Re: Hotmail's Junk filter gets even worse

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On Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:42:05 -0700, Anonymous wrote:

The whole point of the sender ID framework was that outgoing mail that used
it was supposed to have its sender authenticated. Microsoft unilaterally
created this standard, and expected other email providers to join them. But
now, legitimate Hotmail messages from people I know are getting flagged as
junk (as are some legitimate non-Hotmail messages).

Not quite. The "Sender ID Framework" is just a variation on the "Sender
Policy Framework". The point of which is to avoid forgery of domains in
email. Microsoft has a site for their "Sender ID Framework", from which I
quote:

| Sender ID validates the origin of e-mail messages by verifying the IP
| address of the sender against the alleged owner of the sending domain.

You can find more here:

http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/safety/technologies/senderid/default.mspx

This is little different from the way that "Sender Policy Framework" works,
as described here:

http://www.openspf.org/

The point of each is to match the sender domain of an email with a database
of IP addresses which are "permitted senders" for the domain. Ironically,
the earliest, and most prolific, adopters of SPF were spammers!

But there is nothing about "authentication" of the sender, only checking a
database to see if the source IP address of a message is listed as a
permitted IP address. This, of course, breaks one fairly important feature
of SMTP email: Autorized use of an email address from a different source
than the provider's IP network. I.e., I have an account,
<%User_ID%@xxxxxxxxxxx>. I am authorized to send from that account. The SMTP
system allows me to send email through 'mail.pacbell.net' using
<%User_ID%@xxxxxxxxxxx>. However, SPF, and Sender ID Framework, both break
that because the source IP address for 'flpi0nn.prodigy.net', the MTAs
handling email for 'mail.pacbell.net', are ***NOT*** listed a "permitted" by
the 'hotmail.com' domain records. The only way to avoid a "failure" at the
receiving mail host is to use only Hotmail message submission servers to
handle 'hotmail.com' email.

--
Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum
.