May 15, 2009

HOW TO : Block outbound e-mails in Postfix

I ran into a challenge at work, where we had to allow e-mail delivery for certain domains, but block all other domains. But at the same time, we had to ensure that the clients sending e-mails did not get a delivery error. We were using Postfix as the MTA running on Redhat Linux. Here’s how I resolved it

  • Edit the main.cf file (the default location is in /etc/postfix) and add “transport_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/transport” (without the quotes) to the file.
  • Create a file named “transport” in /etc/postfix, if it doesn’t exist
  • Add the following at the end of the transport file

DOMAIN1 :
DOMAIN2 :
* discard:

  • Run “postmap /etc/transport” to create a hash of the transport file
  • Run “service postfix restart” to restart the postfix service

This configuraiton will ensure that all e-mails address to DOMAIN1 and DOMAIN2 are delivered normally, but the rest of the e-mails are silently discarded.

Note : Ensure that you follow the syntax for where to place the : verbatim.

Google knows that I am Indian..

I logged into Gmail today and noticed this small icon on the left hand side of the rich editing option, a small icon showing the letter “a” in my native tounge (Telugu).. Me being the curious kind, clicked on it and found out that I can now compose e-mails in multiple Indian languages (Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu & Malyalam) by typing in English. Something that Google calls “transliteration“. Here are some screenshots of me using the feature

 

Screenshot of Gmail showing multiple language options..

Screenshot of Gmail showing multiple language options..

 

Screenshot of Telugu in Gmail

Screenshot of Telugu in Gmail

Pretty cool.. but scary too 🙂 that Google guessed I am Indian.