Electronic mail system with authentication methodology for supporting relaying in a message transfer agent

摘要

An electronic mail (“e-mail”) system is described that provides a methodology that allows the system to determine when it is appropriate to relay e-mail messages, particularly from “roaming” users. In basic operation, the methodology of the present invention first checks whether the client has been authenticated. If not, the decision of whether relaying is allowed may be subject to other rules in the system, such as whether the user currently resides behind the company's firewall. Of interest herein is a case where the client has been authenticated. In that case, the system can allow relaying for everyone who has a certificate (“cert”) signed by certain certificate authorities (“CAs”). Additionally, the system can require specific cert subjects.