MailScanner/Sendmail Gateway LDAP

[Trever Furnish]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Peter Bonivart [mailto:peter at UCGBOOK.COM]
> Sent: Friday, June 25, 2004 9:54 AM
> To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
> Subject: Re: MailScanner/Sendmail Gateway LDAP
>
>
> Ugo Bellavance wrote:
> >> I suppose it is in the MAQ, although it's rather difficult
> to find, since
> >> the link says nothing about text of the link says nothing
> about "ldap" or
> >> "unknown users" or "invalid users".
> >
> > Anyone thinks I should modify this part in the MAQ to make
> it clearer?
> > Suggestions are welcome.
>
> It says "accept on valid users", maybe it could say something like
> "accept only valid users (and reject all unknown)". I'm not
> even sure it
> belongs in the MAQ, how many use this? 1 out of 10? Less?

I think the functionality would be useful to *most* sites - I would expect
(based on absolutely nothing but my own daydreams) that most mailscanner
installations are relays for existing servers, NOT final destinations for
the mail they process.

On a relay-only system that *only* handles inbound email, there should
almost never be a reason for that system to handle a bounce or DSN.  But if
the relay doesn't know about valid users, then it has to accept the message.
When it tries do deliver the message to the final destination server and
that server refuses to accept it, then the mailscanner relay becomes
responsible for generating and delivering the bounce.  Just a minor
annoyance.

Regarding the MAQ, maybe add a little description that contains the
buzzwords people search for on this topic?  Something like:

        Mail gateways (relay-only systems) are more effective
        when they can reject INVALID or UNKNOWN USERS at the MTA
        level instead of accepting the message.  There are
        several ways to make an MTA aware of INVALID USERS.
        One approach is to use LDAP.  Here are some examples:

Hope it helps,
Trever

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