On Thu, 5 Oct 2000, David Evans wrote:
> I am using E-smith 4.0 in dedicated server/gateway mode, but as I can't get
> a fixed IP off my ISP, I am using multi-drop mail delivery.
As you are discovering, multi-drop mail is not (and connect be) 100%
reliable. The fetchmail documentation warns of this. If you have a
permanent connection, you should definitely avoid using it. If you have an
intermittent connection, you should try to avoid using it.
> I still have that problem, but when I upgraded to 4.0, a new problem started
> appearing. Say a message comes in with a load of different addresses in the
> To box. The mail program will (seemingly at random) pick a few other
> recipients in the list and append a @shannonmro.ie to them, find it can't
> deliver them, and dump them on me.
The addresses chosen are not random, if I understand this problem
correctly. The addresses chosen are the ones whose domains use the same
ISP as you do - specifically, they share an MX specification in DNS.
> Just as an example (now, selling my friends' email addresses, please), out
> of this list:
> andrew hopkins <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> Catherine Griffin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> David Evans <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> Don McKenna <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> kevin o mara <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> "Moloney, Margaret (CAP, GEIH)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> Peter Hopkins <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, rodney smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> Sara Flood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> tom wren <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> the message came to me no problem ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) but also tried to
> deliver to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Your example confirms my analysis of the problem.
> This also happens with messages destined to other people in the
> organisation, so I get loads of private emails, and it's getting kind
> of embarrassing...
As you have seen, this is not just irritating, but a privacy problem.
This problem should be fixed in the beta update that I have put in my
contrib directory on ftp.e-smith.org. The specific changes relevant to
your problem are to reconfigure fetchmail to not use DNS, but to recognise
a specific list of domains as local (the domain name, plus any virtual
domains that you configure). I've also changed the logging configuration
of fetchmail to do versbose logging via syslog.
Please try the update. If you have a busy production server and don't wish
to try this update until it has had more testing, then please email me
off-line and I will detail the specific fetchmail changes you should make.
Charlie Brady [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.e-smith.org (development) http://www.e-smith.com (corporate)
Phone: +1 (613) 368 4376 or 564 8000 Fax: +1 (613) 564 7739
e-smith, inc. 1500-150 Metcalfe St, Ottawa, ON K2P 1P1 Canada
