On 2003.06.14 17:05 Dustin Puryear wrote: > > I don't get the straw man reference to be honest. Anyway, yes, in the past > you (and everyone else here, myself included) have complained about spam. A > common way to reduce the amount of incoming spam you have to deal with is > to not allow accept mail directly from a dial-up, DSL, or modem user. There > is going to be a compromise between how easily anyone on the Internet can > send mail, and the wish of my networks to reduce the amount of their > incoming spam. >
Email good, spam bad. Prohibit bad behavior, allow good. Get it? Knives good, murder bad. There are better ways to reduce murder than to outlaw pointy metal things. When I complain about spam and other malicious net behavior, I'm not recommending everyone be forced into AOL/M$N like service restrictions. Concentrating email into a few "servers" on big ISPs will make spamming easier for real spammers. Installing software that's harder to pirate and use for spam and other DoS will make spamming more difficult. Fining spammers and putting them in jail will make spamming relay hard. If we can push the world around for "Intellectual Property" laws, we can surely fix spam. The problem is, some big companies think the internet should work like broadcast TV, their decaying propaganda playground. > I don't see what is so hard about relaying your mail through Cox. Sure, it's not hard. Exim can use them. Mozilla's client might even do it. Balsa had problems until I fixed Exim, but I'm still screwed because "cox.net" gets delivered "locally" to machines that don't exist. Grrr, more pain for me. It took me three hours last night to figure this out. I'm going to have to really groc Exim just to use their crummy server. Why should they go through pains to limit my service? It easier for everyone with an internet set up like at home had. DHCP, mail relays and all this are lots of trouble for no good purpose. DHCP was supposed to fix all these problems, right? I don't like having to jury rig my machine to act like some brain dead M$ client box! Not only does Cox have to do more work for me, I have to put up with their stupid file size restrictions and other problems. Moves like pain my ass and reduce the advantages free software has over proprietary crap. If that kind of thing is good enough for you, great. It's not good enough for me, but I know why now. > > >What it boils down to is that they are too cheap, lazy or scared of > >Microshaft to do anything but block port 25 outbound. Cox can easily and > >instantly terminate their contract with someone who spams. They can get > >in touch with them and warn them > Ahhh! This was only half right. A two hour conversation with a tech supervisor last night clued me in. Cox is moving under threat of blacklisting from AOL and "others". It's not a matter of reducing spam, it's a matter of bigger ISPs throwing their weight around. It stinks and if it's against the law, I hope someone leaks it along with the threatening letters. It's one thing for a larger ISP to threaten on grounds of customer complaints, it's another for them to dictate a specific technical solution that reduces the smaller ISPs competitive advantage. The implications are that Cox will be nothing more than a faster AOL/MSN until one of them buys them. This can be repeated for everyone. By the way, I don't have a spam problem on anything but my ancient AOL address that I use for web forms and my wife's hotmail. Even my canadisp.net address does not have problems, because I've only given it to reputable organizations like brlug and the fsf. The spiders have yet to pick it up out of the list's html records. Not one piece of spam anywhere but AOL and M$, they have nerve to tell others how to run things. Ready to revolt yet, Dustin? Or are you ready to give in? Will you accept the rights of your friends are being eliminated because you might have those same rights offered to you as privileges? We should have more respect for the people around us. They are not spammers, and other criminals. The CCCC mail server can answer many of our needs, but for how long? The reason this happened and where it's going is clear. If we don't do anything about it, we will all end up in AOL/M$N hell. Anyone working on wireless mesh nets?
