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June 13, 2005
Email Submission Between Independent Networks
Dave Crocker, AOL's Carl Hutzler, Qualcomm's Peter Resnick, Earthlink's Robert Sanders and Eric Allman for Sendmail, Inc. have published the fourth draft of an Internet Draft on Email Submission Between Independent Networks with the clear intention of the document attaining best common practice (BCP) status.
Email has become a popular distribution service for a variety of socially unacceptable, mass-effect purposes. The most obvious ones include spam and worms. This note recommends conventions for the operation of email submission and transport services between independent operators, such as enterprises and Internet Service Providers. Its goal is to improve lines of accountability for controlling abusive uses of the Internet mail service. Consequently the document offers recommendations for constructive operational policies between independent operators of email transmission services.
They make clear that spam is a social problem, but that certain best practices can and should be adopted to minimize the effects of such. They recommend that servers minimize outscatter and unexamined relaying and require authentication. They avoid the port 25 blocking issue by sidestepping to the "require port 587 for submission" argument, which although it may minimize the effects of mail relayed through mail servers, does nothing about the zombie proxy problem.
Posted by schampeo at June 13, 2005 5:29 PM