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Re: Re[6]: pop3 mail problem



On Tue, 9 Jun 1998 12:02:50 -0500 (EST), Michael Roark wrote:

>collect: premature EOM: connection reset by dial31.planters.net

>collect: I/O error on connection from dial31.planters.net

>One follows the other without fail. Should I try cucipop instead?

    Well, that depends.  I'm not sure if cucipop impliments the nonstandard
POP send protocol.  I do believe that is proprietary to qpopper and not part
of the formal RFC.  Of course, I don't have them handy to confirm, so take
that all with a mild grain of salt.

    On the one hand, that error is there.  On the other, it does allow users
to send mail via pop.  This means that the users must authenticate themselves
and provides means for users who are on a different connection to get around
the relay blocks most ISPs put in place to prevent unwanted UCE runs from
spammers.  

    It sounds like a security hole but it there are legit uses to it.  Some
examples that I use on a daily basis:

1: I have a read-only pop account.  To send mail out I've got to have my own
connection.  Since this is a semiprivate account I don't want to relay
through my machine.  I send it out through my secondary ISP's qpopper using
the pop send feature.

2: I have two different ISPs.  I work for one but live outside their calling
area so I must get service from another.  When at work mail comes from one
domain, from home the other.  To get around the relay security of my home ISP
while at work I, again, use their qpopper pop send feature.

    I just want to explain that because it is part of the decision.  If
people are using that feature for legitimate reasons and if you switch to
cucipop which, in all likelihood, does not have that feature, you may be
angering some people who will no longer have the ability to send that they
otherwise would have.

    It is a trade off.  In your case, I dunno what to say.  However, in the
case where I responded against qpopper it was to a person who wanted a pop
server for his wife who had an SMTP path out.  In that case, there are no
considerations for that one feature and I would wholeheartedly recommend
cucipop.

    Sounds odd that I get so much distrust from a bug in a feature that
doesn't exist, but I think there is logic in it somewhere.  ;)


-- 
             Steve C. Lamb             | Opinions expressed by me are not my
    http://www.calweb.com/~morpheus    | employer's.  They hired me for my
             ICQ: 5107343              | skills and labor, not my opinions!
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