[ale] Should SMTP die?

[Dan Newcombe]

On Fri, 12 Sep 2003, Jim Philips wrote:
> Do we need a replacement for SMTP? I was wondering what this group thinks.

I think the article touched on it - there are already some things in
ESMTP, such as SMTP_AUTH, which would help a lot.  However it is not
widespread.  If you can't get something that is already there to be wide
spread, how would we be able to get a replacement widespread?

As much as I like the idea of a free, unblocked internet, perhaps
Earthlink has it right somewhat...at least a bit ago port 25 traffic could
not leave their network...if you were sending e-mail, you had to use their
smtp servers.  Combine that with SMTP_AUTH, and you in theory only have
legit e-mail leaving their network (okay...a spammer could get an
earthlink account, but that is not their usual modus operandi.)

It'll be an uphill battle because of the large amount of things to
change...it'd be like trying to redo the road network for cars twice as
wide (oh...wait we have those now don't we?)