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Mail relay

decomplexity
Rising Star
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Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Mail relay

DAK what PN’s security restrictions are on mail relay? BT Yahoo for example mandate registration with them of the domain name part of any email address whose DNS is not hosted by them before sending using that address via their SMTP servers is allowed. As far as I know, PN does not impose or support a similar mechanism. Further, if PN does support such mail relay from PN-registered IP addresses (e.g. via PN broadband or from a PN customer dialling in), is it blocked when coming from a non-PN address (e.g. an internet kiosk) but using SMTP authentication?
Zen from May 17. PN Business account from 2004 - 2017
14 REPLIES 14
pierre_pierre
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Re: Mail relay

I thought your name was Decomplexity  - What are you talking about in plain English
MisterW
Superuser
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Re: Mail relay

Quote
As far as I know, PN does not impose or support a similar mechanism. Further, if PN does support such mail relay from PN-registered IP addresses (e.g. via PN broadband or from a PN customer dialling in), is it blocked when coming from a non-PN address (e.g. an internet kiosk) but using SMTP authentication?

You're right , PlusNET dont impose any restriction on the sending address. I have a domain which is not hosted with PlusNet and I have used that in the past as the sending address without any problems. I will have certainly sent mail this way from a PlusNet IP and almost certainly ( although cant be entirely sure !! ) I have done it from a none PlusNet IP using Authenticated SMTP.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

paulby
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Re: Mail relay

If you're connected to the PN network then you can use relay.plus.net without having to authenticate and you can send mail from any address (I use it to send mail from my 1and1 registered domain e-mail accounts).
If you connect from a non-PN connection (e.g. an other ISP) you can use the PN SMTP server provided you authenticate using your PN username and password (the main account username and password and not the individual mailbox credentials).
jelv
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Re: Mail relay

Quote from: pierre_pierre
I thought your name was Decomplexity  - What are you talking about in plain English

Made perfect sense to me and judging by the replies to MisterW and Paul03
I think there is a chance that the situation may change when they switch over to IronPort for the outgoing emails.
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
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the_groundsman
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Re: Mail relay

Quote from: jelv
I think there is a chance that the situation may change when they switch over to IronPort for the outgoing emails.

Sounds ominous, what do you know jelv?
I have a domain hosted elsewhere and use PN outgoing server to send out mail. Will this be lost, or will there be a way round that. How will we know when to implement it.
pierre_pierre
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Re: Mail relay

@ Jelv  Re my first post, Bad night with my man cold, but have never seen the abbreviation DAK on this forum and didnt think to look it up,  Also have never had to use Authentication.  I use IMAP on Thunderbird when away from base and have had no trouble sending e-mails from the last four locations - that is using my PN address
paulby
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Re: Mail relay

AFAIK there may be a change to introduce secure password authentication (rather than sending passwords in the clear as they are just now).  It shouldn't affect your ability to send mail (you'll need to tick the "use secure password authentication" box in your e-mail client though!)
@pierre_pierre
DAK - Does anyone know
I too use Thunderbird but do need to use authentication when on a non-PN connection - are you sure you haven't got a username and password set for the SMTP server?
jelv
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Re: Mail relay

Quote from: pierre_pierre
@ Jelv  Re my first post, Bad night with my man cold, but have never seen the abbreviation DAK on this forum and didnt think to look it up,

You could have posted:
Quote
DAK what DAK means?

Cheesy
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
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Strat
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Re: Mail relay

IDKWDAKMBIDN Wink
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James
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Re: Mail relay

Quote
I don't know what does anyone know means but I do know.

Smiley
Strat
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Re: Mail relay

Quote from: Jameseh
Quote
I didn't know what does anyone know means but I do now.

Smiley

Fixed but close enough for a youngster. Well done James and a happy new year.
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jelv
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Re: Mail relay

Back on topic.
From http://community.plus.net/blog/2008/11/04/ironport_technical/
Quote
One of the beauties of the IronPort devices we’ve purchased is the fact that they are perfectly capable email servers in their own right. We currently have 8 servers looking after outbound email. It’s these servers you connect to when you send a message to our outgoing mail server (relay.plus.net). What we’re going to do is decommission the existing servers and instead push all outbound messages through the Ironports.  This work is scheduled to start once we’ve completed the migrations from Postini to IronPort.
Using IronPort for outbound email will bring with it a wealth of benefits. Firstly we’ll be able to introduce spam filtering on the outbound mail platform. This will drastically reduce support overheads where we have to ‘police’ the relay servers to make sure they’re not being abused by spammers. This is turn will reduce the likelyhood of us ending up on blacklists which can stop you from sending email to other people. The IronPorts offer support for DKIM which is a technique used to verify the authenticity of a particular email. This is good for the same reasons as outbound spam filtering and will help better the reputation of the Plusnet email platform. We’ll also be able to start offering secure SMTP over SSL which is something we know our customers have been asking after for a while. Moving to IronPort for outbound email allows us to further reduce the number of servers we’re using, and also takes traffic away from Sheffield which reduces bandwith costs (the IronPorts are based in our London data centres).
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
   Why I have left Plusnet (warning: long post!)   
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the_groundsman
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Re: Mail relay

Thanks - very helpful.
decomplexity
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Re: Mail relay

It was a possible side-effect of the move to the Ironports I was concerned about. PN (per Jelv’s reply) says “…the IronPorts offer support for DKIM…” but doesn’t say whether it will be implemented.
DKIM would allow PN to vouch for the authenticity of the sending domain specified by the sender. If this were just a domain whose DNS zone files were hosted by PN (the simplest implementation), I and others may have a few problems. If it applies also to domains whose DNS is hosted elsewhere, DKIM - in principle - allows for different implementations.
In the ‘proxy’ implementation,  PN could require some form of authorisation that the sending PN customer is entitled to use the email domain (similar to what BT Yahoo does for its business clients; for example, a check that the domain name registrant is the same as that shown in the PN account details). PN would then, I guess, quote domain ‘plus.net’ and sign the DKIM envelope with it own key.
In an ‘originator’ implementation, the domain name owner would need to get DKIM’s TXT records added to the DNS zone file for the domain in question (and DKIM then start to look a bit like SPF).
Finally, SPF itself has been bruited about in the forums as a possible future email enhancement.
Zen from May 17. PN Business account from 2004 - 2017