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Downloading software, music, movies and practically anything else is dangerous. It's difficult to tell whether there is a bug in it so you try to find safe sites and forego otherwise attractive downloads.
Email, on the other hand, is assumed to be full of viruses, trojans, keystroke loggers and all
manner of other nasties. These are almost certain to be blocked by a good anti-virus app.
Therefore, it makes sense to utilise one of the most abused and overutilised protocols around; SMTP. When you download something, you do it from inside your email client, subjecting it to scrutiny by your mail security software on the way in.
[link]
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I read Outlook as Cookbook for some reason... would've been
better. |
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that is if you have the patience of the mighty oak, or a 14.4 kbps modem. SMTP is a slow protocol not only due to being designed for small packets but because every server treats STMP like steerage and gives it really low priority. And don't fool yourself, your e-mail program is no better at detecting compressed or otherwise hidden malware than a sieve is at separating gasoline from water. |
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Most secure SMTP filters block all exes. They
know that no matter what, they'll never be able to
find all the obfuscated viruses, and spyware
hidden in the .exe
If you tell your SMTP filter to allow this, it will just
scan it with the same kind of antivirus that you
may have on your desktop
Why not scan it with your own desktop antivirus
in the first place? Because it doesn't catch all the
bad stuff? Neither will the SMTP antivirus.
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Most servers also block large texts and transfers over a set size 2mb-10mb generally and are thus worthless for sending large files. The way in which files are transferred is so inefficient that old servers would let you use FTP to actually download large attachments rather then trying to send them via STMP with it's long negotiation protocols and proclivity to time out. |
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Just so ya know, I didn't vote one way or another on this idea. |
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Remember to use your neutral vote! [=] |
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A title in search of an idea? [-] |
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Nah, I think in puns all of the time. I live on the second nature strip. |
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The idea came to me when Bullguard, my virus scanner, snagged something like 15 bugs yesterday. |
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As an email administrator I'd like to slap you in the teeth. |
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I'm sure you would. Perhaps you'd be better employed developing a better standard of MIME? It's been largely unchanged since about 1982. |
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Remember too, that FTP was used for messaging back in the ARPANET days, in the late 60s and early 70s. People have subverted email to do all sorts of things for which it was never intended, hence the problems of maintaining a working system in the face of growing abuse, with html, rtf and images cluttering up POP and SMTP servers. |
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... happy all the time!<obscure Christian children's music reference> |
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