nanog mailing list archives

RE: quietly....


From: "kmedcalf () dessus com" <kmedcalf () dessus com>
Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2011 13:11:48 -0500


And that has nothing to do with whether a protocol is a peer protocol or not.  IP is a peer-to-peer protocol.  As SMTP 
is implemented over IP, it is also a peer-to-peer protocol.

In IP, all hosts/nodes are peers.

That you may wish that this were not the case and thereby impose completely arbitrary "paper based controls" does not 
in any way change the fact that IP is a peer to peer protocol and that all IP hosts/nodes are peers on the network.

Your "paper based controls" are just as effective in turning an IP host/node into a non-peer host/node as is holding up 
a copy of a restraining order preventing Johhny X from hitting you in the face in front of Johhny's fist just before he 
breaks your nose.

That you believe that your "paper controls" have any effect on reality is saddening.  Just because someone writes a bit 
of paper saying that the moon is made of green cheese does not make it so.  Writing on a bit of paper that IP is not a 
peer-peer protocol does not make it so.

If your security is based on such wishful thinking and self-delusion, you really ought to invest in some technical 
controls that are reality-based and stop with the paper-compliance-tiger as it provides no useful benefit whatsoever.

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-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew Huff [mailto:mhuff () ox com]
Sent: Thursday, 03 February, 2011 16:41
To: Matthew Palmer; nanog () nanog org
Subject: RE: quietly....

SMTP is definitely not a p2p protocol in most corporate environments. In ours,
all email (even ones that you would think should be host2host) go to a central
"smarthost" that processes the mail, and archive it for compliance. All
internal to external and external to internal email is tightly controlled and
only goes through a very specific route.

Again, big difference between a univerisity or ISP environment and a corporate
one.



-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew Palmer [mailto:mpalmer () hezmatt org]
Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2011 4:00 PM
To: nanog () nanog org
Subject: Re: quietly....

On Thu, Feb 03, 2011 at 03:20:25PM -0500, Lamar Owen wrote:
On Thursday, February 03, 2011 02:28:32 pm Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu wrote:
The only reason FTP works through a NAT is because the NAT has already
been hacked up to further mangle the data stream to make up for the
mangling it does.

FTP is a in essence a peer-to-peer protocol, as both ends initiate TCP
streams.  I know that's nitpicking, but it is true.

So is SMTP, by the same token.  Aptly demonstrating why the term "P2P" is so
mind-alteringly stupid.

- Matt







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