Re: Using SUBMIT without bothering the user (was Re: MyDoom, Sorbig - Ac

> As John pointed out, draft-hall-email-srv-00.txt uses the domain in the
> email address as the principle key for these lookups. In answer to the
> point you raised, the address bindings are per-identity, not global.
> 'Normal' users typically have MUAs where each email address is bound 
> to a
> different identity profile, which may use different submission and/or
> retrieval servers. Also, the draft specifically states that these 
> lookups
> are intended to be the starting point, not the end of the process. 
> Folks
> can use it to bootstrap a configuration process, can use it to perform 
> a
> relatively complete configuration process, or can skip it if they want.
> The spec tries to standardize an algorithm and the necessary elements 
> so
> that different MUAs do it consistently, not to enforce a procedure.
>
> One other point is that the draft also defines a retrieval algorithm 
> and
> SRV mechanism, and is not limited to submissions.
Mumble.  configuration is a Hard Problem.  With very few exceptions 
most of the solutions I've seen to do configuration end up making the 
situation more complex, less fault-tolerant, and harder to configure 
correctly - and it's usually because they key off of the wrong thing 
for the particular quantity they're trying to configure.  For example, 
DHCP is really only good for things that are inherently tied to the 
network location, which isn't much besides address, netmask, and 
default route.  (and it botches address configuration by making IP 
addresses ephemeral).