Sendmail / alias issue

[Nathan Vidican]

Giorgos Keramidas wrote:
> On 2006-03-08 11:15, Nathan Vidican <nvidican at wmptl.com> wrote:
> 
>>I know there might be a better sendmail/related mailing list to send this
>>to, but figured I'd drop it here and give it a shot - sorry for the cross
>>post, but I subscribe to -questions so figured it'd be okay and beneficial
>>to other users too. Anyhow, on with the problem:
>>
>>I have an entry like this in /etc/mail/aliases:
>>
>>someolduserwhoquit:	550:"The user you have attempted to send mail to no \
>>			longer exists on this system, please see\
>>			http://www... for details or a new contact"
>>
>>(not exact; in alias file it's all on one line with no \ )
>>
>>alias works exactly as expected; when someone sends a message to
>>someolduserwhoquit at wmptl.com, it bounces their message back with the error
>>string I quoted. The problem then, becomes SPAM (lol - when is SPAM NOT a
>>problem eh?).
>>
>>example:
>> - (faked) from: somefakeid at yahoo.com
>> - sends a message to someolduserwhoquit at wmptl.com
>> - tries to bounce message back, in-turn getting message bounced back to
>>   our postmaster saying 'no valid user here for somefakeid at yahoo.com'
>>
>>So, to the question part... how can I setup an alias to either ignore the
>>bounce-back it gets, (ie to blindly send the bounce itself), or is it
>>possible to specify a different from address on our server's end so when/if
>>the other receiving server doesn't have a valid from address it just drops
>>the reply on our end, like so:
> 
> 
> I prefer using a different error code that is not a "permanent error".
> 
> A "transient error" forces the SMTP relay of the spammers to keep the
> message for some period in their queue and try again later.  There's no
> need for you to keep the message in your own mail queue :)
> 
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> 
> 

True, but eventually it will fail from their queue as well and return the 
message - the key question there I guess then is if the message returns to us or 
to their postmaster then?

Also, any suggestions as to the 'proper' transient error code? A 451 will force 
a retry/wait condition will it not?

-- 
Nathan Vidican
nvidican at wmptl.com
Windsor Match Plate & Tool Ltd.
http://www.wmptl.com/