THE FACT IS THAT IF YOU ARE ON A CRUISE SHIP AT THEIR INTERNET CAFE, OR AT AN
AIRPORT WAITING LOUNGE INTERNET ACCESS KIOSK, (and many other public-access
situations) YOU MOST LIKELY HAVE *NO* CONTROL ABOUT WHAT SMTP MAIL SERVER IS
GOING TO BE SENDING YOUR OUTGOING E-MAIL MESSAGE. That notwithstanding,
OBVIOUSLY you would STILL want to use "your" own E-mail address as the sender!
Why would you not send the email as:
From: fred(_at_)cruise(_dot_)ship(_dot_)com
Reply-To: fred(_at_)your(_dot_)own(_dot_)domain(_dot_)com
It seems that this is what RFC 2822 (see below) offers as a solution
to the difficulty. The owners of cruise.ship.com can publish their SPF
records, the envelope FROM header correctly identifies the origin of
the mail (cruise.ship.com), no one is confused about where to send the
reply.
If I go on holiday and send a friend a postcard, I don't try to
pretend that the postcard was sent from my hometown. What would be the
point? I'd have shelled out all this money and he wouldn't know to be
jealous. If I'm only going away for a short time, I want him to reply
to my normal home address - but I don't pretend that my postcard came
from there. If I'm away for a long time, I'll put my new (temporary)
address on the card or envelope.
Why should email be any different? If I'm goint to be using the
address from which I send as the place I want to receive responses,
then I don't use Reply-To: (and replies will come to my new
(temporary) email address). If I want to receive replies back at home
then adding Reply-To: seems straightforward enough.
Henry Grebler
------------------------------------------------------------------------
RFC 2822
------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.6.2. Originator fields
The originator fields of a message consist of the from field, the
sender field (when applicable), and optionally the reply-to field.
The from field consists of the field name "From" and a
comma-separated list of one or more mailbox specifications. If the
from field contains more than one mailbox specification in the
mailbox-list, then the sender field, containing the field name
"Sender" and a single mailbox specification, MUST appear in the
message. In either case, an optional reply-to field MAY also be
included, which contains the field name "Reply-To" and a
comma-separated list of one or more addresses.
from = "From:" mailbox-list CRLF
sender = "Sender:" mailbox CRLF
reply-to = "Reply-To:" address-list CRLF
The originator fields indicate the mailbox(es) of the source of the
message. The "From:" field specifies the author(s) of the message,
that is, the mailbox(es) of the person(s) or system(s) responsible
for the writing of the message. The "Sender:" field specifies the
mailbox of the agent responsible for the actual transmission of the
message. For example, if a secretary were to send a message for
another person, the mailbox of the secretary would appear in the
"Sender:" field and the mailbox of the actual author would appear in
the "From:" field. If the originator of the message can be indicated
by a single mailbox and the author and transmitter are identical, the
"Sender:" field SHOULD NOT be used. Otherwise, both fields SHOULD
appear.
The originator fields also provide the information required when
replying to a message. When the "Reply-To:" field is present, it
indicates the mailbox(es) to which the author of the message suggests
that replies be sent. In the absence of the "Reply-To:" field,
replies SHOULD by default be sent to the mailbox(es) specified in the
"From:" field unless otherwise specified by the person composing the
reply.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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