On (30 Nov 02) Jerry Schwartz wrote to Frank Vest...

Hello Jerry,

 FV> Even internet e-mail requires passwords... and for the same reasons.
 JS> Not in the same sense the FidoNet uses them. Individual user accounts

I sit corrected. I know that I have to give a password to receive my
e-mail. The inner workings of smtp and such are still a little be
"greek" to me. :-)

 FV> Netmail, in and of itself, is not secure. I can generally send a
 FV> Netmail (dial-up or IP, assuming you have both) to you even though I
 FV> don't have a password with me. If I attach a mail bundle to that
 FV> message, your tosser might just toss it without question (depending
 FV> on your setup). :-)

 JS> That's true, and the simplest way of bombing someone's system is to
 JS> send them an archived bundle that expands to a few gigabytes of
 JS> zeroes.

I've not had that happen, but years ago as a "newbie" I did receive a
mail bundle that wasn't for me. I don't know if this was intentional,
but my tosser was setup for secure tossing and the bundle was tossed
to the bit bucket.

Still, in an IP connection with Fidonet, isn't this a direct
connection if my system "calls" your system? I mean, we would be port
to port with only our two ISPs in between... much the same as crash
mail? As long as the passwords (security) are in place, the mail is
secure... at least as much as is possible?


Frank

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/flv
http://biseonline.com/r19

... Think you're confused?  Wait till I explain it.

--- PPoint 3.01