The Big VSNL Roadblock

Spamming is bad - says VSNL. However, it is now offereing the same SMTP service at an exorbitant cost, which it had blocked in an attempt to stop spamming.

This is how VSNL recently announced the blocking of SMTP mail relay services on their servers:

VSNL in its endeavor to provide you world-class Internet services, is continously upgrading and enhancing its service offerings. In this effort VSNL has recently implemented anti-spamming policies in tis server. This has been done in order to reduce the number of jnk mails so far being reveived by the users. Some of the steps in this direction are:

1. Restricting maximum number of recipients per mail to 15. In any mail, users can define maximum of 15 combined users in To, Cc and Bcc grids.
2. Dial-up users will be able to send mails only using VSNL email ID and dialing VSNL number only.

Sounds great in the first reading. But what it did to all the VSNL users in one stroke across the country recently? In August, it caused nothing less than a complete breakdown of the e-mail system for most corporate users.

First of all, the claim that VSNL is implementing an anti-spamming policy looks like a lane excuse for blocking the 



SMTP mail relay service that was available till date.

The real reason is the availiability of unofficially compiled lists of VSNL users to those who want to spam them with junk mail.

Those who have these mailing lists can continue with bulk mailing through any other service provider. The restriction of 15 recipients is of no practical value because the real spammers don't use CC and BCC for theri bulk mailing.

Battering -ram tactics

This policy decision affected majority of serious corporate users who use e-mail addresses with their own domain names.

They use their VSNL account only to download their POP3 mail from their webserver, and to send outgoing mail through e-mail client softwares like Outlook Express via VSNL's SMTP mail relay service. It was a simple and efficient arrangement for everyone.

To understand what this is all about, let us see what the SMTP mail relay service does. SMTP is the acronym for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.

It is as simple as that and used for sending the outgoing mail on the Internet. This protocol allows you to send outgoing mai to

the recipients in the To, CC and BCC fields of your e-mail message.

You can also use any e-mail address in the From field of your e-mail message. For example, even if you have connected to the Internet using a VSNL account like mailto:jitubhai@vsnl.com, you can send e-mail with an outgoing address like

jitu@jitucomputers.com.

Now, with the new policy, Jitubhai cannot use his e-mail address at the jitucomputers.com. He can use only the mailto:jitubhai@vsnl.com e-mail address in the From field of his e-mails.

If the jitucomputers.com domain has multiple e-mail users, they can no longer use the VSNL account to send out their e-mails.

That is punishing many serious users for the crimes of a few spammers! Another complaint these corporate users have about the VSNL policy is that they were not informed in advance and given enough time to make alternate arrangements.






Why v-mail?

VSNL does offer an alternate facility called v-mail, at an exorbitant cost. A quick look at the tariff plans indicates that you will have to shell out an additional one-time setup cost as well as yearly rental for e-mail boxes in multiples of 10 e-mail boxes.

The exact amounts have not been indicated here, because tariffs may have changed by the time this article appears in print. You can check out the current prices from the VSNL web site.

If you opt for this package, you can use the VSNL SMTP server to relay your e-mails using your own domain name in the Form field.

Further, the communication from VSNL about the v-mail service says "Alternatively you may subscribe to VSNL's recently launched V-mail services. This lets you send unlimited mails using your own domain name."

This means you are free to spam others with unlimited e-mails if you are ready to pay for it. Long live the anti-spamming policies!

VSNL, another university?

Many low cost hosting services, which are used by Indian web sites do not provide SMTP service on their servers.

Their packages include only the web hosting and POP3 mailboxes for receiving e-mails. Corporates using such web hosting packages are most affected by the new VSNL policy.

University servers all over world have the SMTP relay services blocked on their servers. But these servers are not commercial servers and universities are not commercial ISPs.

Students and staff are not supposed to use the e-mail facility to relay mails with another domain name in the From field.

They are all individual e-mail users with a single e-mail ID, so this restriction does not pose a problem for them.

When VSNL puts the same restrictions on its subscribers, those who need to use multiple e-mail IDs get into problems. A serious problem indeed. So, what's the solution?

Where do we go from here

The solutions, as of today is extremely simple! Use an Internet dial-up connection from othe ISPs who have not blocked their SMTP mail-relay services. With this, your e-mail system continues to work as before, with just a small change in the configuration of your e-mail client software.

The outgoing SMTP mail server address now needs to be changed from smtp.roltanet.com or some such address specified by your new ISP.

The solution looks very simple today. But there are a few questions, which need answers. Will all other ISP continue to provide SMTP mail relay services to their subscribers in the future? Can VSNL forcibly block other ISP's SMTP relay services?

No one can predict the future, but as long as the other ISP services have the SMTP mail-relay faciltiy ope to their subscribers, there is no reason to panic. Otherwise, you may have to look for a hosting package that provides SMTP services in addition to the POP3 mailboxes.

If such a package is cheaper than VSNL's v-mail, you may opt for the new hosting package -- if it is costlier, you can always go back to good old VSNL for your e-mail requirements

Ashok Dongre is an advertising and marketing professional, specializing in Internet/Intranet strategies and web site design.