> Well, i thank the repliers for their replies. I did try
> adding another "From: " header in my elmrc file, but that
> isn't what I'm running into. It seems that some dns lookup
> is done now in mailers that can't resolve unless perhaps
> your machine is configured to use the ip name/address that
> is dynamically set via pppd? That is pretty much the last
> thing that I want. It has always been easy to just send your
> mail to the recipient directly when using unix. Now, slowly
> it is changing to unless you are in the "static ip club"
> you are blocked out. What next? Only US postoffice computers
> can carry email? It appears that this kneejerk anti-spam 
> reaction has gone way too far into the non-useability range.

Basically, your problem is spam...

...in a misguided attempt to filter out unsolicited mail, a number
of people have started using MTAs which throw all the relevant
RFCs out of the window and block incoming mail on new and exciting
criteria, such as 'can I reverse lookup the name of the sending MTA.'

Basically, you have three options...

  1. Whenever you find such a site, complain bitterly to their
     postmaster about the general cretinousness of running a non-RFC
     compliant mail server.  Point out that having dynamic IP and/or
     sending mail direct from a machine without a DNS entry doesn't
     make you a spammer any more than being Italian makes you a Mafia
     hitman.

  2. Decide that people using such cretinous systems aren't worth
     mailing anyway.

  3. Route all your mail through your ISPs smarthost.

1 will give a certain amount of satisfaction, but probably won't help.
2 would be fine except usually the person on the end of the broken
MTA probably isn't the one making the stupid decisions.
3 may well offend the sensibilities, but is probably the only
solution.  Unfortunately.


This is a remarkably similar problem to that just introduced by some
idiotic web sites (most notably Sun's,) which won't let you download
anything unless they can reverse-lookup your IP addy (so they can
try and determine your country & thereby enforce export restrictions.)

Cheers,
Tim.

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