Subject: Re: The "pop-server" and "smtp-server" options

From: Stuart Cheshire <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2000 20:34:52 -0800

on 12/13/00 10:41 AM, Dikran Kassabian wrote:

> I suppose, unless the SMTP server administrators and the client use SMTP
> Authentication (rfc2554).  I think I'd much rather see more of that than
> more accommodation via DHCP.

Sorry, I had some assumptions that I didn't state:

Obviously, it is better to have secure authentication, but *if* you don't
have secure authentication and you're filtering by source IP address
instead, then that means that the SMTP relay you use has to depend on your
source address.

> Unless the folks running the DHCP servers and administering the IP
> address space aren't the same folks as those who support the desktops
> for the users or otherwise know which of the many available SMTP
> servers is the right one for that user.

Locating any service on the network is properly a service discovery problem
-- but *if* you're not using a service discovery protocol, then stuffing
this information into the DHCP packet instead is a workable interim
solution.

The point of my email was not to justify supporting the SMTP server option,
but to explain why we decided not to support other options (like the POP
server option) which seemed to make even less sense.

Stuart Cheshire <[email-masked]>

---

From: Ted Lemon <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2000 23:33:22 -0700

> this information into the DHCP packet instead is a workable interim

I'd be pretty upset if my MUA started dropping my email on the wrong
SMTP server.   Seriously, can you think of a real world situation
with a real user where this would actually work?   I don't mean to
pummel you about it - it just seems to me like there isn't such a
thing - there's a reason why people have to type in the IP address of
their SMTP server.

> server option) which seemed to make even less sense.

I know - it's just that I really would like to see the apple MUAs be
more configurable, but not in this way.

			       _MelloN_