OT? /dev/null 5.1.1 email

Wed Jul 6 01:51:56 UTC 2005

On Tue, 2005-07-05 at 12:02 -1000, Randy Bush wrote: 
> > The principle purpose of the secondary mx, in this case, is to accept
> > email for the primary mx during periods where the primary is down
> 
> and the sending smtp server has no spool.  i.e. no useful
> purpose.

Presumably sending smtp servers do have spools, however given the range
of things that send email these days... who really knows?  What happens
when a blackberry system sends an email to a mx that's temporarily down?
Don't some routers support email notifications too, do they spool?
Multiply that by mis-configured Linux systems, Exchange servers,
text-paging, etc., etc. and all of a sudden the possibilities are
endless.

NOTE: I am a HUGE proponent of routing outbound smtp through the
upstream provider.  However, I can not guarantee that all the senders to
my system agree with and follow that philosophy.  I also desire to be
RFC compliant, but I also realize I can't force the world to follow.

> today, the primary purpose of secondary mxs is to receive spam.

I agree, but that is probably only because (most) primary mxs have been
locked down.  The problem of receiving spam, that is headed your way
anyway, and then rejecting it is no different from primary to secondary.
The means of rejecting it however could have an impact on other systems,
and that is why I started this thread in the first place. ;-)

So, it comes down to this:  Lock down the secondary mx(s), or delete
them.

-Jim P.