OT: Sendmail REJECT or DISCARD preference

[Matt Kettler]

Matt Kettler wrote:
> Peter Farrow wrote:
>> So I'll carry on doing a discard thanks,
>>
> 
> For your case, you probably should.
> 
> However, please stop misrepresenting the facts. REJECT works very well 
> if properly implemented, and doesn't flood your postmaster box. However, 
> properly implemented means having it on all of your MX servers, not a 
> back-end server.
> 
> If you're filtering on a back-end server, or any other point after the 
> DATA phase of the SMTP session has been OKed by a server in your 
> network, then REJECT is a bad idea. At that point, a REJECT 
> fundamentally has to result in a post-delivery bounce, because the 
> message has already been delivered.

<snip>

> 
> This is really all very, very basic mail administrator knowledge.


Note: At this point, I'm withdrawing from the thread. I encourage others to read 
the statements made in the above post, and I stand by them as basic truths of 
mailserver administration.

I also accept that many of my earlier statements in this thread aren't 
applicable to Peter's situation, as he is implementing his filtering in a 
downstream server, not at the MX where most of the rest of us do it.

However this is all really OT and there's no need to flood the list with basic 
mailserver administration topics that aren't directly related to MailScanner.