>> 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. Thanks Paul and Ian, There are still two things that don't makes sense: *) I use evolution to sendmail to my work authorised smtp server. This works. But when I 'telnet my-work-server 25' I get diverted. If evolution has a way round the port 25 redirect, maybe sendmail can use it? *) My authorisation credentials are still failing if I try to use AOLs server. Maybe this is because I don't really get there? Should I try oto reference smtp-los02.proxy.aol.com or smtp.aol.com in authinfo do you think? Thanks again for all this. Bill