[Sussex] Secure connections

[Nico Kadel-Garcia]

John Crowhurst wrote:
> On Mon, January 7, 2008 21:37, Desmond Armstrong wrote:
>   
>> Now when I send email it works as previously and does accept my normal
>> format so this is sent from my gmail address using Tiscali smtp.
>> Was a glitch in their normal operation so my previous expectations do
>> work again.
>>
>> In the meantime I did try to set up a smtp.googlemail.com server but
>> have been unable to make it work. If anybody knows how to use the
>> smtp.googlemail.com server I would like to know. I followed the
>> instructions on Googlemail precisely but without success.
>>     
>
> ISPs in an attempt to stop spammers have been implementing ways to make
> you use their SMTP services. They also use this as a form of control. If
> you are running a mail server outside of Orange, then set it to listen on
> port 2525 as Orange only block port 25.
>
> You may find Tiscali is doing the same port blocking, they are probably
> blocking the secure ports too so googlemail won't work neither.
>   
Whoa! It's not just spammers! Any number of email worms have traveled 
from people's unsecured systems to other people's unsecured systems. By 
instituting border guards, this helps contain their spread. Spam, 
especially via zombified machines, is a big issue, but the the email 
worm problem is potentially even more destructive and helps justify this 
kind of creation of a bottleneck.

 From my spam hunting hobby work for years, very, very few block 
SMTPAUTH traffic over port 587. Blocking port 25 both outbound and 
inbound except to the carefully managed ISP mail servers is helpful, and 
in a bunch of places back in the USA you need to buy a corporate ISP 
service in order to run your own mail server with outside access. It's 
not that they don't love us, but so many people have such badly secured 
machine that it actually creates a big hazard for their remaining 
customers to leave the ports open. And dealing with the resulting 
ranting, hate mail, worm traffic, etc. are all burdens.

I remember when the Morris Worm hit, back in 1988: the lessons learned 
then still apply.