[ale] mail headers question

[Joe Steele]

On Friday, August 27, 2004, Geoffrey wrote:
> Stephan Uphoff wrote:
> > Can you send an (obfuscated) complete header of the failed email.
>
> Sure, I think the first line is the issue:
>
> Received: from 66-23-211-34.clients.speedfactory.net[66.23.211.34]
> (helo=[172.16.255.106])
>          by mrelay.perfora.net with ESMTP (Nemesis),
>          id 0MKyxe-1C01Ul3mMO-00085u; Wed, 25 Aug 2004 13:23:35 -0400

Correct me if I have misunderstood something:

You sent an e-mail addressed to a mindspring recipient, using Mozilla 
as your mua, and using your speedfactory internet connection for 
transport.

Mozilla was configured to forward the e-mail to a 1and1 smtp server 
known as mrelay.perfora.net (a.k.a. smtp.perfora.net).  The reason 
you configured Mozilla to do this is because the "From:" address of 
your message used a domain name which is in some way associated with 
the 1and1 ISP.

The mrelay.perfora.net server accepted the message from you and 
attempted to forward it on to mindspring.  Mindspring rejected it.

If all this is true, then isn't mrelay.perfora.net acting as a open 
relay by accepting mail from one outside source (speedfactory) and 
forwarding to another outside source (mindspring)?

In any case, have you considered that maybe your message was bounced 
because mindspring doesn't trust perfora.net (rightly or wrongly), 
rather than because of your private/NATed address in the header?

--JoeFrom esoteric at 3times25.net  Fri Aug 27 12:05:04 2004
From: esoteric at 3times25.net (Geoffrey)
To: ale at ale.org
Date: Fri Aug 27 12:09:11 2004
Subject: [ale] mail headers question
In-Reply-To: <01C48C2B.FE4A96C0 at joe.local>
References: <01C48C2B.FE4A96C0 at joe.local>
Message-ID: <412F5BB0.9000008 at 3times25.net>

Joe Steele wrote:

> Correct me if I have misunderstood something:
> 
> You sent an e-mail addressed to a mindspring recipient, using Mozilla 
> as your mua, and using your speedfactory internet connection for 
> transport.
> 
> Mozilla was configured to forward the e-mail to a 1and1 smtp server 
> known as mrelay.perfora.net (a.k.a. smtp.perfora.net).  The reason 
> you configured Mozilla to do this is because the "From:" address of 
> your message used a domain name which is in some way associated with 
> the 1and1 ISP.
> 
> The mrelay.perfora.net server accepted the message from you and 
> attempted to forward it on to mindspring.  Mindspring rejected it.
> 
> If all this is true, then isn't mrelay.perfora.net acting as a open 
> relay by accepting mail from one outside source (speedfactory) and 
> forwarding to another outside source (mindspring)?
> 
> In any case, have you considered that maybe your message was bounced 
> because mindspring doesn't trust perfora.net (rightly or wrongly), 
> rather than because of your private/NATed address in the header?

All you've noted is accurate.  I assume they bounced the message because 
of the reference to my speedfactory user connection and/or the reference 
to a non-routable ip (which should be hidden by nat).

Your assumption may well be correct though.  Question is, why does it 
get through if I set my smtp server to my local machine?

-- 
Until later, Geoffrey       Registered Linux User #108567
                             AT&T Certified UNIX System Programmer - 1995