php

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Farmer [mailto:andf...@gmail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, 24 June 2009 3:27 PM
To: Jeff Laing
Cc: Nick Zitzmann; cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com
Subject: Re: Cocoa and email (SMTP/POP3)

On 23 Jun 2009, at 21:52, Jeff Laing wrote:
> Ok, I'll bite.
>
> How does the mail server that Mail.app is talking to distinguish  
> between Mail.app and /usr/sbin/sendmail ?  They both presumably just  
> talk SMTP ?

Mail.app is configurable by the user to connect to a specific relay  
mail server, potentially using login credentials, SSL, and/or an  
alternate port. Sendmail, by contrast, is not configurable (without  
cracking open the terminal, at least), and will by default always  
connect directly to the destination mail server. It's this exact  
behavior that makes it unlikely to work properly.

Consider also that not all users even have Mail.app configured. An  
increasing number of users use online mail services such as GMail  
exclusively. In their case, not even scripting Mail.app will help you.

If you really need to deliver email notifications from an application,  
the only reliable solution is to put together a properly secured web- 
to-email gateway for your application somewhere and use that. Sending  
email directly from the desktop is no longer a viable solution without  
explicit configuration.

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