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From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED][SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, January 18, 1999 1:45 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Three solutions for spam
On the qmail list [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
>When I am on my backup ISP, I am unable to send out ANY mail
because it
>blocks out all the port 25 accesses.
ALL? I doubt it. I'm willing to bet they have a mailserver
that accepts port 25 connections from the dialups, and
relays the mail.
Right. But you can't access any other mail servers. Only theirs. I
don't want to send out mail for my personal domain or the site I consult
for through a different server.
>When my primary internet account was down, I was unable
>to send mail for 3 days !!!
Why ? Tell your MTA that today you have a smarthost such'n'such,
and roll out your mail.
If your primary ISP did that too, you'd just have to change the
smarthost in your startup scripts.
I run my own mail server it sits underneath my printer and contains my
modem (its the gateway for my home network). I do not use anyone's mail
server (Other than one I do consulting for, and that only handles mail
"from" their domain..
>To me the blocking of port 25 is more of a CYA for the ISP.
Nothing
>more, it benefits no one but the ISP.
Wrong. It stops the whackamole spammers, responsible for a great
deal of the spam today (I'd guess between 40 and 90%, mrsam
surely has some stats to share), and the most difficult to stop.
Really ? Why not get your mailserver configured to not relay ? I would
think that by doing some checks:
1) mail is to a domain served by this mailhost
2) mail is from an account on this ISP (and it is on a valid
dialup line.)
3) mail is from a trusted host (known host).
>but there must be better mechanisms for blocking spam ....
It is an essential part for an ISP.
Really ? To me the only thing it accomplishes is showing the ISP's
customers that they aren't trusted - "You might send out spam, therefore
no one can use other mail servers". I mean, the only thing that
blocking port 25 from the paying ISP customers does is keep them from
sending out email of any sort, legitimate or not, from some other mail
server..
If you are a polite client as well as being responsible and
willing to sign a paper or two, an ISP will probably make an
exception for you.
I would consider that blocking port 25 is a positive thing when
choosing an ISP; I see that 1) the ISP is anti-spam, and I won't
No.. They are anti "SOURCE" of spam. As I said, they don't want to
originate it. This shows me that they don't trust the clients to not
send out spam.
find myself on some block-list somewhere, and 2) that they are
capable of running round-the-clock servers reliably.
How does blocking port 25 indicate they can run round the clock servers
? I handle 5 machines and non of them have any relaying on their email
and run reliably.
Of course, if their mailserver falls down, that will be a
negative impression. But since they take my incoming mail too,
they'd better have functioning mailservers anyway, right?
Thats just it, they DON'T handle my incoming email. They are a backup
ISP, they do NOT handle any mail for my domains only for the email
account at their domain (which I don't use).
Matt Soffen
Webmaster - http://www.iso-ne.com/
==============================================
Boss - "My boss says we need some eunuch programmers."
Dilbert - "I think he means UNIX and I already know UNIX."
Boss - "Well, if the company nurse comes by, tell her I said
never mind."
- Dilbert -
==============================================
