On Thu, 2009-06-18 at 14:42 -0400, Victor Duchovni wrote: > On Thu, Jun 18, 2009 at 01:13:21PM -0500, Noel Jones wrote: > > >> # /etc/postfix/deferall.regexp > >> /^/ DEFER Please try again during business hours > > > > The sender may get a better error message if you change the above to > > /^/ DEFER 4.3.2 Please try again during business hours > > > > The 4.3.2 suggests your system is down for maintenance and may influence > > the error the end user sees if they have an MTA that mangles error codes. > > Yes. This said, the OP is setting a poor example. > I would advise him > and others to consider other solutions to whatever problem motivates > this policy. The Internet is international and multi time-zone. What > is business hours for one person is night-time for another, and forcing > legitimate mail to queue for hours is counter-productive. But it still does *not* mean there is anyone in the office to answer any legitimate mail - come back later when we are open. It's simple enough. The world and time zones are the same as they always have been. If someone in Australia calls a business number in the UK during the middle of the night will they get to speak to a person? No. Has this changed since the internet? No. If they send a fax will it get answered? No. What makes email any different?
That's not a bad example at all, it's a sensible policy from an operational and possibly even an environmental and security perspective. Imagine building the intelligence into simply proxy service running on the firewall/gateway to defer 25 request outside of office hours allowing the mail server to be shut down. I can't see any disadvantages other than upsetting a few unreasonable people who think they should be able to contact us when we are closed. We can argue the pro's and con's but I'm about to close for business so I won't be able to respond until the morning. Good night. Man, this even improves my work/life balance as I know there are *no incoming emails* to check! Brilliant! >
