Webone blocking port 25??

[Sam Couter]

Matthew Hawkins <matt at mh.dropbear.id.au> wrote:
> Creating and distributing viruses is the primary purpose/feature/
> function of Microsoft LookOut! - the only way to prevent it doing its
> job is not to run it.

Agreed, but the risk can be minimised by scanning inbound email, and
mitigated by restricting and scanning outbound email.

Just because you can't fully solve a problem doesn't mean you shouldn't
try to partially solve the problem, or reduce the risks presented by the
problem.

> There's quite a few reasons why forcing mail relay through an ISP is bad
> and wrong.  You've later picked up on a few of these so no point
> repeating.  Some more you might like to think of are "violation of
> internet standard 14" [ ... ]

The only reference I can find with a quick search says "Was Mail Routing
and the Domain System. Now Historic." so I can't rebuff your argument
based on the contents of STD0014.

In any case, blocking traffic over a network you own and control is
accepted practice, and encouraged in many situations.

So I say to you, "Bollocks".

> [ ... ] and the fact your internet plan charges would go
> up significantly should this kind of behaviour start being enforced by
> ISP's.  Think of Telstra forcing their customers to relay mail through
> Telstra mail servers, and the infrastructure needed to support and
> maintain this.

Again, bollocks.

Telstra's dial-up customers *do* go through Telstra's SMTP servers. They
have to, because they're using LookOut and Netscape Messenger to send
email, and they both need an upstream SMTP server.

People like you and I, who know how to set up an SMTP server and
configure it to send email directly, are a distinct minority of ISP
users. Allowing you and I to do what we do won't make a significant
difference to the amount of traffic carried by your ISPs SMTP servers.

However, you're forgetting the distinction between Telstra acting as a
backbone provider and Telstra acting as a family ISP. As a backbone
provider, they provide bandwidth. That's all. The second and lower tier
ISPs are the ones who get to provide SMTP servers for *their* customers.

Nobody is suggesting that backbone providers filter email, but the
bottom tier ISPs should be encouraged to protect the Internet from
people like our grandmothers who don't know the evil of LookOut. That's
what every responsible ISP should do.

> On a related note, check this:
> http://homepages.tesco.net/~J.deBoynePollard/FGA/maps-dul-is-wrong.html

And a big fat "Duh!" to that.
-- 
Sam "Eddie" Couter  |  mailto:sam at topic.com.au
Internet Engineer   |  jabber:sam at jabber.topic.com.au
tSA Consulting      |  http://www.topic.com.au/
OpenPGP fingerprint:  A46B 9BB5 3148 7BEA 1F05  5BD5 8530 03AE DE89 C75C
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.samba.org/archive/linux/attachments/20020725/459ac7b5/attachment.bin