ietf-mxcomp
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Re: draft-schlitt-spf-classic-01.txt

2005-06-01 00:43:56


On Tue, 31 May 2005, Douglas Otis wrote:

The HELO name would be indicative of the domain administrator running
the MTA, irrespective of the mailbox-domains contained in messages sent
by the MTA.  If the MTA is not properly administered, it would be this
MTA and the administrator of this MTA identified by a reputation scheme
that rates HELO names.

Doug,

People here are not saying that being able to tag responsiblity to MTA is a bad idea. People are just saying that there are also other ways it can be done and that MTA responsiblity is one thing while domain owner
responsiblity is another and that both are usefull when making decisions.

Those that would normally send messages over a HELO blocked MTA would be
free to look elsewhere to obtain email services.  If the mailbox-domains
were rated and blocked instead, as with SPF, a poorly maintained MTA
could continue to send abusive and even forged emails, but then the
domain owners would find use of their domains blocked, no matter which
other provider they tried.

I think what you're trying to argue here that when domain owner is using
shared MTA that does not have strong policies in regards to its network
than it may become target of abuse and abusers may choose to use other
domains maintained by that MTA at random, i.e. its the case of large dsl
provider and user having to use that provider's MTA and is subject to
the MTA being used by zombies located on the provier's networ and zombies
choosing domains of various users (that come through that mta) at random.
Is that what you're worried about?

--
William Leibzon
Elan Networks
william(_at_)elan(_dot_)net