Restricting outbound SMTP
Posted Jun 25, 2004 0:59 UTC (Fri) by
giraffedata (subscriber, #1954)
In reply to:
Large ISPs ponder spam by smoogen
Parent article:
Large ISPs ponder spam
>Actually it shouldnt be too hard for them to do something like policy route all port 25 traffic out through mail-relays.
It sounds like you're talking not about routing IP traffic, but redirecting it to a different mailserver than the one to which it was addressed and then replacing it with what the ISP considers to be an equivalent mailing. That's no more palatable than just saying everyone has to send mail through the ISP's relay. Many Linux users want an ISP simply to route IP traffic into the Internet. I certainly do.
>Boxes that did send out more than the allotment could be turned off.
This is much, much harder than the original suggestion -- just allow outbound SMTP connections by request only. I agree that would all but solve the zombie problem. Very, very few of us would request that option, and very very few of those who did would become zombies.
Sadly, precisely because folks who want clear IP routing are such a small minority, what's actually going to happen is the ISPs will eventually turn off all routing except the few things that mainstream Windows websurfers need. There will not be any options. Options cost money.
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