On Thu, 2005-03-31 at 10:48 -0700, Erik Bixby wrote:
> In reading some of the things I quoted, I could see how someone coming
> to the mailing list for the first time could be scared off.
----
Perhaps - but if it wasn't this, it would be something else. Reply was
offered to the OP with respect to OP's situation and my estimation of
OP's level of understanding. I just don't see the point in dumbing down
my replies to OP just so other readers feel good.

Trust me on this one - I ask some very stupid questions about things I
don't know - and have done so in the not distant past (Joseph, Siri,
Ted, Vaughn, 2 Kevins and Jeremy can attest).

F/OSS software and the various free support mechanisms don't cater to
the weak and fragile - at least not for the most part. The concept is
that you have to try to understand and work things through on your own
or be willing to try. Questions asked and answered - little concern to
the imagined fears of others. No reason to invest ego into things that
you don't know - there is so much to know that few can function without
asking questions.
----
> 
> As far as what Nathan is attempting to do, I don't understand the
> goal.  It seems as though his organization is trying to solve a
> problem that has already been solved...
----
The more I work with Linux (and I am quite sure that this applies to
other Unix distributions), it becomes evident that there are a lot of
ways to achieve a desired result, some more effective, some less
effective and the effectiveness varies with each implementation.

Thus to his original question, I gave 2 answers and a thought to
ponder...

1 - I knew of no 'trigger' mechanism to launch a process once a
pop3/imap connection was made to his server and offered the thinking
that a grep of the tail of the maillog was the only thought that came to
my mind.

2 - There are programs that provide 'user controlled' fetchmail
configurations where he could install and demonstrate/document for those
on his network who wanted access to these out of office mail servers
whereby, he could then wash his hands of the process

and

3 - The notion that it was my belief that using fetchmail to retrieve
mail from 'untrusted' mail servers represented a curious use of business
resources in that the mail would have to be inspected, detected and if
necessary injected (borrowing loosely on Arlo) for inappropriate things
such as spam, viruses, spyware, malicious html and such and since the
mail had already been accepted by the other mail servers that it was
pulled from, you couldn't reject it without creating other problems. On
the list of questionable practices for maintaining a safe, secure
network, this practice would surely rank reasonably high. As Nathan
figures, he has the iron-power (and I hope mechanisms) to deal with that
and I suppose that he is in a better position to make the judgment than
I am.

Of course, there is then the consideration that Joseph offered...why not
just have the users set up the pop connections on their own individual
mail clients? He may be blocking the attempts to connect by using a
proxy server. He may be thinking that he can better protect his network
by forcing the mail through his own controls than by having users pull
in their mail with their mail clients. That again is a decision best
made by the administrators.

Craig

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