ISPs blocking SMTP connections from dynamic IP address space

[Kevin Stevens]

On Thu, 7 Aug 2003, Roger 'Rocky' Vetterberg wrote:

> Its still not a reason for allowing relay from dynamic addresses.
> All ISP's, or atleast all serious ISP's, provide their customer with a
> relaying mailserver. Its a simple task to configure your mailserver to
> use your ISP's smtp as smarthost and relay all outgoing email trough
> them. I know, I use this setup myself, since just like you I cant afford
> "real" connections everywhere but have to rely on cheap DSL or cable.

Bullshit.  My ISP's lack of ability to deliver mail reliably is what made
me start my own mail service in the first place.  Nor do I particularly
want to hand them my mail so they can riffle through it at their leisure
rather than having to scan for it on the wire in realtime.

> Today its far to easy to get your email out on the 'net. Even the "high
> school dropouts" as you call the spammers can buy a cheap DSL
> connection, setup a mailserver and spam like crazy untill the ISP gets
> enough complaints to cut them off. When that happens, they get a new
> connection and start all over.
>
> As long as we rely on the old and very outdated SMTP protocoll that
> powers the net today, precautions will have to be taken very soon, or
> email will be useless in a few years.

Fine.  Then replace it, or require authentication at receiving points, or
some other solution that directly addresses the problem.  Wholesale
blocking of  types of transport is a crappy solution.  It's unfair, liable
to huge amounts of false positives, and leads directly to the kind of
centralized, locked down Internet that will spell its demise.

KeS