Paul's Mailfrom (Was: IETF SMTP Working Group Proposal at smtpng.org)

Tue Aug 27 17:19:08 UTC 2002

> So what's so bad about forwarding all tcp/25 traffic over that relay and
> letting that relay decide if the MAIL FROM: is allowed to be relayed?

Because I want to send mail through my own SMTP server that speaks
STARTTLS and uses certificates that are under my control.

Maybe I don't want my email sitting around in your MTA queue for
your sysadmins to read.

Or maybe you just don't have a clue about how to configure and run
an MTA, therefore any mail I send through your enforced gateway
gets silently black-holed.

> And if a client wants to mail from another domain which isn't relayed by
> it's upstream ISP, he/she could ask it's ISP to do so.
> Yes this will add an administrative hassle, but doesn't spam imply that
> also?

Do you *honestly* believe what you wrote above? Do you have any experience
trying to actually get these sort of changes made? Can you provide
statistically valid numbers showing this is a realistic solution in
the real world? (Frankly, this proposal is so absurd I have to wonder
if you've even dealt with *an* ISP ...)

The Internet is a peer-to-peer network, whether you like it or not.

--lyndon

Lizzie Borden took an axe,
And plunged it deep into the VAX;
Don't you envy people who
Do all the things YOU want to do?