Will ISP's ever start offering authenticated SMTP service? Currently, you can use the SMTP server of an ISP if you have an IP address that is owned by that ISP. What's going to happen if WiFi networks become popular? As you move from one WiFi network to another, how can you use an SMTP server? There are three possibilities: (1) You use the same SMTP server and authenticate yourself to the server each time. (2) There is a standard way to discover the SMTP server on a WiFi network, and you use the SMTP server provided by the WiFi network to send mail. (3) Your computer uses the DNS to find the SMTP server of the mail's recipient and sends it directly. Perhaps there is a fourth possibility: (4) The WiFi network provider intercepts any TCP connection to a destination port 25 (SMTP port) and redirects it to it's own mail server.
I don't see ISPs rushing to offer innovative features to their customers, so I don't expect authenticated SMTP in the near future. And that gets me thinking. Will the business of ISPs eventually become like that of the local phone companies, where there is regulated and unregulated service? The government would require certain minimal service requirements -- the regulated service -- and would allow other add-on features -- the unregulated service. Basic SMTP service would be the regulated service. Authenticated SMTP service at a cost of $3 per month would be the unregulated service.
Posted by Doug Sauder at July 25, 2002 09:57 AM