RE: ISP outbound SMTP filtering

 
>> It is, nevertheless, the correct thing to do.  Laziness does 
>> not absolve anyone of their responsibility as an ISP.  Your 
>> laziness is my spam problem.  Once you block/redirect port 
>> 25, you can initiate rate limiting on your mail server to 
>> prevent zombies from getting any  
>> appreciable throughput thereby minimizing the risk of being RBL'd.   
>> If you're going to re-educate all of your users, you should 
>> move them to 587 in the process..

I can see the point of this, but I must agree.  Having been one of those
people who ran a mail server from a business class DSL line who had to
fight for many weeks to get my isp to stop filtering all traffic on port
25 I my network very simply.  It's in the contract you sign.  I filter
nothing, unless specifically requested to do so.  I state that it is
your responsibility to make sure that your machine is not a menace to my
business.  I do have guides available to all my customers on how to make
sure their machine is not spewing filth, and I have in there to contact
me if you have questions.  I help people learn when they compensate for
my time.  I have said that if your computer begins to affect my network,
I will let you know.  After your first warning you have 48 hours to
correct the situation, or I will disable your service until it is fixed.
I have had to do this once, and the customer didn't fight me on it at
all.

> Apparantly you have a different class of customer than I do..  the
> customers I have give me money and they expect me to run things the
way
> they pay me to.  Apparantly your customers don't pay you or you have
no
> obligation to them.  

Like I stated, having fought with my first ISP who was filtering
outbound and incoming traffic, I find it appalling that anyone would
suggest this.  I am all about teaching people and helping people learn.
I would rather run the slight risk that a client could become host to
zombie that spews out thousands of messages a minute, than have a client
come to me and say "hey why is such and such port filtered."  I offer
the filter if they want it, though I do run a smaller network than what
most of the contributing members of this list do so it is more plausible
for me to do filtering on request.  

> If I were your customer and you tried to tell me that a standard email
> client will not work on your ISP my response would be to find another
> ISP.  

Completely agree.  If my current ISP did that and refused to resolve it
within 72 hours, by then it would be costing me a serious amount of
business.  I LIVE by email, and sadly would be completely lost without
it.  I think as net admins its our job to make things easy for the
client.  Not  to put on our holier than thou cap and try to protect the
world from our clients who don't know what they are doing.  Again im
huge on the education thing, so teach them the value of a good secure
password, teach them not to click on banner ads to "remove spyware",
teach them not to open unsafe attachments and the value of a current
anti-virus subscription (or equivalent free client).   


> If I were your customer and you tried to tell me I could only send a
> limited number of email messages over time my response would be to
find
> another ISP.

My personal domain is very busy considering there are 3 people with
email accounts.  According to my mail server there were 508 successfully
authenticated messages sent yesterday, and 1126 received.  If my isp
said "oh sorry you can only send or receive 500 messages a day I would
be furious.  

> I am happy you are my competition. I will enjoy the added business.

^5 and I agree.

Sorry this dragged on so long, this is just something I feel strongly
about.

_______________________________________________
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