Hi,

Am Di, den 16.12.2003 schrieb ScruLoose um 21:36:
> On Tue, Dec 16, 2003 at 09:08:12PM +0100, Joerg Rossdeutscher wrote:
> > Am Mo, den 15.12.2003 schrieb Wesley J Landaker um 02:55:

> > A mailserver can harm _others_.
> > 
> > I said that yesterday, and today I find this mailinglist full of
> > nonsense since one guy is not able to configure his procmail. Now got
> > what I mean?
> 
> But his procmail rule would do exactly the same damage whether his mail
> is routed through a smarthost or sent direct from a local mailserver, so
> I don't really see how this provides any support for your position.

Yes - but it shows a normal user should use as less "harmful" technology
as possible. 
I wouldn't say a mailserver at home is useless at all, but if someone
tries to setup a mailserver and doesn't even know that a lot providers
reject dynIPs, I'd say: This person is the wrong one to connect a
mailserver to the net. 


> Your argument is based on the assumption that an ISP can always be
> trusted to set up a mailserver right, and the home user (sysadmin of a
> home LAN, etc.) never can. 
> I've seen enough counter-examples to convince me that this assumption
> has no merit.

The assumption is not "always" and "never" - but it is "very often" and
"not so often". This should be compared to the risks of a useless server
just for fun. The next time there's a security hole in one of the famous
SMTPs, what do you think, how many of them will fix it soon?

> Frankly, the "no e-mail from dynamic IPs" solution sounds like Microsoft
> reasoning. "Take power away from the user, they can't be trusted with
> it."

I'm not interested in M$, nor do I use their stuff.

> The philosophy of Debian and Linux and open-source in general has a lot
> to do with giving power to individual users/administrators. 
> There are _lots_ of aspects of a computer system that can be destructive
> (to others, not just locally) if they're misconfigured.  The Linux way
> of dealing with this is to package things with sane defaults, and
> educate people to configure their systems properly. Your solution is to
> take away useful functionality for fear that it might be abused.
> On a Debian forum, don't be surprised if you meet stiff opposition to
> this idea.

There's nothing bad in giving the power to the users. That's why I use
linux. Nevertheless there's a responsibility in using that power, i.e.:
Don't expose services to the net that you don't need. On your machine -
play what you want, break it, crash it, have fun. But when connecting to
the net - be responsible.

If you have use in a mailserver: Do it. But I often have the feeling
that people just like to have a server "like a /real/ server! kewl!"
with lots of useless risks. Having ftp online for getting a file once a
year. Hell. After 6 month they don't even remember /which/ ftpd they are
running. Compare that to a guy whose whole-day-job it is to read
security bulletins and care for machines. Yes, not all providers work
that way. But many more than homeusers.

Bye, Ratti

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