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Date:	Sun, 4 May 2003 11:49:40 PDT7
From:	Peter Skye <pskye@peterskye.com >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Re: Relayed Mail Address

Content Type: text/plain

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> Peter wrote:
>
> > Get your own domain name and use it for your email address.
> > Then use somebody like ZoneEdit to bounce your email over
> > to whatever ISP/emailaddress you're currently using.

J. R. Fox wrote:
>
> Yes, but didn't you run into various strange
> problems, as a result of doing that ?

No, keep reading . . .

> Not simply because of your satellite presence in S.D. ?

No, keep reading . . .

> For one thing, when you do that (relay mail, either
> in or out), I think you assume the apparent profile
> of a spammer, and will therefore flunk many mail
> systems presumptive test for weeding out spam.
> Ergo, lots of unintentionally bounced messages.

No. :)

Good questions, Jordan, and here are the answers.

A spammer often "relays" _outgoing_ mail through an SMTP server on an
SMTP connection on port 25. Your incoming mail is a little different --
it comes from an SMTP server but it is a _POP3_ connection on port 110.

When I send my outgoing mail I use my own mail server and send my
outgoing mail with a "From:" line that gives my own custom domain name
(for example, pskye@peterskye.com). I don't have a dedicated IP
address; in L.A. I'm on Verizon DHCP DSL and down here in San Diego I'm
on a Cox DHCP cable connection. When I send my outgoing email I'm not
"relaying" through someone's SMTP server (which entails a simple
additional command in your outgoing message header) because I'm using my
own server (no "relay" command required) and thus I don't look like a
spammer's relay.

When I receive my incoming mail (for example all mail addressed to
@peterskye.com) the message is routed to ZoneEdit which then relays it
to my Verizon mailbox. The reason that ZoneEdit gets the message is
because the world's DNS servers have peterskye.com and a bunch of my
other domains all registered (MX record) to ZoneEdit's server. ZoneEdit
takes the message and sends it to my Verizon mailbox (I'm not sure if
they do a forward or a relay or what). Note that this is my _incoming_
email, not my outgoing email, and does not affect any of my outgoing
messages. I then get all my mail from Verizon's SMTP server over a POP3
connection -- Verizon thinks I'm ***030cs@verizon.net but the mail was
actually sent to *@peterskye.com etc.

Your memory is good and you are correct that I had an email problem with
Earthlink a couple of years ago. Earthlink would not allow me to use
their SMTP server for outgoing email if my messages had a "From:" line
in the header with a custom email address (in other words, they wanted
me to only use pskye@earthlink.net and would not let me use
pskye@peterskye.com). That's why I switched to using my own SMTP server
for outgoing email. My incoming email for my custom domain names at
that time was through 1stNetUSA (the DNS entry for @peterskye.com was
directed to 1stNetUSA's mail server). I switched from Earthlink to
Verizon to get DSL, and I switched from 1stNetUSA to ZoneEdit because
1stNetUSA couldn't handle all my needs.

Earthlink has changed its email policy since I had problems with them
two years ago and they may now allow you to have a custom "From:" email
address in your outgoing email.

My SMTP server is SendMail, which comes free with OS/2. There are other
good OS/2 mail servers -- Peter Moylan's Weasel, Paul Hethmon's INetMail
and whatever he's named his newer SMTP server, and Eric LaVoie's ZxMail.

I use Junk Spy on my incoming email. It catches a _lot_ of spam and has
never had a problem with my incoming messages being routed through
ZoneEdit.

- Peter

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