I have a bit of exper. with SMTP and keep running into support req. due to outbound emails on clients using our desktop apps., often due to Nortons or 'Mil' grade client security issues, which r 99% false pos.<p>1 of the things we started working on during pan. was FTP2SMTP ( F2S ), in a nutshell you send a data. stru. in a file which can contain 'attachments' etc. to a FTP server and the FTP server has a SMTP server that sends the email. As this is happening on the server(s) u have much greater control.<p>This probably sounds really weird, but it means 4us lots of issues evaporate, like changing the From field in an email on a client we have been doing this depending on who the email is sent 2 'Recipient', so with F2S it is text in the file, no need to mod. the client and add a DB to manage the changing of these fields - job done<p>Plus if your customers have static IPV4's you can have much improved authentication on FTP server using WAN fingerprinting.<p>There r a lot more positives, but I cant put them here in an open forum.<p>Has anyone used FTP in a similar manner eg. front end other protocols because FTP outbound on a client doesn't generate 'issues' with client sec. soft. due to programmatic implementation ?<p>BTW - These r legacy apps. 20+ YO and we r never going to re-write to use HTTP as customers luv the small screen real estate experience popping out of the tray, not BIG web pages
delegated, its old, but its a protocol conversion proxy gateway, prob the most powerful thing out, a great tool to have. Does dozens of protocols, supports ssl versions.<p><a href="http://www.delegate.org/delegate/" rel="nofollow">http://www.delegate.org/delegate/</a>