johnp writes:
I continue to be staggered by what is basically an open relay in everyone's
home or office
in the USA. What other countries ISP's allow such behaviour?
You are making some wild leaps here. ISPs limiting use of their
relays to their own users is hardly anything like "having an open
relay in everyone's home or office."
I was under the impression that open relays were being n=black-listed
somewhere. Is this
not the case? Or are they being judicious and "allowing" ISP's customers open
relay's
because to black-list them all would be just too heavy?
A relay restricted to an ISP's own customers is a closed relay, not an
open relay.
Open relays used to be the norm. Then came spam and blocklists. Most
open relays have been closed, and most blocklisting is now based on
whether a relay actually sends spam. That is, after all, the most
relevant criterion.
Most spam sent through ISP's mail systems is sent by customers who
could have authenticated if the ISP required it. The problem for this
spam is not lack of authentication but lack of anti-spam enforcement.
Yes, there may be a small component that would have been blocked had
authentication been required, but the overwhelming majority of spam
does not get sent through ISP mail relays at all. Even ISPs that
cater to spammers almost always require that the spammers do not send
their spam through the ISP's relays.
--
Dick St.Peters, stpeters(_at_)NetHeaven(_dot_)com
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