Author: Jim Roberts Date: To: Marc Perkel CC: Exim Users Mailing List Subject: Re: [exim] Re: Thoughts on Open Relays
----- Original Message -----
From: "Marc Perkel" <marc@???> > Jim Roberts wrote:
>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marc Perkel" <marc@???>
>>
>>>
>>> The only reason people got aaway from open relays is bacause of the
>>> spammers. But if I solve that problem then why not?
>>>
>>
>>
>> Err... Many good reasons have already been posted, having nothing to do
>> with spam. But I'll toss one more log on the fire, what the heck.
>>
>> The very most effective first line defense, against any misuse of email
>> service, is blocking open relaying. If someone tries to relay without
>> authenticating first, then 100% of the time, with zero false positives,
>> they should be blocked. It's easy, consumes no additional resources
>> (already have to check if the addressee is local anyway), is extremely
>> effective (100% accuracy), saves bandwidth (reject before data), and
>> imposes zero cost on innocent 3rd parties (in fact, helps out innocent
>> 3rd parties). And... I don't have to run ANY of those messages through
>> SA or any other resource-consuming anti-spam test! (Works even better
>> than the "penalty box" idea... heh heh)
>>
>> Now, give even one good reason why anyone should NOT use such an
>> incredibly cheap and effective tool?
>>
> Some people I know might find an open relay to be a way to send a message
> when they might suspect the their ISP might be taping their email. I had a
> situation like that happen to someone and if they had a trusted open relay
> they could have sent email to people without Apple taping their messages.
>
> So - there are legitimate uses for open relays.
>
I respectfully disagree. All they need is to sign up for a legitimate
alternate email service that provides SMTP AUTH, and hopefully access to the
"submission" port, as well. I would put forth that it's just as easy to
find such a service (maybe easier), than to find a "safe" open relay.
Furthermore, if the ISP wants to tape that person's email, all they have to
do is tape all the traffic to that user being provided over the ISP's lines.
Having an open relay available is no protection against an ISP snooping on
you.
