[SpamCop-List] Re: OT SPF is harmful. Adopt it

[Philip Homburg]

In article <cjgfkr$spb$1 at news.spamcop.net>,
Mike Easter <MikeE at ster.invalid> wrote:
>Philip Homburg wrote:
>> Mike Easter
>
>>> Reject all msgs from MTAs without PTR, and/or without a HELO
>>> hostname in DNS.  If a business MTA cannot get those two
>>> butt-simple, ancient params correct, they have no business sending
>>> to our MXs.
>
>> When comes it spam, what benefit does it have to force China and
>> Korea to get reverse DNS right?
>
>The 'issue' behind the above is about getting some compliance and
>behavior;  it isn't a new spamfilter.  It is a significant existing RFC
>which is being ignored and shouldn't be.  Neither should there be
>noncompliant server trace lines, for example.

When it comes to e-mail and when there are no (significant) security
issues, I stick the "Be liberal in what you accept, and conservative in
what you send" motto.

>> I get most spam from the US where zombies tend to have proper reverse
>> DNS entries.
>
>Yes, but those aren't even MTAs.  

When they are sending spam they are MTAs. Maybe not official MTAs according to
the official owner of the box, but MTAs none the less.

>They are dynamics.  

RFC-2821 doesn't say anything about dynamic addresses. I don't think
there any official RFC that says something about dynamic addresses. Dynamic
addresses is are just a local policy issue.

>This whole business or thread is about 'rules' or structure for smtp.  It
>isn't about spamfilters.

Rules that have no technical justification are just needless complications.
Having a proper reverse DNS is very nice for system administrators, but
that is about it. Most of the time when I want to know something about
an address, I do a whois lookup anyway.


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