Validation of incoming messages from non-winlink email accounts (not necessarily a Pat issue per se)

[Tim Helming]

Hi all

Interesting thing I'm observing: I tried sending mails from some of my regular email accounts to my Winlink account. Here is what happened:

1: Sent from my gmail address to my winlink : bounced with error 554 (sender not authorized for any recipient) 2: Sent a new message from my winlink to my gmail: success 2a: replied to the message from step 2 (gmail > winlink): success 3: Sent a new message from <work email account> to my winlink: bounced with a 554 3a: Sent a message from winlink to <work email account>: success

It seems as if Winlink doesn't trust any external email account until Winlink itself has originated a message to that address. Has anyone else seen this behavior?

Tim

[la7um...@gmail.com]

Tim.
Your observations are correct.
This is and has been a well known and described standard by purpose in Winlink  system for about 20 years or so.
So yes, has been observed by many.
But off course always new for new users. Has nothing to do with Pat.
Winlink is not an ordinary email account.
Please read around on winlnk web pages, and/or the Winlink support forum on Google.

Good luck with Winlink.
Finn LA7UM

[Lor W3QA]

Finn's right, Tim. I suggest you begin by reading at https://winlink.org/content/winlink_book_knowledge

This is normal behavior for what we call the 'Whitelist'--and there is more to it to learn (message precedence, etc). It is an anti-spam filter active on all inbound internet ports. There are also additional filters to screen out attachments of undesirable types for radio transmission. Winlink is optimized for radio email transport of messages and is subject to the limitations of radio pathways. It is not an internet common carrier service or a substitute for normal internet email.

To use it effectively you need to learn more about the system. You may want to use Winlink Express for a while. It's help system and ability to access the system's 'catalog' are valuable means to learn the system. Also, while ongoing revision is affecting it, the Winlink FAQ has good information about the system in general. Look at the FAQ's first group of Q&A's. PAT does not support many of the system's capabilities or access to it's all its assets. That's not a criticism, just a fact, and important to know for a new user of the Winlink system.

73,

Lor W3QA