RE: Stealth Blocking

[Derek Balling <dredd () megacity org>]

At 4:04 PM -0700 5/23/01, Mike Batchelor wrote:
> Sorry, I just have to respond to this.  If the solution to the open relay
> problem is to make all users/customers upgrade their mail software so that
> SMTP AUTH can be used instead, .. [snip]

There's no "make them upgrade" about it.

The present installed base of MUA's is predominantly capable of doing 
SMTP AUTH out of the box, and every new PC sold with OE included free 
o' charge (yuk, but that's a different issue) increases the 
percentage of people who have ready access to the tools.

"Roaming" is not a right, its a privilege, and if you're one of the 
minority still using an MUA from 5 years ago that doesn't support it, 
then that's your own lookout.

> Lessee... RFC 2487 is SMTP over TLS, dated January 1999, and RFC 2554 is
> SMTP AUTH, dated March 1999.  So that's a wholesale upgrade of mail
> infrastructure that has been more or less completed (forced?) in just two
> years.  IPv6 is described in RFC 1883, dated December 1995.  And here it is,
> 6 years later...

Apples... oranges.

D


--
+---------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| dredd () megacity org  | "Conan! What is best in life?"          |
|  Derek J. Balling   | "To crush your enemies, see them        |
|                     |    driven before you, and to hear the   |
|                     |    lamentation of their women!"         |
+---------------------+-----------------------------------------+