intercepting smtp email

[Pettersen, Bjorn S]

> From: Peter Hansen [mailto:peter at engcorp.com] 
> 
> Scott Hathaway wrote:
> > 
> > I want to write an NT service that will intercept any outgoing smtp
> > traffic, like Norton Antivirus does.  Can anyone tell me 
> > how I can do something like this in Python?  I do not know 
> > how to intercept the outgoing traffic, specifically.
> 
> Normally a mail program does not connect directly to the receiving
> server, but sends all mail via a "relay" server which talks SMTP.
> For example, if you have an ISP connection, your mail would go through
> their server, which would forward it to the appropriate final 
> destination.
[..]

Although some "programs" have their own embedded smtp servers that
attempt to connect directly to the recipients 'domain' before sending
its payload... A small service that could catch this use-case would be
useful for a number of friends of mine <wink/sigh>. (I think I know just
the way to distribute it to get maximum effect too <grin>).

just-barely-joking'ly
-- bjorn