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—faq:email11 [2011/04/30 17:10] (current) – created clemens
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 +<code>
 +[11] HOW DOES THE SDF MAIL SERVER WORK? IS IT RELIABLE? HOW?
  
 +     INTERNET Electronic Mail on SDF is handled by the 'sendmail' daemon
 +     configured to answer up to 128 requests at a time.  'sendmail' implements
 +     the TCP/IP SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol).  The server is at any
 +     given time working on 25-50 incoming/outgoing pieces of mail with a queue
 +     of just under 200 messages (as of 31-Mar-06).
 +
 +     IS IT RELIABLE?
 +
 +     Yes, it is reliable.  However, it is not recommended for emergencies.
 +     If you are dying, please call 911.  Do not use email.  Likewise, if
 +     you need to communicate something quickly, please call the recipient.
 +
 +     IF THE MAIL SERVER IS DOWN, WHERE DOES MY MAIL GO? DO I LOSE IT?
 +
 +     Absolutely not.  All SMTP mail servers should be configured to retry
 +     to send email to a recipient SMTP server at a set interval for,
 +     at the very least, 5 days before returning to sender.
 +
 +     SDF is configured to retry to send pending your outgoing messages every
 +     30 minutes for 5 days before returning them to you.
 +  
 +     Again, no properly configured sending server is going to dump your
 +     email just because the server didn't respond the first time, or the
 +     second time or even the 30th time.  It will take a server being down
 +     the good portion of a week for mail to be 'bounced' back to the sender.
 +     You may assume that it works otherwise, but that just is not the truth. 
 +     
 +     SDF also has secondary MXes (Mail eXchangers) which can accept SDF
 +     email during the very rare occassions that the primary MX is down
 +     for maintenance or otherwise.  This email is then queued via UUCP
 +     (UNIX to UNIX CoPy) and is polled by the mail server every 60 minutes.
 +
 +     DOES SDF FILTER EMAIL BY CONTENT?
 + 
 +     ABSOLUTELY NOT!  Your email is yours.  We honestly have no time and no
 +     desire to scan email content.  Regardless, we find the idea of content
 +     scanning highly unethical.
 +
 +     DO YOU BLOCK OR WHITELIST ANY SMTP SENDING SERVERS?
 +
 +     SDF, like other organizations, uses the Open Relay Database ordb.org.
 +     The ORDB is a very reliable method of preventing reception from rogue
 +     SPAM senders.  It essentially denies reception for email from hosts
 +     that are either purposely or accidentally configured to allow anyone
 +     to send email to anyone through them.  It also tracks senders that do 
 +     not have a PTR record (a DNS reverse look up pointer).  
 +
 +     You possibly will still receive spam as it is an unfortunately 
 +     inevitability with internet email these days.   The best words of
 +     advice is to not use your email address on the WWW, or if you must,
 +     obscure it in such a way that only a human could figure it out.
 +
 +     We also feel that if you want to filter your own email, then it is up
 +     to you.  You also deserve to receive every email directed towards you
 +     and we should not, in any way, censor or filter email destined to you
 +     with exception of the highly regarded ORDB project.
 +
 +     We recommend that any filtering you do be done offsite.  Most client
 +     email programs such as Mail.APP (MACOS X) will do a sufficient job at
 +     filtering 'junk' for you.  While procmail could be used for the same 
 +     purpose, it is highly more advantagous for you to not use SDF's CPU but
 +     rather just download all of your email and filter it on your machine.
 +</code>
 +
 +[[email|back]]