October 27, 2004 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — According to a report by Internetnews.com, America Online (aol.com) has reversed course and returned to the Microsoft-backed (microsoft.com) Sender ID camp just over a month after it withdrew its support.
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.
Microsoft submitted Sender ID to the Internet Engineering Task Force in July for consideration as an industry standard. At that time, AOL was supportive, but the ISP withdrew its support over technical concerns raised by the IETF.
AOL’s return to Sender ID, said the report, came after Microsoft filed two significant changes to the Sender ID framework with the IETF. Microsoft reportedly altered a patent application to distinguish between Sender ID for email authentication and Sender Policy Framework authentication records. The company also altered the Sender ID framework to make it backward compatible with SPF technology.
