lynx sendmail from script 7344

Actually, many (maybe most) domains do accept email via SMTP directly from any host, as SMTP was intended to do. There are a number of snobbish domains out there that reject anything not sent through a blessed "smarthost", but there aren't too many of them--at least not yet.

At least on MandrX, postfix has replaced sendmail (at least in a default installation). Postfix has a transport table you can use to instruct postfix to route outbound messages based on intended destination. You can direct that anything destined for a snobbish domain that rejects direct SMTP goes through the blessed "smarthost", and anything destined for a non-snobbish domain goes directly. Of course, you could configure it to send everything through the blessed "smarthost" if you wanted to.

The advantage of sending directly when possible is you don't have to wonder whether the message got sent by the "smarthost" or whether it's stuck in the queue on the "smarthost". Recently, I sent a message and was not informed until nearly 48 HOURS later that the message was stuck in the queue. Normal sendmail practice is to report a delay after 4 hours, but this "smarthost" waited nearly 2 days. Yahoo apparently eventually got their inbound server working again, and the message went through.

-- Robert Riches (Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)