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richb01803
Rich
join:2001-02-14
02100
| reply to justin
Re: Verizon's is actually the more-sensible approach
said by Justin:
Sending email with no accountability is a blight on the internet.
Well, I certainly can understand your position on this, but I think that there isn't any way to address the spam problem without a global re-think of email architecture.
Some form of authentication handshake will need to be implemented between mail servers, and between mail clients and mail relays, in order to address the spam problem once and for all.
I believe most people want two things:
(1) Email whose source can be verified; and
(2) The ability to send anonymous email as needed.
This forum itself is a way to send anonymous email: I get to express opinions here without having them directly traceable to my employer. That way I'm less inhibited, as are a number of the other regular contributors, so the issues are tackled much more directly.
But when setting up a personal mailbox, we tend to prefer that the source of incoming email can be verified--and blocked or stopped at the source if it's annoying or invasive.
I don't think ISPs are in a position to do anything other than help fund the R&D it takes to implement software to make this happen. Tweaking policies which limit the usefulness of today's software isn't going to solve the overall problem.
[text was edited by author 2001-07-02 11:09:29] | |
spenster
join:2001-04-03
Houston, TX
| quote:
This forum itself is a way to send anonymous email: I get to express opinions here without having them directly traceable to my employer. That way I'm less inhibited, as are a number of the other regular contributors, so the issues are tackled much more directly.
Yes, this forum is a way to send anonymous email but the user has the choice whether or not they see the message using this method (either going to the site or not). Recipients of spam have no choice but to deal with the constant stream of unsolicited mail pouring into their computer.
As for your comment about a "re-think" of the internet's current method of mail delivery, that would be a great thing but what are users to do RIGHT NOW? Verizon customers that have their own domain names have been using the ISP's smtp server to send their mail because a lot of them do not want to set up their own mail servers and many of their hosts don't provide the ability to relay through their machines because of potential for abuse. Many hosting providers that I've seen simply provide pop3 mailboxes only. I know many people don't like Microsoft products but Exchange has the ability to restrict relaying via user authentication already as well as by ip. I personally prefer ip restrictions because it is too easy to impersonate a user not using secure password authentication due to the fact that user names and passwords for authentication are typically sent in plain text. Even if the ISP uses secure authentication, each and every user would have to use this configuration which means potential for more support calls due to incorrect client configurations. And not all clients support this method either. Bottom line is that for those who cannot send mail now, no matter how few, have a problem that will not be solved by a "re-think" of the current architecture. At least not soon enough for them of course. Many ISPs have attempted relay control via ip restrictions and for the most part it works. It's by no means a flawless process, but it does put a dent into the problem. 95% of the spam that has come across my inbox comes from mail servers that are open relays (no relay restrictions at all). I've verified many of them by sending messages to myself through their servers. If people running these servers would be kind enough to care about the rest of us on the net and close down these open relays, we'd see far fewer amounts of spam. | |
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