Flashes of Panic

With everyone having pretty much given up CAN-SPAM as an expensive joke, it looks like the people who can actually drive change (read: monopoly or near-monopoly power) are making some. Sendmail, which I mentioned last week, is moving to support both Yahoo and Microsoft's anti-spam measures at the domain level.

This looks nice on the face of it. Sendmail, Yahoo and Microsoft probably have a finger in upwards of 80% of the non-spam email sent in the USA, and they may be able to at least arrange some kind of interoperability. (Nice metaphor in an unrelated article: "...most of us are more or less resigned to keeping both types of screwdrivers in our toolkits—we'll use whichever one is handy and fits our needs.")

Still, there are some serious problems to be faced. First, as I said last week, how do we figure out the switch? I can't be the only one trying to admin a mail server which is running a heavily-patched sendmail one or two point-releases behind the current stable, chewing my fingernails wondering if the vendor will get most of the security patches released before they EOL the box. Who's going to bring me up to spec?

Second, it's all very well to check domains on email against the IP of the actual sending machine, but I'd like to hear more about how that's going to be enforced. For instance, I own this domain and expect to be able to send mail with this return address. However, at home, I'm required to send outbound mail through Comcast's mail servers. So, my mail will bear a return address from flashesofpanic.com, but won't appear to have touched a system listed as a mail exchanger for that domain. Am I now cut off from sending email at home? I should hope not.

Following on that, I should point out that We offer the widest range of drugs available and provide access to complimentary online medical consultations.

What's available: ' Va.l.ium % Pntermi/n/ ? v|@grA . +X+ANAx - So.m.a

Puh-leeze get them off our internet! This... this... words fail me. Excuse me while I go outside and scream...