*BSD News Article 85546


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From: djb@koobera.math.uic.edu (D. J. Bernstein)
Message-ID: <1996Dec2406.42.26.28620@koobera.math.uic.edu>
Date: 24 Dec 1996 06:42:26 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.mail.sendmail,comp.mail.smail,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Sendmail vs. Smail...
References: <57tf61$gq7@raven.eva.net> <slrn5brnga.4fs.jon@black.oaktree.co.uk> <1996Dec2302.43.17.4992@koobera.math.uic.edu> <59m8q0$meq@Mercury.mcs.net>
Organization: IR
Lines: 38
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.mail.sendmail:35536 comp.mail.smail:2770 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:33065

In article <59m8q0$meq@Mercury.mcs.net>, Leslie Mikesell <les@MCS.COM> wrote:
> OK, is the thing Microsoft sold as a gateway between MSmail and SMTP
> real also?

No. :-)

A machine like that has to be hidden behind a serious MTA.

> I suggest
> that you locate one of these puppies and see what happens if you hit
> it with 10 messages in parallel

Gee. What do you think happens when

   (1) sendmail builds up a queue of messages from the MSMail gateway,

   (2) sendmail does a queue run, and

   (3) two of the messages bounce?

Answer: sendmail does two parallel connections. The MSMail gateway dies.

This is much less likely to happen with qmail. Messages are scheduled
independently. Retries don't cluster.

> to round out your experience a bit.

Mm-hm. In the real world, sendmail beats the crap out of any exposed
MSMail gateway. That's why people don't expose their MSMail gateways.

> Since you used an unusual disfunctional example of a mailer that
> could accept 10 messages in parallel but not with multple RCPTs,

You're missing the point. The problem was the quality of the network
connection. (The SMTP server was a recent version of sendmail.)

---Dan
Put an end to unauthorized mail relaying. http://pobox.com/~djb/qmail.html