Re: Accepting external sendmail on 2.0.2

From: Martin Neitzel (neitzel_at_marshlabs.gaertner.de)
Date: 07/06/05

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    Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 01:13:53 GMT

    Igor Sobrado <igor@string1.ciencias.uniovi.es> wrote:
    >
    > Is there a reason X11 listens to external interfaces by default when
    > X is running?

    There is certainly a historical reasoning.

    The very point of the X Window System was to be network-oriented.
    Clients run on a computationally capable host while the I/O is done
    on a network node capable of doing graphics, at its extreme just an
    X terminal.

    In this setting, it doesn't make much sense if an X11 server would
    only accept local connections. Clients are most probably run elsewhere.
    (These days, capable stand-alone workstations / PCs have become
    prevalent, but "stand-alone" was not the setting the X Window System
    was developed for.)

    The X protocol takes care of seperating good from bad clients.
    (RTFM X11(1), xhost(1), xauth(1).) By default, external clients
    do _not_ have access to an X server. "Listening on external interfaces"
    is not the same as "accepting any external connection". An important
    difference you fail to make in your observation.

    This is in stark contrast to, say, SMTP, a protocol which by default
    is willing to talk with anybody. (Or rather: used to do so. Email
    submissions are now confined to local scope with the (recent) split
    between MTA vs. SMP processes.)

                                                            Martin Neitzel

    PS: FWIW, I'm rather surpised of the "vi" mentioning. vi(1) is listening
    to the net? Please tell me more.

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