Re: Outbound SMTP

[Valdis Kletnieks <Valdis.Kletnieks () VT EDU>]

On Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:14:13 EDT, "Scholz, Greg" said:

> I don't think I want a researcher (or whomever) that doesn't understand
> that they need port 25 open to have the ability to create an accessible
> application and run it on our network - sounds like they would need to
> do more research first :-)

Quick - which port(s) do you need for Exchange? ;)

It's true that a *protocol researcher* should know what ports they need.
However, the days when even 1% of the users were protocol researchers are
long behind us.

The vast majority are just trying to use the network as a *TOOL*.  They don't
understand IP addresses or ports or TCP 3-way handshakes or Path MTU Discovery,
they just know that some collection of bits/data lives on *THIS* machine and
they want to use it on *THAT* machine, and some tool called *whatever* was
recommended as the way to do it.

Sometimes it's a researcher in something other than protocols - for instance,
a genetics professor that just wants to do video conferencing with a collaborator
in Germany, and knows "if the Germany guy and I both have WonderVideo 2.3 and
a USB webcam, it's supposed to work".  And sometimes it's somebody trying to
access files on a home machine from work, or a work machine from home, for
legitimate business reasons.  And sometimes it's just some ethically challenged
person who wants a copy of something contrary to its copyright/licensing.

But I think if you're expecting any of the people in the previous paragraph to
learn what ports are used, you're in for a big surprise.  Most people don't know
what ports do what, any more than the owner of any car made since 1996 is
likely to know what the pin-out of the ODB2 plug under the dashboard is.

And I posit that if they *have* to know more about protocols to use the computer
than they need to know ODB2 to drive a car, their user interface is vastly
misdesigned.

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