--On February 21, 2005 09:44:19 -0500 jonathan vanasco
<jvanasco@???> wrote:
>
> On Feb 21, 2005, at 8:28 AM, Tor Slettnes wrote:
>> Hmmm.. I would say that sounds more than a little arrogant, at least
>> without further detail. I presume you have seen "You Might Be An
>> Anti-Spam Kook If...":
>> http://www.rhyolite.com/anti-spam/you-might-be.html
>>
>
> Is anyone on this list NOT an anti-spam kook by those definitions?
actually, I think they might be open-relay kooks.
There's some odd arguments in this thread.
1. Marc shouldn't run an open relay because it will be open to SPAM. Well
he assures us that he will be filtering all the spam. Furthermore, there's
plenty of spam that comes through closed relays, and most spam I see seems
to come directly from infected PCs. So, the association between spam and
open relays is somewhat old hat now. If Marc says he can break it - to the
extent that open relay tests don't work - then let him have a go at it.
[controversial observation: if we'd lived with the open relays and fought
the spam instead, perhaps we wouldn't have the spambot problem now!]
Should we believe that Marc can block the spam? Well, the question is does
he have the resources to stay ahead in the spam/anti-spam arms race? No,
there are no silver bullets, but if he has the time or staff to stay on top
of spammers' innovations, then he should be OK.
That doesn't mean that his ideas are good for everyone. Running an open
relay is definitely not an idea that we want to become widespread.
99.9% might not be good enough, though. My guess is that he'll get
blacklisted in the end. Presumably he's going to use a dedicated host for
this, and not risk getting his customers' mail blacklisted, too?
2. Some people keep asking him to post his IP address so that they can
block it. Others have posted it.
3. Some people are arguing that Marc's open relay will get flooded with
third party traffic. Well, so what? That's his lookout. We don't need to
care what it will cost him. We only need to care about the costs to the
rest of the world. It is reasonable to warn him of the possible costs to
him, I guess, but we shouldn't get steamed up about them.
I think that floods are unlikely to happen if he really can stop spam. I
guess there's a danger that someone might start to provide a mail service
based around Marc's relay - but Marc should be able to stop that. In the
worst case, he can just block it.
4. Some people don't understand what benefits Marc sees. Well, so what?
Marc clearly does see some benefits. He might be wrong about them, but
that's not something we should care about. We only need to care about the
costs to the rest of the world.
So, I don't think I've seen a good argument against what Marc is offering.
--
Ian Eiloart
Servers Team
Sussex University ITS
