Need to rally re: Fatal error in Gmails "From" address option
GREM
Google to correct an awful feature. Folks, we need to get Google to see
that its "on behalf of" feature in the "From: address" is crazy.
I have come to like many things about Gmail, but I am leaving Gmail and
its free service and paying $20 for what seems to me to be a generally
poorer product with Yahoo! Plus mail because for several months, I
think Gmail has deceived me into believing that when I chose an
alternative outgoing address, my mail was being sent out under that
address. I teach at a New England college, which doesn't support POP
mail. I used Gmail and set my default "From:" email address as my
college address. Now I find that all my recipients have been receiving
my mail from not with my college address, but with my Gmail address "on
behalf of" me. I would very much like to come back to Gmail as my main
email provider. Maybe if enough people make a fuss, Google will change
this. So to all people who like Gmail, please ask Google to change
this ridiculous feature.
Nick Chirchirillo
nickman55.googlepages.com
Zack (Doc)
times before. Google is *NOT* adding "on behalf of", the receiving
mail program (usually Outlook) is.
In a world where spoofing from addresses is easy, many spammers and
nere-do-wells frequently falsify the from address, often causing
general consumers, like you and I, to suffer the bounce messages from
their ill-gotten e-mails to oblivion.
Several technologies/practices are being developed to make it more
difficult for people to spoof their source address (SPF records,
Domain-keys, validated senders, call-back e-mailing). All of these
depend on the receiving mail server being able to validate that the
message coming in is not "faked from". Typically this is handled by
validating the "from" domain against the domain of the server sending
the message. When you change your from address to not be "@gmail.com,
or @googlemail.com" your from address no longer matches the domain of
the sending server. Because of this, the "from" domain must validate
that it is legal for the sending server to originate mail for it. If
you own your own domain (like tnan.net) then you can set domain-keys
and spf records to indicate gmail.com is legal to send mail on your
behalf. If you don't own the domain (as many people don't), then you
can't control that.
All of these methods allow for the further verification against the
domain stated in the "Sender" field of the header. Google places your
real GMail address in the "Sender" field so that all these methods
will still allow you to send mail through their servers. It's
actually a benefit to you, as many more spam services would identify
YOUR mail as spam without this field being present.
Some mail clients detect the "Sender" field and alter the "Friendly
header" shown to the user to read like this: "From: Sender on behalf
of From". Other clients don't notice the "Sender" and simply state
"From: From". When you click reply, regardless of the client, it
should send back to the "From" address, unless a "Reply-to" address is
also supplied.
In short, it's an asthetic change made by your receiver's e-mail
client, and nothing GMail can do about it, short of dropping the
"Sender" field and subjecting you to drops and false-positives in your
sent mail to other people. Personally, I rather enjoy a little
protection against poorly constructed spam services.
On 10/3/06, GREM <remc...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
Fuzzy Logic
For example, if you sent an email from bob @ bob.bob via your
remcnulty @ gmail.com email address, the headers would contain:
> From: Bob <bob @ bob.com>
> Sender: remcnulty @ gmail.com
It's the recipient's mail program that is turning that into "on behalf of"
I like Gmail, and I won't be asking them to change this feature.
Fuzzy
On 10/3/06, GREM <remc...@gmail.com> wrote:
GREM
of guy, but I see that a lot of people have been bothered by this. The
"On behalf of" does appear when I send it from Gmail, not POP mail. I
guess it is in keeping with what you said, that when I got copies of my
own mail, the "on behalf of" is stripped out.
I opened a "mail plus" account with Yahoo and my mail is sent with my
college address. I don't understand enough of the technical sides to
explain why, but I'm glad Yahoo does allow this. I do realize that
phishing is a problem, especially because people have used my email
addresses to spoof others. All this would be simpler if my college
supported POP mail, but they don't. Still, I'd like to use a service
like Gmail or Yahoo, because they can consolidate email I get from
three different addresses, whereas I can't do that nor can I get the
POP service if I stayed within the email program provided by my
college.
In any case, I appreciate your response, but still if I can do it with
Yahoo, I wish I could do it with Gmail, as I'd rather stick with Gmail
as my primary mail program.
Thanks again.
Zack (Doc)
definitely what you should use. My somewhat lengthy technical
explaination was meant to inform you as to why you are experiencing it
the way you are on GMail.
I'd also like to add that I wouldn't expect it to stay that way
forever on Yahoo. Every mail provider is faced with the same problem
that if they don't validate the senders, their mail servers have to
deal with a lot of junk from the spammers. One of the validation
methods will eventually win out, or some combination, and you will no
longer be able to send mail with a "faked from" address. SOMETHING in
the header will identify the REAL you, and if a mail client (Outlook)
chooses to show that information to the user, there will be nothing
you can do about it.
On 10/3/06, GREM <remc...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
rhu...@gmail.com
list my alternate email address (earthlink) and does not show "on
behalf of" inclusion. "from" field is only earthlink.
As previously explained, it must be Outlook that is doing this.
Solution is to switch browsers
Fuzzy Logic
point of view.
Fuzzy