Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/09/09

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Flash -- and a Virus update
From: John Nebel <nebel@csdco.com>
Date: Mon, 9 Sep 2002 13:24:54 -0600 (MDT)

On Mon, 9 Sep 2002, Emilio Perea wrote:

> On Mon, Sep 09, 2002 at 12:50:21PM -0400, B. D. Colen wrote:
> > God, if they're going to do all this blocking, why can't they block
> > Macys.com, WANT A CHEAP MORTGAGE, and Look At These Photos of My Sister and
> > leave the rest of us alone?!!
> 
> They can't.  SMTP does not support authentication, so I could send
> millions of messages pretending to be bdcolen@earthlink.net, so he would
> get all the bounces (and probably have his account suspended by his
> ISP).  Some mail server administrators would block mail from his
> account, but my next batch of spam would "come" from another address, so
> that wouldn't bother me in the least.
> 
> It is possible to block mail based on the sender's envelope address, but
> that works only for the tiny percentage of spammers who don't fake that
> address.  It is also possible to block SMTP connections from a server or
> network used by spammers, but I suspect that most of them are relaying
> spam due to the administrator's stupidity rather than malice.  I am now
> blocking mail from about 1500 servers and 50 networks plus more than
> 1100 domains.  But I can do that because I run what is now my own mail 
> server.  I couldn't do that a few months ago when it was still a company
> server, since I could not be certain that I was not blocking legitimate
> mail.
> 
> I hate to say it, but I don't think a solution to the spam problem is
> possible until SMTP is replaced -- and I don't think that is possible. 
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> 

You might have a look at http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html

John Nebel

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Replies: Reply from Emilio Perea <eperea@walkereng.com> ([Leica] OT - Spam (was "Flash -- and a Virus update"))