... 8< ...
Businesses will probably accept "business ISPs"
that guarantee delivery *TO CUSTOMERS OF THAT OR ANOTHER BUSINESS ISP*.
This is a fascinating idea, I'd like to know more...
Would you envisage this involving the creation of a separate network in
parallel with the internet (along the lines of ANX, ENX etc. mentioned
recently)? If so, how (if at all) would such a system connect with the existing
internet infrastructure?
Or are you suggesting that the messages would be carried over the same physical
network but via a different set of servers? Perhaps with a different mail
transport protocol instead of SMTP?
Given the well-known problems of identifying the true sender when SMTP is used,
it seems likely that a different protocol with better authentication would
required to avoid the possibility of a rogue organisation sending messages at
someone else's expense or claiming to originate from some address other than
the true sender. If so, it would be appropriate to consider what properties
such a protocol ought to have.
I am suggesting a major paradigm change. Up til now people have been
used to "THE email system". My proposal is to rename "THE email
system" to "Personal Email" and create a parallel system called "Business
Email". "Business Email" would cost extra, and *TRANSMISSION* would be
only via a per-email and per-megabyte user fee. The general public could
join with free "read-only" accounts, with the option of sending one-off
messages for a low fee. This would literally be the best of both worlds...
- businesses would be guaranteed the delivery of important documents
because business ISPs could charge sufficient fees to finance a
sufficiently robust infra-structure.
- today's email system, used by Grandma to keep in touch with the
grandkids, wouldn't have to be totally perverted for the sake of
big business.
I'm curious to know how the new business e-mail system would interact with Joe
Public. You say that the public could have free read-only accounts, which I
assume would have a separate address from the personal email system.
Suppose I sign up for such an account and am given an e-mail
address "andrew(_at_)freebie(_dot_)net"
Does this mean that when I give a company an address to contact me, I would
give them my "andrew(_at_)freebie(_dot_)net" address? I guess that all business
contacts
between customer and company would ultimately be through this new business e-
mail system.
A few interesting questions have occurred to me, I wonder if you (or anyone
else here) have any thoughts about them:
At the moment, all businesses and individuals use the same shared e-mail
system. When this new business e-mail system comes into being, what will
persuade businesses to switch to using it? Is it the pure economic argument
about differentiation of services by providing tracked, guaranteed delivery
within that network?
If such a network had extra features too, such as use of encryption and digital
signatures to provide confidentiality and non-repudiation then I can imagine it
would appear very attractive to corporate users. Perhaps I've answered this
question myself, but I'd like to hear your answer. :-)
Assuming that some companies do take up the new business e-mail system, there
seems to be nothing that would force all other companies to do the same. What
effect do you believe (in the short to medium term) this scheme would have on
sending of spam over the existing e-mail system?
If Mr Spammer wishes to continue sending me junk, surely he will just stay on
the existing personal internet using SMTP with all of the problems that we see
today. How would life for the existing e-mail recipient improve by the creation
of a separate business network?
Rather than universal "must-carry",
residential ISPs would only be faced with "must-allow-client-access" to
business ISPs. This would mean not blocking SSL or SSH or VPN or
webmail or any other access *ORIGINATED BY CUSTOMERS OF THE PERSONAL
ISP* connecting to the business ISP. This does *NOT* include SMTP
delivery of email from a business ISP to a residential ISP.
Given what you say here, there must be some kind of linkage between the two e-
mail systems. How do you propose to identify (and distinguish between) personal
ISP users and business ISP users?
Would business e-mail customers be recognised by IP address, by posession of
some secret information (along the lines of cryptographic authentication), or
simply because they have a physically separate network which is inaccessible to
outsiders?
Furthermore, how do you envisage messages would travel between the two e-mail
systems? Your comments above imply the use of SMTP to ultimately deliver
messages to end-users on the residential network, but I assume you're being
careful to avoid design decisions about what would be used to send e-mail in
the opposite direction.
If, as noted above, another protocol were needed on the business e-mail system
(to provide the additional features lacking in SMTP) then there needs to be
some gateway defined between the two e-mail systems. I would then ask what
rules such a gateway would have for allowing mail in either direction.
You already outline a rule stating that residential customers must be able to
communicate with businesses (via some as-yet unspecified transport mechanism).
Therefore:
Would a business be allowed to send messages from the business e-mail network
to the residential one? It's a very important feature, since how else could a
business answer customer queries?
Would they simply send responses to the customer's free read-only address on
the business network? If so, there still needs to be some way in which that
customer could conveniently read the messages sent to that address; those
messages must somehow be delivered to their final recipient.
I'm trying to understand the extent to which these two systems would inter-
operate and where the boundaries lie.
Many details remain to be filled in. Comments, suggestions ?
I think it's a very novel suggestion, but there's a lot more I'd like to know
about it. Sorry if any of my questions seems a little obvious, I'm just
checking that I've understood your idea correctly.
Regards
Andrew
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