Re: increase in spam and what to do about it

In article <1164168707.352713.194240@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
davidc@xxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
Bill Gunshannon wrote:
There is a perfect way to get email back under control. Go back to the
old way it was done in the original USENET days (Yes, Email predates the
INTERNET). Setup mail maps again and have email exchanged only between
agreeing hosts. That would immediately eliminate the ability for infected
machines on the INTERNET to send email anywhere. It would eliminate the
need for RBL's as it would take explicit permission to inject email into
the system. People who don't want to play by the rules get shunned. Works
fine for the Amish!!

What I would like to do is have a DNS server that does an RBL check for
every host requesting an MX lookup. If it's on the RBL, return a
127.0.0.1 as the prefered MTA! Save me a lot of traffic.

The problem with that is that machines can become infected much
faster then the RBL's can learn of them. This is not a technical
problem it is a social problem. There are no technical solutions
to social problems. It takes a social solution. That solution
is for email to only be exchanged between consenting sysadmins.
And when someone violates the consent agreement, you cut them off.
Being as every schmuck on the INTERNET should not be sending Email
from their desktop PC this system is not as complex as you might
think. The increase (actually, just s a return to) in the value of
Email is more than worth it. The only flaw in the old system was
the speed (or lack thereof) of the phone system over which the mail
traveled, sometimes having to wait several hours for each hop.
Today, using the INTERNET to provide the transport, a message that
actually had to pass thru 5, or a dozen or even a hundred different
hosts to get from originator to destination would still take little
more than seconds to maybe a few minutes. Hardly to high a price to
pay considering the ability to make Email usable again.

bill

--
Bill Gunshannon | de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n. Three wolves
bill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx | and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton |
Scranton, Pennsylvania | #include <std.disclaimer.h>
.