[way off-topic now] nslookup from WinNT machine

[Chris Buxton]

>  >  It's only difficult if you use sendmail, which IMHO is not a smart
>  >  way to spend your time. If you use Eudora Internet Mail Server, or
>  >  Stalker Internet Mail Server, or Communigate (also from Stalker),
>  >  then running a mail server really is very easy. The hardest part, for
>  >  someone who doesn't know all the ins and outs, is knowing that PTR
>  >  records are important and how they should look.
>
>	Running Internet mail services is my profession, and my area of
>greatest expertise.  It has been since the early 1990's (probably
>sometime around 1992).  I've done this at the largest Internet mail
>site in the world, and I've done this or consulted on doing this at
>many other large sites around the world.

That's nice. Have you ever set up a mail server for a small business, 
such as a hosting service or small ISP? If not, then your experience 
doesn't cover the full spectrum, not by a long shot - after all, for 
every AOL or SkyNet, there are millions of small guys. From your 
statements in this thread, it's quite evident that their needs are 
different than yours, and they outnumber you greatly.

>	Running an Internet mail service is an extremely hard task to get
>done right, something that very, very, very few people in the world
>give proper credit to.  Tools like EIMS, Stalker, or CommuniGate
>don't come anywhere *REMOTELY* close to doing the job right, or
>making it easier for you to do the job right, or even perhaps
>allowing you the possibility of doing the job right.

Justify that statement. I'm guessing you can't do so without 
resorting to unsupported assertions and opinions. It's true that you 
have many years of experience at this, nearly twice as many years as 
me, but nobody's opinion is gospel.

Have you ever even used any of the servers I mentioned? SIMS, for 
example, is a great, no-cost mail server. It doesn't have all the 
features of, say, EIMS or Communigate, but it does the basic job of 
handling mail.

What is your definition of "doing the job right"? Here's mine:

- Listens for SMTP connections. Handles those connections correctly, 
according to RFC.
- Can relay, with relay filters including use of black lists, a la MAPS RBL.
- Has local mailbox capability, including support for multiple 
domains. Should have some means of keeping separate two accounts with 
the same name but different domains.
- Listens for POP3, APOP, and/or IMAP connections. Handles those 
connections correctly, according to RFC.
- Has robust, stable performance, with no security holes such as 
buffer overruns or backdoors.

Everything else is optional, IMO. What else would you add?

The three server apps I mentioned all do what I describe above.

>  >  That depends on your mail server software.
>
>	IMO, this is a part of doing the job right.  So, by definition,
>if you can't do this, then you can't do the job right.

You deleted the context, so let me resupply it: The question had to 
do with logging stuff to a syslog service.

Your statement indicates that it is impossible to "do the job right" 
without a Unix-type server somewhere with syslogd running. That, IMO, 
is an outrageous and indefensible statement.

I'm not trying to set up a straw man, so if that's not what you 
meant, please clarify.
____________________________________________________________________

Chris Buxton <cbuxton at menandmice.com>

Men & Mice <http://www.menandmice.com/> provides:
  - DNS training, including Active Directory
  - QuickDNS, a DNS management system for servers on Linux & Mac OS
    (Solaris support coming soon!)
  - DNS Expert, a DNS analysis and troubleshooting utility
____________________________________________________________________