On 11/04/2014 06:01 PM, Doug Barton wrote:
On 11/4/14 1:43 AM, Matija Grabnar wrote:
OK, now I see that we come from fundamentally opposite viewpoints.
I'm arguing about what measures it makes sense to use to get good
protection while still enabling people to use their residential internet
for more than just consumption, while you are determined to block all
email originating from residential addresses, regardless of validity or
how well the servers are run.
Right-o! :) You see, the problem is that even if a tiny percentage of
mail is originating from well-run servers in consumer space, the
overwhelming majority of it is spam, primarily from infected hosts. So
never mind rDNS (which is a very cheap and useful initial test to
perform), most ISPs publish indexes of their residential space to
allow the larger mail providers to blacklist that space up front.
I remember, some years ago, people making *exactly* the same argument
for blocking all the mail from Asian countries. I found that a bad
argument then, I find it a bad argument now.
Since our goals are exactly opposite, I don't think we'll ever see
eye-to-eye on what steps are appropriate.
It's fine for you not to agree, as long as you understand the
landscape. :) Several others have already given you the excellent
advice to get a cheap VPS and do your thing(s) on a network that is
well supported for those things. If you're interested I'm sure we can
find you some solid recommendations. Make sure that you find out in
advance what address space you'll be on. That way you can check the
reputation lists in advance. It would suck to get on a new system only
to find that still can't send mail.
I remember the time when the Internet was the place where "the little
people" (as opposed to big corporations) could experiment and innovate.
IPv6, with it's no-need-for-dynamic addressing should make that easier,
not harder. (Provided their provider doesn't block incoming connections
on a network-wide level).
A person incapable of properly configuring SMTP on their home server
would be equally incapable of properly configuring a hired VPS server.
And vice versa, someone capable of properly configuring a VPS server is
equally capable of configuring a server in their home.
So I argue in favor of examining the mail itself and what can be
determined of the mail server, and giving less weight to just what
network it comes from.
Prejudice expends less energy, true, but it tends to false positives. So
I argue that prejudice, in general, is a bad policy.
Good luck,
Doug
