Re: Outgoing SMTP Servers

[Robert Bonomi <bonomi () mail r-bonomi com>]

On Thu, 27 Oct 2011 13:53:34 -0000, Brian Johnson said:

> It is interesting that some people who fully understand that the Internet is
> composed of many networks run by people with different interests can say what
> is best for the Internet as a whole. How my organization (or yours or anybody
> else's) runs our network, is between us and our paying users.

That claim is true *ONLY* to the extent that 'how your organization runs
your network' does _not_ have an adverse effect on other peoples networks.

The fact of the matter is that you do not have a viable business without 
the collective 'tolerance'/'approval' of the rest of the world.  

You, and your organization, need them far more than they need you.

_How_ you pro-actively ensure spam does not exit from your network IS your
business.

That you *do* do so _is_ within the action purveiw of the 'rest of the world'.

"Doing so" requires that you _actively_ monitor the behavior of your customers
and have 'ways and means' in place to (a) detect, and (b) _stop_ immediately
upon detection, such abusive behavior by your customers.

One of the 'easiest', and most _cost-effective_ ways of doing so *is* to 
force all outgoing mail from your customers through a 'choke point' for
examination/filtering/blckcing. 

The simplest way of doing that, *without* running afoul of 'wiretapping'
statutes. is to require, by policy and by blocking direct external access,
that customer out-bound email traffic go through your servers, and doing 
the necessary 'inspection' there.