SMTP enabled

I just installed Postfix Enabler to be able to send my emails through a SMTP server on my own powerbook. I didn’t want the hassle to configure the postfix server myself, so I went for a software doing it the Macintosh way.

The default configuration was a little too open for my taste. I want others (that is me on the PC nearby) to use the postfix server only if they know a password. Using the Postfix Enabler configuration tab to setup password authentication still lets anybody on the same subnet send mail without a password.

Bernard Teo (the author of Postfix Enabler) was very helpful and immediately answered my request: enter this line in the Custom Postfix Settings field:

smtpd_recipient_restrictions=permit_sasl_authenticated, reject_unauth_destination

There is only one downside using your own SMTP server: depending on where you are linked to the internet, your IP address might raise suspicion with spam filters, thanks to the many worms using any “available” PC as spam relay.

(Comments are closed)

Beat Bolli 17 Nov 2005

Of course, the simple solution is to add a line with “relayhost = " to main.cf which causes all sent mail to be routed to your ISP’s mail server.

Pesche 17 Nov 2005

@beat: The problem with this approach is that my ISP changes depending on where I use my Powerbook.

But I found still another easy solution: my home ISP allows now (I’m pretty sure it didn’t three months ago) to send mails from anywhere if I use password authentication over a SSL connection.

SMTP enabled

Peter Steiner