> The second service is controversial. One of the reasons it is >controversial is that SpamCop treats "open relays" - sites that don't >authenticate email before passing it along - as spammers. SpamCop does >that because, of course, spammers use open relays the disguise where spam >is really coming from. Since native Emailer can't properly authenticate >without add-on's like Chris's Baton, this hits us where we live.
Although I agree this hits Emailer users hard, I have to also agree with Spam Cop that open relays are a bad idea. There is a happy medium. One that keeps spammers out and lets Emailer users in. That is, use an authentication OTHER than SMTP Auth (or in addition to). ISPs or Mail Server providers can opt to use POP Authentication. Emailer can do that simply by checking the mail before sending it. This can be made less manual thru the use of AppleScripts or the likes (*cough* patch 2 *cough* ftp site *cough*). They can also use IP Authentication. IP Authentication checks the IP address you are connecting from and if it is in a list of acceptable addresses, it allows the email without further questioning. It is totally transparent to the user. IP Auth is what I happen to use on my mail server for my dedicated connections. Until recently I used POP Auth or SMTP Auth for my dialup (now I run my own dialup service, so I know the IP range available, so I can use IP Auth for my dialup as well). The reason I think many dialup providers don't use IP Auth is because they subcontract the dialup service to other larger providers like Earthlink. That means they really can't be sure at any given time that someone using an IP in their known bank is really one of their customers and should be allowed in. But in my opinion, there is little excuse not to offer POP Authentication (if you set the TTL to something short like 30 seconds, there is virtually no way to accept a connection other than from an authorized user). -chris <http://www.mythtech.net> ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe send a mail message with a SUBJECT line of "unsubscribe" to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
