1. When a connection is established, Sendmail goes through a few checks involving checking access.db to see if the connecting ip or host is listed (if not delay_checks is enabled). What is default "Connect:" value for connecting ips? I assume it is OK and neither REJECT nor RELAY?

2. Without delay_checks enabled or the IP in question in access.db, two situations occur for me... If the connecting host passes the checks (and I guess a few more checks are conducted than just checking the access.db), the response to the EHLO command is a full scale list of commands. This is typical then connecting through a "good" and legitimite server. If a "bad" server connects, the typical spammer so to speak, sendmail allows the connection but only responds to the EHLO command with one single entry in the command list; 250 ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES.

To clarify, I assume that the other checks conducted involve check_relay or such and that the connecting host fails with either "IP name possibly forged" or "IP name lookup failed" and that this affects how the command list will look like. Furthermore, even if an ip is listed as "Connect: IP REJECT" in access.db, the single ENHANCEDSTATUSCODE entry in the command list is shown. When delay_checks is enabled, all the checks are saved until the RCPT check later on and therefore, in all these examples, the command list is complete when doing the same with this option enabled.

So, is the number of commands in the command list a way for sendmail to restrict access to the server when it has performed the initial check on the connection attempt made by the remote host and discovered that it's not "good", either by not passing the DNS lookups (forward or reverse) or by being explicitly REJECTed in access.db?

THANKS THANKS THANKS!!!