COX blocking own users outbound email

[Jeff Kinz]

On Sun, Sep 03, 2006 at 11:36:47AM -0400, Jeffrey Creem wrote:
> Jeff Kinz wrote:
> 
> >A few years ago there were heated discussion about whether or not ISP's
> >should be blocking SMTP traffic (port 25) from dynamically assigned IP
> >addresses.
> >  
> >
> 
> Things have really gotten out of hand. Real messages trapped in spam 
> filters, real spam getting through, port blocking of
> legitmate use....And the spam keeps coming.....I don't know what the 
> right answer is, but it is not the current path that we are on.


The answer is the same as it was years ago.  When a user misbehaves and
their connection provider doesn't take care of it, the other connection
providers cut them off from the internet completely.

It was called "the Internet death penalty" (IDP) and it was only used in
the most dire of circumstances, when the offending ISP refused to take
care of the problem.  Usually the ISP (in those days the ISP were mostly
Colleges and Universities) took care of the problems when other ISP's
contacted them about it.

What has changed since then is the way the money works.  These days ISP's 
have to generate a profit. 

or at least not too much of a loss, as long as their market share is
expanding when using the model "Buying market share by debt-financing",
the model the cable companies have been using for years

In the "old days" a college's IT department had a budget, they spent it.
done.

Is there room for the IDP today?  The ISP's will say no, simply because
such a thing would requires expensive efforts and would impact their
cash flow.  Further it would impact peering contracts and SLA agreements
 where applying the IDP would mean breaking committed, legal contract
terms.  The only way an IDP could work today would be for laws to be put
in place requiring ISP's to enforce it under specific circumstances. 

Given how well legislation is written in general plus how well our
representatives understand the Internet and are able to resist
brainwashing by lobbyists... well, I'm not optimistic that such
legislation would be effective.

As a final issue, those same laws would have to be put in place on a
world wide basis.

Apparently we need a world wide Emperor to fix this.  I am ready to
serve if such a position becomes available.




The ISP's could implement a worldwide IDP policy and enforcement on 
their own but they clearly lack the will to do so. Unsurprising
considering their goal is to make money.



-- 
Jeff Kinz, Emergent Research, Hudson, MA.
Speech Recognition Technology was used to create this e-mail