Re: SBS 2003 POP3 Connector probs...

Cliff Galiher wrote:
Inline:

-Cliff


"Joe" <joe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:ufKBjv#qJHA.4980@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

OK, you've got the usual tidal wave of advice to use SMTP... I'd agree with that, but I'll add 'if you can'. What many regulars won't admit is that there are circumstances where SMTP really isn't possible.

I'd offer the counterpoint that most regulars *find* ways to use SMTP. It really is that much better. It isn't a matter of "admitting" to anything as much as it is admitting defeat when an alternative can almost surely be found. :)

I receive mail directly (and manage a better rate of spam reduction than my ISP) but I'm contractually required to pay attention to email *from* my ISP, when that becomes necessary. Since my ISP provides me with POP3 mail, it expects me to collect mail that way, using an email address in the subdomain which is part of my package but which cannot have its MX record diverted elsewhere. So I must collect mail for that subdomain by POP3.

Almost all ISPs (and really do mean almost all) use postfix or sendmail on the back-end and provide a front end using some other FOSS app like squirrelmail. And almost all of those support mail forwarding. Is your scenario "plausible?" Sure, of course. I don't deny it. But I'd also say it is far more likely that you can get mail to exchange without a pop connector. I'd even go so far as to say that most ISPs CRM software is not directly tied to their management infrastructure so you can simply call them and give them a different contact email. Comcast, Bresnan, Qwest, Verizon...I've done this with all of them. They've all accepted a contact address other than their provided pop3 addy.

On a larger scale, one of my customers is a division of a larger business, and the European group is based in a different country. Their management has chosen to use externally-hosted email, so my customer has *no* *choice* *whatever* but to collect mail from that server by POP3.
I'd say this is a truly unique circumstance though. Most large companies won't be running SBS. It is truly odd to see a "division" of a larger company running SBS, and even *more* odd to see a large company fail to have a standardized communications platform. I've done contract work for companies large and small, and if they are big enough to have divisions, they do multiple exchange servers, etc etc.

And I've no doubt that the larger group members do. This company makes almost everything from nuclear power stations down, and is a world-wide household name. My customer is a tiny division of it, making a very specialised range of equipment. There are two offices in Europe, and when the coin was tossed, or whatever, the other country won.

I'm not negating your need for pop3 in this circumstance. But I am saying that "regulars" aren't failing to admit anything as much as they are accepting that this is *not* the usual situation where a pop3 connector is being used. It is, in fact, so unusual that most consultants...if any...have ever seen such a circumstance. I know I haven't.

...and the IT department of the head office should be shot for allowing it...but that's another issue. :)



I'm not disagreeing with any of that, I'm trying to make the point that one size does *not* fit all, and that it's better to know the workarounds for a particular problem than not to. A great many IT problems are the result of forcing a business to change its practices to suit the technology available, or to be more accurate, favoured by a particular consultant. That's exactly backwards, you choose the technology to suit the task, and the task includes the staff. It includes the bosses who insist on doing things the way they understand, because they don't know much about IT. If they did, of course, they wouldn't need us. We try to keep them from disaster, but we don't tell them how to run their businesses. Even the IT bit. We have the option of walking away if we really disagree, and I've done that.

I'm well aware of the problems of POP3: all my genuine email arrives by SMTP. I have no choice but to accept all email coming through my POP3 account, in order to avoid generating NDR spam. I can make no use of my mail server to refuse this, I must detect them with my mail client, not that it's very difficult. But it's no big deal.

There are varying degrees of unpleasantness, and I choose to accept this level of it in preference to the cost of a 'better' account. Others might choose differently.

--
Joe
.

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