[Pkg-exim4-users] Use of primary_hostname with visiblename

[Bill Horne]

Marc Haber wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Wed, Oct 18, 2006 at 09:01:10AM -0400, Bill Horne wrote:
>   
>> Because I have been trading emails with a system that demands perfect
>> forward/backward lookups on HELO info, I've changed the primary_hostname
>> of my Exim4 installation. 
>>
>> I have Linux setup as billhorne.homelinux.org, but because that name
>> doesn't match the MX record assigned to my IP address, another MTA is
>> refusing to accept my mail. Ergo, I have forced Exim to use the A record
>> assigned by my ISP.
>>     
>
> A host checking that a message coming in from the MX host of the
> domain is fundamentally broken. That host is going to miss a _lot_ of
> mail.
>   

Sorry, I made a mistake: the MTA in question is checking the PTR record, 
not the MX record. As I understand it, most MTA's check only for the 
_existence_ of a PTR record, not whether it matches the A record, but 
this one is rejecting emails if the A record doesn't match the PTR.
>   
>> Since I want those I write to see "billhorne.homelinux.org" in my email
>> address, and not "dsl092-086-246.bos1.dsl.speakeasy.nyet"I also set the
>> "visiblename" option in update-exim4.conf.conf so that my "from" domain
>> would remain billhorne.homelinux.org, ran the update-exim4.conf and
>> restarted the MTA, but the change had no effect.
>>     
>
> The visible name is only used if exim is configured to hide the mail
> name.
>   
That's good to know, thanks. I'll leave it as-is, since I'm getting the 
result I wanted.
> In your case, I'd use your ISP's smarthost since a lot of hosts don't
> accept messages delivered directly from residential DSL connections.
>   
My IP is in a fixed block, and is not marked portable, i.e., it does NOT 
show in any of the RBL's as a "dynamic" IP. I won't use the smarthost, 
because Speakeasy has asked its users not to point MTAs at their 
smarthost. Given that I have a fixed IP and a PTR record, I had thought 
I was in compliance with the generally-accepted practice, but I'll take 
this opportunity to ask if "A" and "PTR" records are supposed to match 
even though the domain name in my HELO pointed to the IP I was using.

This is, of course, a very common setup: I use dyndns.org to provide me 
free DNS service, and my proprietary domain names (e.g., billhorne.com) 
are forwarded to the billhorne.homelinux.org domain provided by dyndns.org.

Bill Horne

-- 
"Only mediocrities are at their best all the time"