[oclug] Sendmail "hops"

[Jon Earle]

Allo!

Is there a way to constrain the number of times a msg is bounced between a
couple of servers?  I have (indirectly) a client (who's site I've never
seen or touched) with, AFAICT, a config much like:

Firewall/gateway -+----<---- virus scanner <---> mail server
                  |                |
                 \|/              /|\
                  |                |
                  +- spam scanner -+

(The scanners are not multi-homed, I just drew it that way to illustrate
the flow.)

Inbound mail comes in through the firewall, sent to the spam scanner,
then to the virus scanner and finally on to the mail server.  Outbound
mail goes from the client to the virus scanner to the gateway and out to
the world.  The virus scanner is the only box allowed to send outbound
email through the gateway - the spam scanner is thus configured to send
it's notices to the virus scanner.

The problem he's having is that email that's improperly created (bad
name, etc) is looping between the spam scanner, the virus scanner and
the gateway until the max retry limit (25) is reached:

>    ----- Transcript of session follows -----
> 554 5.4.6 Too many hops 27 (25 max): from

Cheers!
Jon

-- 
Jon Earle

SAVE FARSCAPE http://www.savefarscape.com/