Re: [pbmserv] Email address trouble!

[Ted Rathkopf <ted-pbmserv-lists@rathkopf.net>]

And so sayeth "Arthur J. O'Dwyer" <ajo@andrew.cmu.edu>:

> On Sat, 21 Feb 2004, Richard Rognlie wrote:
>>
>> On Sat, Feb 21, 2004 at 02:55:38AM -0500, Arthur J. O'Dwyer wrote:
>> >
>> >   I have signed up to pbmserv using my real email address,
>> > ajo+pbmserv@andrew.cmu.edu.  But I often send email to
>> > pbmserv@gamerz.net from a dummy address, ajo@nospam.andrew.cmu.edu.
>> > Even though the server should know my real address, it looks like
>> > it's been eating those mails without processing them
>
>> One of the first anti-spam measures that gamerz uses is that the sending
>> domain must exist.  nospam.andrew.cmu.edu does not exist
>
>> Therefore the mail server rejects the message at the SMTP level, long
>> before pbmserv ever sees the message.
>>
>> And don't ask for that to get changed.
>
>   Okay, I won't.  But I will point out that it seems really silly.
> Why bother with the whole user-identification scheme involving passwords
> and whatnot, if the system really only cares about the e-mail address in
> the "From:" field?

You are confusing two things: The mail software, and the game server
software.

The mail software needs to try to keep spam from making it onto the
system where it must then be processed by the game server, and if
that fails, end up in a mailbox that richard has to check by hand.
One of the ways he keeps spam from getting onto his box is by making
sure that any mail that tries to make it onto his box is coming from a
valid domain name.  Since "nospam.andrew.cmu.edu" is not a valid
domain, it is treated as spam and is rejected.

If you were sending mail with a from containing a valid domain, the
mail server would then accept the mail and pass it to the game
server.  The game server would then not give a rip where the mail was
coming from.  All it would care about is whether the username and
password were acceptable and would then process your move.

>   And a follow-up question: What if I send e-mail from
> "ajo@andrew.cmu.edu" instead of "ajo+pbmserv@andrew.cmu.edu"?  Will it
> still get eaten, or will it be okay?  

That would be ok, since andrew.cmu.edu is a valid domain.

> And simply for curiosity's sake, what if I send e-mail with
> "gobbledygook@google.com" in the "From:" field?

That would be accepted too, though really bad form to use someone
else's domain in that manner.

-- 
Ted Rathkopf