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What's So Bad about e-Mail Forwarding?

Posted by Cliff on from the as-long-as-you're-not-an-open-relay dept.

westfirst asks: "I run a few small domains on a co-lo server. Many of the customers forward their mail from these domains to their home accounts and a surprisingly large number use Road Runner at home. This weekend, Road Runner started blocking all mail from the co-lo farm. The co-lo manager who runs the block of IP addresses seems to feel that this is 'within Road Runner's rights'. They didn't warn anyone and don't seem to be doing much to get the service going again. One customer tells me that, 'Road Runner doesn't accept forwarded mail. They said they finally caught me.' So what's so bad about forwarded mail? Does Road Runner want everyone to use their email services to get people locked into their accounts? Or is this just a last ditch effort to stop the Spamasaurus devouring the net?" This is confusing to me. If none of the users complained about mail from the co-lo, what right does Road Runner have in blocking legal mail for its users? All e-mail is based on forwarding. You break forwarding, and you break SMTP. It's open-relays that are the problem, not anyone who relays. There is a difference here. This behavior is extremely shady to me. I have no problem with ISPs blocking traffic from a location, but if an ISP has cause to do that, then they should say so. What do you think?

4 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. several things.... by jeffy124 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    are the customers .forward'ing their mail to @rr.com addresses? if so I think there's certainly somehting RR isnt saying.

    Also, how can it be determined that an email was .forward'ed? They could check the To/Cc fields for @rr addresses, but then what about mailing lists like bugtraq or someone Bcc'ing you? Are RR customers not permitted to sign up to mailing lists or receive Bcc email?

    Aside from all that, have you been blacklisted?

    --
    The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
  2. what's left in the header after you forward it? by BroadbandBradley · · Score: 3, Insightful

    if RR can't trace it back to the originating domain , and some of the mail is unwanted, they're not left with any other options. Try having your mail system leave more details in the header and that might solve the problem.

    overall, why don't people just get a pop account for your domain? this forwarding stuff is for the ultra cheap who didn't want to shell out just a few extra bucks for pop service.

    --
    "The Most Fun Possible on 4 wheels" is at SunBuggy in Las Vegas
    1. Re:what's left in the header after you forward it? by DouglasA · · Score: 3, Insightful

      this forwarding stuff is for the ultra cheap who didn't want to shell out just a few extra bucks for pop service.

      Actually, I host a few domains for friends/family who have e-mail from @theirdomain.com forwarded to their POP boxes. The average user cannot and will not deal with multiple POP boxes. Their ISP sets them up with an e-mail address, provides all the info they need, and that's what they use. If they want to have an @theirdomain.com address, they do not want it to be a hassle. Hence, I simply set up an alias that forwards mail from their domain to the box they're already using.

      It's not about cost (they'd pay if I asked them to), it's about ease of use. You and I may know how to configure a POP mailbox, and how to use multiple mailboxes, but your average surfer does not.

  3. They have the right, but do they have the reason? by rufusdufus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The reason everyone is confused about this story is that it lacks enough information to make judgements about the issue.

    Clearly RR has the right to block email to their servers. If you are their customer and don't like it, you can cancel.

    Whats unclear is if RR has a *reason* to block this email. Is it possible that the administrator is just ignorant and uninformed? Possible, but not likely. Something had to prompt the guy to get off his butt and take action; even if he believes forwarded mail is harmful in some way, he would still have to find out about it.

    The author is going to have to call up RR and get them to explain their actions. My best guess is that spammers were abusing his service, someone complained, so the administrator took action.