Shorten delay in sending mail to SMTP

[Chuck Swiger]

Hi--

On Jun 10, 2007, at 7:26 PM, Foo JH wrote:
> I'm using inetd + qmail to implement a mail server. The combo  
> works, but usually sending a mail takes some 5-10 seconds.

> I suspect it's largely because inetd or qmail is trying to do some  
> dns lookup or something, before letting it through. Is there any  
> way to shorten this process - if possible eliminate it altogether?
>
> Some time back, there was an advice to avoid inetd. It's probably a  
> good idea, but I hope to deal with this first before moving forward  
> on the setup.

It's certainly possible to disable DNS lookups entirely, and that  
might help reduce the delay you see, but in that case you'll have to  
configure qmail to relay all mail to the equivalent of a sendmail  
SMART_HOST (ie, to your ISP's SMTP relay), which performs MX lookups  
and so forth instead of your local qmail doing so.

It is only recommended to use an MTA spawned from inetd if your  
traffic volume is very low-- probably well under 1000 messages/day.   
If your traffic level is higher, you should run your MTA as a daemon  
and not through inetd.

-- 
-Chuck