Fun new policy at AOL

Fri Aug 29 05:26:53 UTC 2003

On Thu, Aug 28, 2003 at 09:29:42PM -0700, Michel Py wrote:
> However, trying to be pragmatic, this is a situation that will
> eventually solve by itself: Since having {Pacific Bell | your ISP} do
> anything about it is not an option, when these customers are trying to
> email to {AOL | some ISP} and are blocked, they will try first to have
> if {AOL | some ISP} to whitelist the address; if it can't be done they
> will say "get an ISP that does not suck".

Of course, it's also possible people will just work around it, like so
many other things.  Postfix transport maps allow relaying of specific
domains through (for example) pacbell's mail server, as does Qmail's
smtproute file, no?  "I'm supporting a handful of smaller sites, and don't
have the time to chase down some support drone to request whitelistings."

It's just too easy to add "aol.com SMTP:mail.sbcglobal.net" or whatever.
If an incompetently run ISP relay server makes AOL happy, then their
customers can enjoy having mail delayed for the extra hours and maybe
dropped altogether.

Eventually things will implode.  Until then, I predict poorly thought
out hacks will be answered with other poorly thought out hacks. =)

-- 

Ray Wong
rayw at rayw.net