[ltp] Sending email from laptops?

[Tino Keitel]

On Sun, Oct 31, 2004 at 11:32:41 -0700, ben wrote:
> Hi!  Apologies for the non-Thinkpad-specific question, but it's
> definitely a laptop question, and I'm writing this from a Thinkpad :)
> 
> What kinds of solutions do y'all use for sending email from the
> laptop?  Often I can't send because the receiver recognises that I'm
> spoofing my outgoing address (among things) and (wisely) bounces my
> mail.  What I think I'd like is something like this: my MTA (currently
> Postfix) logs me in to the pop3 server from which I retrieve my email,
> and use that as an authenticated relay.

I use the SMTP relay from my ISP, which I can use with SMTP auth. This
also works if my current internet connection goes over another ISP. If
there is no network at all, the mail will wait in the local MTA queue.
The only thing I had to adjust is the "envelope from" (in exim:
return_path), which must match the address at my ISP. Otherwise some
stupid spam filters will block my mails.

> I actually use pop to retrieve email to my desktop (permanent 'net
> connection, lots of disk space, etc).  Yes, it's nice to be able to
> send straight from my laptop, since I can write email while away from
> a network, etc.  And no, my desktop is behind a firewall so I can't
> run an "open" relay on it.

There is no need to use direct delivery if you run your local MTA, just
configure the MTA to send mail over a SMTP relay, e.g. the one at your
ISP.

> POP before SMTP isn't quite what I'm looking for: since it's my
> desktop running pop the pop server won't recognise my laptop when I go
> to send (I could log in to the pop server from my laptop before
> sending email, but that's ugly, since I'd have to make sure that I'd
> just done a "null fetchmail" shortly before every non-local delivery
> request lest the mail just bounce.  It could be done, but a more
> elegant solution would be less inelegant :)

See above, use a SMTP relay which supports SMTP auth.

Regards,
Tino