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The Case for Rebuilding The Internet From Scratch
dotnothing writes "I just caught a column on a security site advocating for a total start from scratch as far as certain internet protocols like SMTP. It's an interesting idea and there are some ideas on how to conduct the transition... if everyone would agree on something like this it would definitely reduce the spam (among other things)."
... sorry, not happening. Hell, we can't even push out v6, let alone start from scratch. Sure, these organic growths (i'm talking bout the internet) may seem inefficient and disorderly, but anyone in theorectical math knows that such systems have an awkard effecientcy. Similar to the buses in Mexico (they don't have a single entity controling them, like the US does), the internet grows from several competing interests, and often seems chaotic and ineffective. Yet, studies show that the buses in mexico are several fold more effecient than the regulated from the start ones here in the states. Just some food for thought.
(someday, i will make FP)
YOU SUCK BALLS!
A subjective summary of the column:
- Scrapping the Internet is a good idea because spammers have used email to annoy everyone.
- Under this new, hypothetical email system, Verisign would require everyone to buy a secure ID to ensure they are who their messages say they are.
- The columnist is willing to spend more money and lose his privacy in exchange for these conveniences, so we should be, too.
Please. The problem with spammers isn't because SMTP is so weak. The primary cause of the modern deluge of spam is unsecured email servers around the world, allowing senders to spoof their identity and auto-email anyone they happen to have an address for. And no new system, no matter how rigidly secured, will make up for admins who don't do their job; if it did, it would be prohibitively expensive or complicated and thus be impossible to implement as widely as email is now.
The writer, Larry Seltzer, complains about spammers abusing his account, and yet his online publisher sticks a link to his email address right at the bottom of everything he writes. I would suggest that if he wants to reduce the flow of junk to his inbox, he start with his own managers.
Agree. Ain't gonna happen. The major isp's do a tremendous job keeping most of the spam out of our mailbox. For the few that slip through, there are various filtering programs like SpamAssassin that can help.
e 921.zip
For those interested in higher accuracy and more speed, you can write your own filtering program that analyzes the headers and responds to your unique name and email address.
I just uploaded my version written in Borland Pascal running in DOS.
My spam program filters valid messages at up to 3,000 msg/sec, detects spam messages and decodes base64 at 200 to 300 msg/sec, and has no false positives or false negatives.
The nice thing is it is easy to update when spammers change their tactics. If you are interested in seeing how I do it, download the source file at
http://www3.sympatico.ca/add.automation/misc/spa2
Best Regards,
Mike Monett
(Who tried to re-register but cannot get SlashDot to remember my name and password:)