RE: ISPs' willingness to take action

[Charles Sprickman <spork () inch com>]

On Sun, 26 Oct 2003, Adam Hall wrote:

> Personally, I'm beginning to feel doubt that the technology industry
> will be able to maintain the level of competence and respect that we all
> need and deserve to have.  I can't imagine what the health care industry
> would be like if ignorance was embraced as well as it seems to be in the
> technology industry.

Have you been to a doctor lately?  Antibiotics are the doctor's version of
"reboot your PC".  No need for any fancy tests.  You might have strep
throat or a simple virus.  Who cares, throw drugs at it regardless of the
long-term harm that causes.

This country is going down the crapper fast because no one can think 10
minutes ahead of where they're at.  It's not just the computer business,
it's not just the healthcare system, it's everything.  No one wants to
think things through, and those that do don't get along, so the net result
from them is zero.

The one thing that might make you feel better is that nothing is going to
blow up next week, it will just get marginally worse day by day until
things deteriorate to say, the state that our public education system is
in (or thereabouts).

Charles

> -Adam
>
> > Problem is, some applications, like Outlook for example (if I remember
> correctly), like to >use the 135, 137, 139 and others to connect to the
> Exchange server.  You block them, and
> > it will start to croak.  You have a lot of home users not using a VPN to
> connect to their
> > office exchange servers. I used to do this myself at times.
>
> > When you sell a service to someone, and neglect to mention you block
> certain incoming
> > ports, especially to a possible business user or home user trying to access
> their office, >you put yourself in a really bad position.
>
> > > By the way, can anybody explain to me a legitimate use for port
> > > 135/137 traffic across the Internet, like it's somebody's private LAN?
> > > Seems to me anybody who still thinks that's legitimate is living in the
> past.
>
> > > So, the big question: why don't ISPs do more of this?  Are they afraid
> > > of client reaction?  Doesn't wash, for me: most clients would be
> > > highly grateful, and all it really takes for the remainder is fair
> > > warning. Cost?
> > > Again, you can judge for yourselves how low the fruit you choose to
> > > pick; the biggest gains have the best ROI.
>
> > > Happy clients, liberated bandwidth, faster servers -- what's to loose?