Re: SMTP and multicasting

At 06.09 -0500 04-02-04, Hector Santos wrote:
>Excuse me if I am mis-reading you here, but in most systems as long as you
>(sender) is authenticated the distributed list can be dispersed.  Isn't this
>is how a mailing list basically works?  And if one address sent to a
>downlink (across the atlantic for example),  couldn't that address be
>expanded again at the point?

For a mailing list, multiple transmissions across the oceans
can be avoided by having sublists in each continent. But
setting that up can be complex. There are also meessages
with multiple recipients which are not sent via mailing lists.

SMTP allows one copy of a message to be sent across the
oceans, to a single MTA in each continent which then
splits the message to multiple recipients on that continent.

This was common practice until the middle of 1990's,
when all MTA owners were forced to prohibit such split
because the facility was misused by spammers.

If we can find some way to stop spammers from misusing
this facility, a new e-mail system could open up this
useful facility of SMTP again.
-- 
Jacob Palme <[email protected]> (Stockholm University and KTH)
for more info see URL: http://www.dsv.su.se/jpalme/