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Policy On Electronic Mail Relaying

Effective Monday, February 9, 1998, electronic mail (email) servers in the Engineering Computer Network (ECN) and at the Purdue University Computing Center (PUCC) will not relay email coming from non-Purdue sources and going to non-Purdue destinations.

ECN and PUCC operate a number of email servers; they are all subject to this no-relay policy. So are the Mail*Hub email servers, postoffice.purdue.edu, delivery.purdue.edu, and purdue.edu.

What Are Email Servers?

Email servers are computer systems that receive and deliver email via the Internet, using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to control the exchanges.

A PC, running Eudora, for example, must use an SMTP email server to deliver the mail that is composed by Eudora, when its user asks Eudora to send it.

UNIX systems have an SMTP email server process, typically called sendmail, that handles delivery for whatever program the UNIX user chooses for composing and reading email -- mailx, mail, MH, Pine, etc.

What Email Is Involved?

.br When SMTP email servers on University-owned systems are asked to relay messages in which neither the sender nor the receiver has a Purdue host address, the messages are called third-party relay traffic.

Almost all third-party relay traffic is made up of messages that have commercial content, are sent unsolicited to many recipients, and have senders making use of a Purdue SMTP server to disguise the origin of the email or to accelerate its delivery.

This policy rejects the relaying of third-party traffic.

Transferring third-party email traffic through Purdue SMTP servers violates Purdue policy on the use of University electronic mail systems, stated in a letter from President Beering to all faculty, staff and students, dated September 29, 1995, and titled Policy for Access and Use of Purdue's Electronic Mail System. The text of this letter may be found at the following World Wide Web URL.

http://www.purdue.edu/PUCC/General/Beering-Email-950925.html

How Does This Affect You?

Most Purdue email users probably will not be directly affected by this joint ECN-PUCC action. Indirectly, they may benefit from the reduced load on ECN and PUCC SMTP servers.

A few Purdue email users -- typically with incorrectly configured software -- may find that email they try to send to non-Purdue destinations is rejected.

For the rejection to occur, the sender must be using a non-Purdue host with its email software configured to use a Purdue SMTP server. Email destined for non-Purdue recipients will be rejected.

For example, mail sent to a non-Purdue recipient from a personal PC, connected to an Internet Service Provider (ISP), and configured to use postoffice.purdue.edu as its SMTP server, would be rejected.

Purdue email senders with software configured this way should reconfigure their software to use their ISP's SMTP server, and should contact their ISP to get information on its SMTP host name and how to specify it to their software.

ECN and PUCC can also provide some help in correcting individual email software SMTP server configurations, but the ISP's help resource is the contact of first choice. If that contact fails, call your ECN site specialist or help desk or the PUCC Information Center at 49-49944.

webmaster@ecn.purdue.edu

Last modified: Monday, 23-Feb-98 14:57:53 EST

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