[lug] SMTP delivery: No route to host

[Kirk Rafferty]

On Mon, Nov 25, 2002 at 04:46:42PM -0700, Justin-lists wrote:
> It's pretty obvious that this is just what they are doing, blocking
> all smtp traffic but the traffic that directed to their own smtp
> server...

I know that many technical people *hate* this policy, where an ISP
blocks all outbound SMTP traffic except to their mailserver.  However,
as the owner of a local ISP, let me tell you why this is currently a
good idea. (I say currently, because spam is going away someday, right?
Right..?)

ISPs are coming under heavier and heavier fire regarding spam.  It is
at epedemic proportions.  Over 1/2 of my daily email is spam, and I think
I read somewhere that spam accounts for almost 20% of email traffic on
the internet now.

This is one of the things that's being done about it.  Over 99% of my
customer base (and I imagine most ISPs) have absolutely no reason to be
sending email through somebody else's SMTP server.  For the under 1% of
my customers who have a legitimate need, I make provisions to allow them
to relay through their work server, or wherever.  (in fact, if someone
is clueful enough to make the request, and provide the IP addresses
they need to relay through, I almost always just add the access rule.)
But for the vast majority of users, they don't even want to know what an
SMTP server is.  They just want to send and receive email.  It just makes
sense to close down SMTP when over 99% of your customers aren't affected.
(especially when you're willing to make concessions for the other < 1%.)
We (as users) complain about it, but we also get less spam because of it.
Most spam is still sent through dialup networks.  I imagine if all the
major dialup networks adopted SMTP port blocking, spam volume would
plummet. (./~ ...You might saaaaay I'm a dreamer... ./~)

I know it's the "geek" thing to do, to run your own mailserver and make
your own damn connections.  But even amongst the geek crowd, very few
of us have a legitimate need to do so.  It would be nice if we could, but
in this case, the benefits of the many really do outweigh those of the
few.

If you're tired of spam, you'll realize that this is a good thing.
And if you *really* want to send email directly to your email server at
work, and your ISP won't let you through, just set up an SMTP server at
work to listen on port 80 or 23 or something, and relay out that port. :)

-k