Open Letter to D-Link about their NTP vandalism

Wed Apr 12 00:01:11 UTC 2006

Hi Matt-

On Tue, 11 Apr 2006, Matthew Black wrote:

> Are you suggesting that we configure our e-mail servers to notify
> people upon automatic deletion of spam?

Absolutely not. I was responding to the suggestion that it's a good 
idea to silently drop mail which you have accepted with a 2xx SMTP 
rcode.

> Frequently, spam cannot be
> properly identified until closure of the SMTP conversation and that
> final 200 mMESSAGE ACCEPTED..

I disagree. If your system cannot make content-based decisions on 
whether to accept mail until "later", it is broken by design.

> .or do you think that TCP/IP connection
> should be held open until the message can be scanned for spam and
> viruses just so we can give a 550 MESSAGE REJECTED error instead of
> silently dropping it?

absolutely. is that actually a problem, today, in 2006?

> Because most spam originates from a bogus or stolen sender address,
> notification creates an even bigger problem. What's next: asking for
> permission to hang up on telemarketers?

once again, I never advocated the generation of any such retarded 
blowback.

matto

--matt at snark.net------------------------------------------<darwin><
   Moral indignation is a technique to endow the idiot with dignity.
                                                 - Marshall McLuhan