Date:          Wed, 19 May 1999 21:47:18 -0400
From:          Brian Lingard <[log in to unmask]>

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Periodically I find a site will say relaying not permitted which can mean
the user-id does not exist and the site is too stupid to come out and say
so, or more frequently, that the site's mail system is having a rough day
and refusing to accept mail for anyone on it due to a sick mail system,
or a required file having vanished or something.
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I thought that mail relaying is the act of sending an e-mail message by way of
an organization that has nothing to do with either the sender or the recipient,
and that a number of servers do not allow it by default because mail relaying
is most commonly used by marketing organizations who need to send a tremendous
amount of bulk e-mail (UCE, or spam ....... also called "muleing") without
being caught. Relaying this mail through another organization's mail system
allows them to escape detection by their ISP (at least in the short run).

The problem could have also occured, and I have seen this happen, if the admin
for the mail relay server updated their Sendmail (for example)... they may not
have realised that mail relaying is turned off by default and you actually have
to specify what mail can be relayed and how........

I dont know what happens if mail hits a server which wont relay...... it would
make sense if it simply tried another mail server for delivery, so that the
messages would still get through......

Debra