Question about smtplib, and mail servers in general.

[Peter Hansen]

Steve Holden wrote:
> Peter Hansen wrote:
>> In any case, unless the mail server will allow "relaying", which most 
>> don't these days (to prevent spamming), then it won't work the way you 
>> are hoping unless *all* the 100 addresses are local ones, to be 
>> delivered to users on the server you are sending the mail to.
>>
>> If the addresses are scattered all over the planet, and the server 
>> allows relaying, then it's intended for exactly this sort of use 
>> (other than if it's spam ;-) ), and no, you won't be putting a "drain" 
>> on the server.
> 
> To add one final note, if the "fromaddress" belongs to a domain that's 
> properly handled by the SMTP server then you aren't relaying (since you 
> are a legitimate domain user) so the mails should go through.

I think that statement might not be widely valid any more, Steve.  In my 
experience, lately, many if not most servers pay no attention to the 
"MAIL FROM" address but instead allow relaying only from *IP addresses* 
on the "internal" network (e.g. those served by an ISP, for example), 
regardless of how the sender is identified.  On a Linux box with Qmail, 
for example, one would have an /etc/tcp.smtp file which specifies for 
which subnets relaying is allowed, and all others are disallowed 
regardless of the claimed MAIL FROM address.

It's kind of a shame, really, that you can no longer trust either the 
recipient *or* the sender addresses when using basic SMTP.  Damn spammers.

-Peter