smtp

[Cliff Wells]

I'm trying to add a "Contact Us" button to a Python app.  Using the smtplib 
module was straightforward and works from Linux using 'localhost' as the 
server (sendmail handles it), but this doesn't work on a Windows box.  I 
worked around this by using our ISP's mail server which works fine if I am 
sending the email (even if I send it using a different email address for the 
sender) from my PC or from a coworkers.  However - I tried it on someone 
else's Windows PC who uses AOL (blech) and it failed with SMTPSenderRefused.  

The problem is easily reproduced using the code from the smtplib module but 
substituting "mail.earthlink.net" (my ISP) in place of "localhost" and my 
email address for the toaddrs:


import smtplib
import string

def prompt(prompt):
    return raw_input(prompt).strip()

fromaddr = prompt("From: ")
# toaddrs  = prompt("To: ").split()
toaddrs = ["logiplexsoftware at earthlink.net"] 
print "Enter message, end with ^D:"

# Add the From: and To: headers at the start!
msg = ("From: %s\r\nTo: %s\r\n\r\n"
       % (fromaddr, string.join(toaddrs, ", ")))
while 1:
    try:
        line = raw_input()
    except EOFError:
        break
    if not line:
        break
    msg = msg + line

print "Message length is " + `len(msg)`

server = smtplib.SMTP('mail.earthlink.net')
server.set_debuglevel(1)
server.sendmail(fromaddr, toaddrs, msg)
server.quit()

It seems it should be legal to send directly to that server, since that's the 
final destination anyway.  Am I wrong, or is just AOL?  I don't have access 
to enough separate ISP's to test this very well.

Thanks in advance,

-- 
Cliff Wells
Software Engineer
Logiplex Corporation (www.logiplex.net)
(503) 978-6726 x308
(800) 735-0555 x308