[Info-vax] SMTP AUTH ?

[Phillip Helbig---undress to reply]

In article <j98q3s$i6$1 at news.albasani.net>, Jan-Erik Soderholm
<jan-erik.soderholm at telia.com> writes: 

> My in-office VMS system have had my ISP's mail server as
> smtp "Alternate Gateway" for some time. Has worked well.

Yes.  Technically it's not necessary, but realistically, many people 
block email from "personal" IP addresses since by far the most of them 
are virus-infected Windows PCs sending spam.

> Now, sine last week, this has stopped working. I now get :
> 
> ---- Transcript of session follows ----
> 
> 550 RCPT TO:<..> Relaying not allowed - please use SMTP AUTH

I remember SMTP AUTH being required at most places a bit more than 10
years ago when I was setting things up at home...

> Now, as far as I can see there is no way to get the smtp
> sender in TCP/Services to use SMTP AUTH, right ?

...but that meant I couldn't use VMS.

> I have some other options I will investigate (such as using
> the smtp tools in the Python port), but though I'd ask others
> here about it.

My solution was to sign up with http://www.dynaccess.com/ (actually in 
my case http://www.dynaccess.de/ but I'm guessing your English is better 
than your German).  This is mainly a dynamic-DNS provider, but I find 
the service and prices much better than, say, DynDNS.org.  I also find 
it much easier to get an overview of which services are offered.  (The 
concept is a bit different: instead of mixing and matching, the more you 
pay the more you get.)  IIRC the "Business A" category gets you the SMTP 
relay server.  I've used it for almost a decade and it, and the entire 
Dynaccess service, is top-notch.

This has nothing to do with my ISP, which is 1&1.  I signed up with them 
almost 11 years ago.  At the time, they were the main competitor to the 
formerly state-owned Deutsche Telekom, whom I wanted to get away from 
after experiencing bad business practices after the privatization.  I've 
stayed with them since the service is good and they have a very good 
NNTP server.

I use Dynaccess for dynamic-DNS and they also handle my domain
registration.  (One can of course host other domains on the same IP 
address with a different DNS provider.)  The SMTP relay server is a big 
plus.  No authentication required---he knows my IP address since he 
handles my DNS, and I can send stuff from that IP address with very 
basic vanilla VMS SMTP (until recently, I also used whatever TCPIP came 
with VMS VAX 7.3 as well).

If your interested in dynamic-DNS, Dynaccess is also a good choice. 
Most dynamic-DNS places want you to update when your IP address changes.
This works at Dynaccess as well, but in addition you can update more
often (depending on how much you pay---the prices are very reasonable). 
If expected updates don't come, you can have your domain switched to a 
"neutral" IP (rather than risking some other person gets your old IP 
address and everything sent to it) and also have backup MX servers kick 
in.

I think they are worth checking out for the SMTP relay server alone, but 
the other things might be interesting to you as well.

I am not using it yet, but there is also the possibility to update via 
UTP every few seconds.  If there are problems with the connection, then 
they are noticed quickly and the appropriate steps are taken.