You have just explained why you are a SysAdmin and not a business operator. The issue is not that closing them is difficult. The issue is that it will ALSO close down a legitimate business.
-----Original Message----- From: owner-nanog@merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog@merit.edu]On Behalf Of Robert Gash Sent: Monday, November 22, 1999 12:45 PM To: Dean Anderson Cc: nanog@merit.edu Subject: Re: ARIN whois
Dean, perhaps I am not fully understanding your logic behind not closing your relays. I have been a systems administrator for 4 years and I have not ever found an application where I needed to leave my SMTP relays open to the world. I do not doubt that you have legitimate business purposes in mind when opening your relay, but at some point you must decide that legal action will be too slow to fix anything and that it might be a good time to close your relays to aleviate other problems. Simply saying "I shouldn't need locks on my doors because everyone should be honest and never come into my house without my permission," dosen't cut it in this world, and I am quite sure that you have locks on every portal to your house, so why should your SMTP server be any different? Taking such a stance and refusing to close your relays is simply a foolish decision.