Lazy network operators

Wed Apr 14 05:12:03 UTC 2004

On Wed, 14 Apr 2004, Randy Bush wrote:

> >> maybe we can get reasonable security without a police state?
> > What will the jack-booted-thugs do then? :)
>
> tell us how to close down other parts of the net so they can
> control and profit from them

Ah-ha! too bad that mean old IAB says we can't filter traffic :) (or
advises against it, or thinks it's a bad idea...)

In all seriousness, the consumer dial/broadband folks had to take actions
like port/25 filtering (inbound and outbound actually) to address spam
issues with these systems. This is unfortunate for those folks out there
that 'need' smtp access to something other than the blessed email servers
of their dial/broadband provider(s).

Making a more sensible solution for email than the current SMTP, or
finding a middle ground that works for dial/broadband users would sure be
nice. Any 'port 25' filtering is really just a short term solution until
all spambots use locally configured SMTP settings to bypass the filtering
:( (atleast that seems to be the case with the spamwar in general, a
constantly escalating war of technologies)

Perhaps finding a way to make spam non-profitable, or to put enough of the
high-end spammers in jail? this seems like a daunting task I must admit :(

-Chris