Automatic Relay Authentication is a feature of your Freedom server for preventing spam relaying. Automatic Relay Authentication allows only authenticated users (users who have checked their email on your Freedom account) to send mail through your Freedom account's outbound mail server.
When a user checks for mail on your Freedom account, the IP address from which the request was made is recorded in the pophash database, /etc/mail/pophash.db. Then, when a request is made to send mail through your Freedom account, the pophash database is checked to verify the request is coming from a validated IP address. Because most dial-up ISPs provide you with a slightly different IP address each time you connect, each of your users may end up with several entries in this database.
For this authentication to work properly, the email client that is used when checking for email must check for incoming mail before sending outgoing mail. Although most email clients do check for incoming mail first, there exists the possibility that certain email clients may not follow this practice. If you or your users experience any trouble with this feature, you may remove it from your Freedom account without affecting the anti-relay features that are built into sendmail.
If you wish to disable Automatic Relay Authentication, Telnet or SSH to your Freedom account and enter the following command at the prompt:
> pkg_delete popauth
If, at a later time, you wish to re-enable Automatic Relay Authentication, you can reinstall the popauth package through the vinstall command, which is described later in this guide.
Should you ever wish to clear out the contents of the pophash database, Telnet or SSH to your Freedom account and enter the following command at the prompt:
> vcleandb
You may want to do this, for example, after you remove an email account from your Freedom account with the vrmuser command. The vcleandb command prevents a discontinued user from continuing to send email through your Freedom account. You can also clear the contents of this file through the VAdmin Web interface.