On Fri, 2005-03-11 at 07:58 +0000, William John Murray wrote: > Hello again, > I have been stuck, able to 'send email' from mail clients, > unable to use sendmail for systems logs etc. I think dns is OK, but > still get errors dsn 5.6.0 stat="Data Format Error" > > Alexander pointed out I should not test as root. I did not think it > would matter, as the sendmail daemon is root anyway, but thank you. > > Also I know I need authinfo, this I think I am providing. > > But I tried 'telnet smtp.aol.com 25' and 'telnet my-employer 25' > and saw somthing very odd. The connect message is: > > 220 smtp-los01.proxy.aol.com ESMTP Sendmail 8.12.11/8.12.11; Fri, 11 Mar > 2005 02:53:43 -0500 > > for any host I connect to, with the los01 number maybe changing. > Somehow I get redirected to AOL whenever I use port 25. Does this ring a > bell with anyone? [Recall..I can send email from evolution] > > If I go a dns lookup this is not the expected route. This is because you are using an AOL dialup. As an anti-spam measure, AOL redirects all outbound SMTP connections from their customers through AOL's mail servers. This enables them to apply rate limits, quickly identify spammers/trojanned windows boxes etc. One of the results of this is that AOL, despite having on average a very technically- challenged customer base, emits a remarkably spall amount of spam compared with the likes of comcast, verizon, roadrunner etc. Paul. -- Paul Howarth <paul@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
