[Mailman-Users] Find a smtp server to send out emails

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Dominik Hoffmann writes:

 > P.S.: I have a stinking suspicion that the primary reason for
 > Verizon's is not to combat spam, as stated, but to make it harder
 > for their subscribers to be in a position where switching ISPs is
 > easy, because they already use email addresses not tied to the
 > ISP.

I wouldn't put it past them, but after spending a fair amount of time
on both the DMARC.org list and the IETF DMARC working group list, I
think that Heinlein's Maxim "Never attribute to malice that which can
be adequately explained by stupidity" applies.

To be more sympathetic to the tech staff, I think telco managements
vastly underestimated the cost of moving into the Internet provider
space while overestimating traffic growth (their original business),
and in particular did a very poor job of budgeting for staff.  It was
surprising to me, but few of the ISP people on those lists seemed to
have either the "security mindset" or the "devops mindset".  And
they're understaffed, barely able to keep up with OS upgrades and
integrating new hardware.  They don't have resources -- training and
"on call" workforce -- to keep up with malwares that morph faster than
Biohazard's "T virus".

To me the bottom line is that these days if you want a specific
service that works "for you" rather than "to keep the provider
comfortable", you need to find somebody who provides that service, and
generally you have to pay for it.  I'm not current with prices in the
States any more, but people are quoting $5/mo -- that's two beers a
month here in Japan.  To me that would be well worth it (and while I'm
currently able to use my employer to connect to the Internet, they're
tightening up and centralizing like some of the telco ISPs, so it's a
prospect I've actually thought carefully about -- though I haven't
shelled out yet. ;-)