Hello, and thanks for reading this.

i have a sendmail (running Debian) relaying that is configured with smtp-auth and tls. i used the /usr/share/sendmail/update_auth & update_tls, to configure both.
This relay acts as a backup MX for the 2 domains that my company use. for some reason unknown to me (at the mo) the server will relay mail without auth for the domains that it is a backup mx for. this has meant that 50% of the spam i (and every at my place) recieve comes from the relay in question.
Now i've looked into this it seems that sendmail is also not using 'access'.

here is my sendmail.mc

divert(-1)dnl
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# $Sendmail: debproto.mc,v 8.12.3 2004-09-13 07:12:56 cowboy Exp $
#
# Copyright (c) 1998-2003 Richard Nelson. All Rights Reserved.
#
# ./cf/debian/sendmail.mc. Generated from sendmail.mc.in by configure.
#
# sendmail.mc prototype config file for building Sendmail 8.12.3
#
# Note: the .in file supports 8.7.6 - 8.12.7, but the generated
# file is customized to the version noted above.
#
# This file is used to configure Sendmail for use with Debian systems.
#
# If you modify this file, you will have to regenerate /etc/mail/sendmail.cf
# by running this file through the m4 preprocessor via one of the following:
# * `sendmailconfig`
# * `make`
# * `m4 /etc/mail/sendmail.mc > /etc/mail/sendmail.cf`
# The first two options are preferred as they will also update other files
# that depend upon the contents of this file.
#
# The best documentation for this .mc file is:
# /usr/share/doc/sendmail-doc/cf.README.gz
#
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
divert(0)dnl
#
# Copyright (c) 1998-2002 Richard Nelson. All Rights Reserved.
#
# This file is used to configure Sendmail for use with Debian systems.
#
define(`_USE_ETC_MAIL_')dnl
include(`/usr/share/sendmail/cf/m4/cf.m4')dnl
VERSIONID(`$Id: sendmail.mc, v 8.12.3-7.1 2004-09-13 07:12:56 cowboy Exp $')
OSTYPE(`debian')dnl
DOMAIN(`debian-mta')dnl
dnl # Items controlled by /etc/mail/sendmail.conf - DO NOT TOUCH HERE
undefine(`confHOST_STATUS_DIRECTORY')dnl #DAEMON_HOSTSTATS
dnl # Items controlled by /etc/mail/sendmail.conf - DO NOT TOUCH HERE
dnl #
dnl # General defines
dnl #
dnl # SAFE_FILE_ENV: [undefined] If set, sendmail will do a chroot()
dnl # into this directory before writing files.
dnl # If *all* your user accounts are under /home then use that
dnl # instead - it will prevent any writes outside of /home !
dnl # define(`confSAFE_FILE_ENV', `')dnl
FEATURE(`use_cw_file')dnl
FEATURE(`use_ct_file')dnl
FEATURE(`smrsh')dnl
FEATURE(`access_db')dnl
MAILER_DEFINITIONS
MAILER(local)dnl
MAILER(smtp)dnl
define(`confDOMAIN_NAME', `foo.foo.com')dnl
Cwfoo.foo.com

LOCAL_CONFIG
LOCAL_CONFIG
## Custom configurations below (will be preserved)
include(`/etc/mail/sasl/sasl.m4')dnl
define(`confPRIVACY_FLAGS', `goaway')
include(`/etc/mail/tls/starttls.m4')dnl


Thanks for the Help

Liam

What is in your access file?