September 17, 2004 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — AOL (aol.com) is the latest Internet service provider to drop support for the Sender ID framework, according to a report by Internetnews.com, though some Web hosting and Internet service providers have expressed their suport for the Microsoft-backed (microsoft.com) approach.
Sender ID is an anti-spam protocol aimed at thwarting email spoofing. Sender ID requires DNS records to be published by outbound mail servers. It verifies that each email message originates from the Internet domain it claims to come from based on the sender’s server IP address. The technology combines Microsoft’s former Caller ID with Sender Policy Framework, a protocol written by Meng Weng Wong.
In July, Microsoft submitted Sender ID to the Internet Engineering Task Force for consideration as an industry standard. At the time, AOL was supportive, but due to concerns raised by the IETF has changed its position, the report said.
An AOL spokesperson reportedly said the company’s concerns centered around technical limitations such as Sender ID’s lack of fully backward-compatibility with the original SPF. AOL also cited the concerns of the open source community, which disagrees with Microsoft’s Sender ID licensing requirements and refusal to disclose specifics about the technology.
AOL is not giving up on email authentication entirely. The company said it will carry on with its deployment of Sender Policy Framework and continue testing other authentication technologies.
Microsoft did not comment, the report said.
Apache rejected Sender ID earlier this month. Web host Go Daddy recently integrated Sender ID.
