Like a lot of things, the answer is "that depends." The SMTP server is usually an MTA (Mail Transfer Agent), or post-office server, that is expected to be able to receive mail as well as send it. However, when you're part of a big site like "my.edu", you can often get away with setting up an MTA on your local machine that sends out mail with a return address of u...@my.edu, so it does _not_ have to be open to listening to the world at large. It sends the mail out, and if it bounces, those bounce messages go to the MTA for my.edu.
I like to set up a local service on the same machine hosting DSpace just so that outgoing mail never gets lost because the other machine or the network is down. It can be a simple outgoing-only Sendmail (or equivalent Postfix, exim, etc) that stores and forwards outbound messages. It fixes up headers so the mail appears to come from my.edu, bounces go back to my.edu, and thus it wouldn't need to have port 25 open because nobody should ever be talking to it. In fact, that's probably a good idea, since if you did have it open you'd have to know how to configure it so as not to relay SPAM. -- Larry On Oct 6, 2009, at 4:06 PM, Jeffrey Trimble wrote: > Does the SMTP server need to be publicly available for DSpace to > work correctly? > Our networking engineers are opening a firewall for another server > and have questioned > the opening of port 25. > > TIA, > > Jeff > > Jeffrey Trimble > System LIbrarian > William F. Maag Library > Youngstown State University > 330.941.2483 (Office) > jtrim...@cc.ysu.edu > http://www.maag.ysu.edu > http://digital.maag.ysu.edu > "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. > I will permit it to pass over me and through me..." > --Litany against fear.... > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) Developer Conference in SF, CA > is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart > your > developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and > stay > ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9 - 12, 2009. Register now! > http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconference_______________________________________________ > DSpace-tech mailing list > DSpace-tech@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-tech ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) Developer Conference in SF, CA is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9 - 12, 2009. Register now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconference _______________________________________________ DSpace-tech mailing list DSpace-tech@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-tech
