At 08:40 p.m. 3/04/2006, you wrote:
>Speaking as someone who spent many years doing ISP tech support, including dealing with spam, virus payloads and drone hosts...
>
>The _only_ accepted convention nowadays is for SMTP to be driven through the ISP you gain internet access through.[1]
>
>With SMTP being entirely seperate to POP3 or IMAP, this policy doesn't impact on your ability to use third party mail services.[2]
>
>'nuff said.

Are you sure you're right here? I first read this a few days ago and my understanding is they intend to block port 25 inbound. Note that the article you link to specifically mentioned people who run their own servers would be affected. Perhaps they're planning to block outbound as well but I've never seen any discussion about people having to make sure they use Xtra's SMTP server.

 From previous articles I've read, not particularly technical either computerworld or NZ Herald my understanding is they're trying to ensure their users don't run open SMTP relays either by configuration errors or due to worm/bot infection. In theory smarter worm makers would just ensure their SMTP server bots use different ports but I guess at the moment there are still enough places where port 25 is not blocked that it's unlikely.

BTW although I know very little about the technical side of spam, I don't really get why it matters if you use xtra or another SMTP server. AFAIK very very few Xtra customers use their Xtra accounts to knowling send spam. AFAIK also most spam nowadays is sent via botnets and the like. Therefore the bigger problem is open relays who can unwittingly be used to send spam by spammers. Open relays are only effective if their email actually gets through and I'm guessing open relays on Xtra often are since if they'll tend to use the Xtra SMTP server which is trusted. I don't really get why people using a different SMTP server is a big issue.

For those who don't use Xtra's SMTP server if they are using a server which they have legitimate access to then I don't get why Xtra would care. I agree in general nowadays you have to use your ISP's SMTP server which makes sense but my impression was this was dealt with by the SMTP server not by ISPs trying to ban people using SMTP servers other then theirs. If an ISP does decide to accept SMTP traffic from addresses not belonging to them they generally have a means of verifying their customers. Failing that, they become open relays.

But AFAIK the way open relays are dealt with is not in trying to stop your customers using them since this isn't very effective but in ensuring open relays are closed by detecting them as soon as possible and banning them if they are not sufficiently closed when the owners informed. If I'm not mistaken, quite a number of South Korean ISPs particularly have this problem in not acting fast enough perhaps partially because their admins don't understand English so a number of servers ban email originating from South Korean servers.

So in conclusion, my reading is that 25 inbound will be closed, probably not outbound but I'm not sure. This makes more sense to me then closing outbound as well although I do realise it'll make big problems for those who legitimately decide to run their own servers which are properly set up. In any case, I guess the best thing to do would be to ask Xtra if anyone really cares. Not being an Xtra customer, I don't give a damn.

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