[Info-vax] upgrading from VMS 7.3-2 and TCPIP 5.4 ECO 7 to VMS 8.4 and TCPIP 5.7

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2015-05-17 21:46:10 +0000, Peter 'EPLAN' LANGSTOeGER said:

> In article <mja6eq$upk$1 at dont-email.me>, Stephen Hoffman 
> <seaohveh at hoffmanlabs.invalid> writes:
>> Operating as an open relay is one of the most truly absurd default  
>> settings I've ever encountered for a modern SMTP mail server, too.
> 
> Regarding absurd:
> 
> Would you call it well behaviour to need to have a SMTP server running 
> just to get a working SMTP client?

Process Software has (had?) a transport module for that purpose, IIRC.  
 There are also remote-submission libraries available for various 
languages, for packages that can use those.  The OpenVMS MAIL API is 
unfortunately not able to gateway mail directly.

OpenVMS isn't alone with applications that have requirements for a 
local SMTP server, however.  There are other servers that can and do 
expect a local mail server be running.   But compared with Postfix or 
Lamson or other such alternatives, the SMTP server that is included 
with TCP/IP Services is rather weak.

> And when you need to have a SMTP server running, and for good reasons 
> want to restrict it to 127.0.0.1 (instead of 0.0.0.0) you need to use 
> UCX/TCPIP commands, because the .COM wrappers doesn't support it?

The OpenVMS SMTP server is clearly being maintained, but it — SMTP, and 
TCP/IP Services in general — unfortunately hasn't been particularly 
enhanced or upgraded in a while.   The threats and the requirements and 
the expectations are evolving.   The user interface and the 
documentation could use some work, too.

> And when you want to use these UCX commands, you unfortunately need to 
> remove/readd the SMTP service definition, cause these UCX/TCPIP 
> commands doesn't support modifying the IP address of the service?
> 
> I still prefer MX freeware...

I usually use a system with a more competent mail server.  For the 
configurations I maintain with TCP/IP Services, those SMTP servers are 
generally locked down against most accesses, and are configured to 
relay outbound mail to a different mail server.

VSI is reportedly replacing the IP stack, so there's that.


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