KDE-Forum.org

I have a user who is having trouble with KMail and distribution lists. Currently, the way the SMTP server is configured at the ISP involved, any invalid addresses on the list (or any problems with any of the addresses) cause the message to remain in the KMail Outbox folder until all of the problems have been corrected.

The ISP has suggested that this user send the message to each recipient individually to avoid the problem of the message being stuck in the Outbox. The recommendation was to use a script with sendmail and a text file with the message. For the novice user, this is just not feasible.

Is there any way of configuring KMail to send individual messages to the SMTP server instead of just one message with multiple recipients? For example, if the list had 10 recipients, the regular behavior is to send it to the SMTP server as one message and the SMTP server distributes it to each recipient as an individual message. I'd like to do the splitting at the KMail client end before it reaches the SMTP server. That way, only the problem recipients remain in the Outbox.

One potential solution we tried was to use a local SMTP server and have it deliver the messages one at a time. Our local SMTP server accepts the message even with the problem recipeints and then sends individual messages to each recipient. The only problem is that we have a dynamic IP on our router and thus many of the recipient flag the incoming messages as spam or just reject it outright. This of course is not a workable solution.

Anybody have any ideas?

Thanks

I've got a solution in case anybody else runs into this. It basically means using the local SMTP server (postfix) which sends messages one at a time (by definition). Change the outgoing mail server in KMail to use your local SMTP server instead of the ISP server. Messages then hit your local SMTP box and it delivers them directly one at a time. The only hitch is if your external IP is in a spam block or dynamic, the recipient mail server may reject it. So, in postfix you can set relay_host= the ISP mail server so that all mail leaving your local SMTP box hits your ISP server as before except now all the KMail clients hop through your SMTP box first before the ISP. Works like a charm.