[pmmail-list] HELO - Not...Re: Another new beta 2627 posted

[Rich]

First... Thank You!!! I have posted here quite a few times, about this, about other things, and 
even in response to other posts. Never, ever got a single acknowledgment of my existence. I 
actually thought my posts weren't getting through because of an ISP problem and almost gave 
up...


On Wed, 04 Sep 2002 13:39:57 -0700, Tim Roberts wrote:

>On Wed, 04 Sep 2002 15:25:08 -0400, Rich wrote:
>>
>>Key word being "<domain>"! My personal computer name has nothing to do 
>>with my domain.
>
>"Domain" in this case is a key into the syntax BNF.  If you look at the 
>explanatory text, the HELO command argument is supposed to be the hostname of 
>the computer doing the sending, not the e-mail account of the sender.  
>bearlycomputing.com does not map to the IP address listed in the e-mail 
>header.  That IP, 209.130.218.183, belongs to frontiernet.net and does not 
>have a reverse lookup.

Hmmm, I really took the 'host' more as the server, not the individual PC? But my point was that 
my PC name maps to nothing at all. At least the e-mail address does map back to me and is 
therefore more valid in this issue.

>>I am concerned about this not only for security reasons, but because I have
>>more than one domain and do not want them obviously linked together by 
>>my mailer!
>
>I'm not sure I see the point.  If both e-mails are sent from the same 
>machine, the HELO strings should be the same.  Further, I'm not sure what 
>damage is done by revealing your machine's name in the Received line of an e-
>mail.  It isn't of any use unless someone gets behind your firewall, and in 
>that case there are better ways to find live machines.
>

HELO being the same from two different accounts on the same computer is the whole point. 
Not only do I have a half dozen different 'domains' that I send/receive from, but I work for a 
company from here (as opposed to 'there'). When I send an e-mail from that company account, 
it would be better for the e-mail to reflect that. And you could chalk it up to paranoia or anything 
else, but I simply don't like my domains all being tied together because I use a single e-mail 
client to handle the e-mail for all of them. I would prefer them to be totally separate. But I can't 
do that because they all have the same HELO identifier.

I have asked several times in the past about the security issue. I honestly don't know enough 
about this to know if having the computer name/network name would be an aid to getting into 
someone's computer. But it does seem like it might make it just a bit easier? Noone ever replied 
either way to tell me if I was wrong or not!

I realise this probably doesn't matter to anyone else, but I wanted to voice my opinions and at 
least be heard. Until now, I've never been heard. And for that I can't thank you enough! ;-)


>>It simply gets the domain name from my e-mail address, and this is proper.
>
>Well, it is another approach, and even a sensible one, but I'm not sure it 
>can be called "proper".  Your e-mail address does not identify your machine.

Okay, 'proper' was the only word that came to mind at the moment... To me, it is more 
appropriate. My e-mail address does identify my machine in a round-about way since my 
machine handles my e-mail address and no other machine does. And it's mappable(?) through 
the internet to actually identify the sender to some degree. And it would change when I change 
accounts which is what I'm looking for...


>
>>Not many ISPs seem to send the helo results with their e-mails, but mine
>>does and I'd still like to see this fixed...
>
>Your request is a reasonable one, but it can't really be called a "fix", 
>because it isn't actually "broken".

You're right. I should have said 'changed'. Although maybe I'd like to see my ISP 'fixed' and 
stop sending the HELO with the e-mail ;-)

And thanks again for the acknowledgment on the list!

Rich...

>
>
>--
>- Tim Roberts, timr@probo.com
>  Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.
>
>


******************************************************************************
Practice Random Acts of Kindness and Senseless...Umm...Uhh....
  Oh - Heck...I never could remember all that "nice" stuff.
-----------------------------{rich@bearlycomputing.com}------------------------------
******************************************************************************

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