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Re: Comment on draft-gennai-smime-cnipa-pec-00.txt

2008-10-27 07:44:35

Bernardi Giorgio wrote:
2.2.2. Incoming point

   This point permits the exchange of PEC messages and
   notifications between PEC providers. It is also the point
   through which ordinary mail messages can be inserted within the
   circuit of certified mail.

   The exchange of messages between providers takes place through
   SMTP-based transactions, as defined in [SMTP]. If SMTP
   communication errors occur, they can be handled using the
   standard error notification mechanisms, as provided by SMTP in
   [SMTP] and [SMTP-DSN], however if the message is coming from
   another PEC provider for the notification of the error the PEC
   message for "Non-delivery notification" should be used in place of
   the SMTP error.

When SMTP communication errors occur, the error notification is generated by the sending PEC server itself, not the intended receiving one -since the communication error would occur before the message reached the destination. That notification is sent to the server's service mailbox (not the user's mailbox), and after a certain amount of time the Timeout Delivery Error Notification is generated by the sending server.

The only case we can think of in which the receiving server could send an SMTP error, would be if the MTA at the receiver's side got hold of the message and ran its standard checks on it -therefore rejecting it- rather than having PEC checks run on the message. This though must not happen, since all messages have to be accepted by the PEC server.

A minor adjustment though will be the following:

"If SMTP communication errors occur, they MAY be handled using the
standard error notification mechanisms, as provided by SMTP in
[SMTP] and [SMTP-DSN]."



--Alba

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