RE: Lazy network operators

["Stephen J. Wilcox" <steve () telecomplete co uk>]

On Tue, 13 Apr 2004, Michel Py wrote:

> > John Curran wrote:
> > If we can fix this by changing default behavior to make such machines less
> > useful to hackers, while still allowing anyone who wants to originate to do
> > so at will via configuration, what is the harm?
>
> Besides architectural purity (which still bears weight) the problem is that
> configuration costs money. I have my own SMTP server at home because I'm not
> happy with my ISP's smarthost.
>
> That same ISP can't reverse-lookup my static IP to return a PTR that has my
> domain name in it, explain me how they will build a filter that un-filters
> port 25 for my IP and does not for the next one.

Not being happy with the ISP's smarthost is not justification to run your own;  
you should change ISPs.. assuming we implement this locked down model it will be
necessary to treat all users as equals without priviledge and charge a premium
to allow them to use their own smarthost and to have rDNS. (I'm sure they can
reconfigure your PTR but choose not to for policy reasons - same reasons)

Steve