How do you stop outgoing spam?

Wed Sep 18 19:29:52 UTC 2002

On September 18, 2002 at 00:01 dhc2 at dcrocker.net (Dave Crocker) wrote:
 > the claim is that outbound 25 is blocked to prevent spam.  however 
 > accessing a remote 25 with smtpauth ensures full accountability and, 
 > therefore, prevents spam.  blocking 25 disables use of this mechanism.

Part of the disagreement here is basically one of calibration, how
serious and desparate the spam problem is perceived to be.

One attraction of blocking port 25 is that you can now say to the any
spam complaints about your users demanding an answer WE DON'T ALLOW
PORT 25 ACCESS SO IT MUST BE SOMETHING ELSE and get on with your day
rather than sitting and staring at the headers like tea-leaves trying
to formulate a reasoned reply. Over and over and over and over and
over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over
(get my point?)

And maybe that quick answer would even be true.

Also, with blackhole lists, many running on automatic and
hair-trigger, it lessens the chance that some excess mouth doesn't
manage to get your entire ISP blackholed or at least makes it easier
to make your case.

Think about it: Some little dork with a pc can manage to get your ISP
onto some widely used blackhole list and then your phones and email
complaint lines really light up. Nothing like a few hundred extra
customer complaints an hour to get your attention.

It sucks, Dave, it doesn't suck just a little bit, it sucks kinda like
anthrax in the mail sucks, spam is a wrecking ball which is
successfully taking down the internet we once knew.

If you find that hard to believe I invite you to sit here in my
offices.

I guarantee you your words at the end of the day will be "oh my
f***ing god, I just didn't understand how bad it really is."

And it gets worse daily.

If something doesn't come along and stop it I predict in 5 years
e-mail will only work in "gated" communites (corporate LANs) etc and
the net will basically become this passive electronic billboard
system.

Blocking port 25 is kinda like the post office requiring packages over
1lb not be put in mailboxes or banning pocket knives on planes, it's
become so trivial relative to the actual problem it's hardly
worthwhile discussing.

-- 
        -Barry Shein

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