[PLUG] How dangerous is handling my own mail?

[Ian Burrell]

Jeme A Brelin wrote:
> 
> Certainly not when everyone else's relays are closed.
> 
> But what's the harm in some of your bandwidth being used for spam when it
> is also being used for legitimate email?
> 
> We're not going to beat spam by locking down every mailserver in the
> world.  That's just an absurd notion.  Better to open up our servers and
> beat the spam by potentially effective means.
> 

The problem is that open relays are used much more by spammers than 
legitimate email.

How many people use open relays to send legitimate email when 
travelling?  I suspect very few.  Most people just use their provider's 
  server with SMTP AUTH.  Or they use the local server.  Or they use 
webmail.  I don't know of anyone who keeps track of public open relays 
and uses those when they need to.  Not to mention the big problem is 
ISPs that block outgoing SMTP; an open relay doesn't help with that.

  - Ian

-- 
ian at znark.com
http://www.znark.com/