RE: Outgoing SMTP Servers

[Brian Johnson <bjohnson () drtel com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Bonomi [mailto:bonomi () mail r-bonomi com]
> Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2011 12:50 PM
> To: nanog () nanog org
> Subject: Re: Outgoing SMTP Servers
>
>
> 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.

OK.

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

Argumentative and unnecessary.

> _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'.

Judge me as you will. My customers will determine if I change this policy. Their judgment is all that matters in this 
circumstance as the external Internet community has the access that the Internet community needs relative to this 
instance.

> "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.

I think you support my position, but I could be convinced otherwise. :)

Be careful with you punctuation. I got lost a few times there :)

- Brian