Subject: Beta Tool RE: DEPLOY: Microsoft SenderID wizard seriously flawed, unusable,

From: "Craig Spiezle" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2004 08:14:09 -0700

The tool is in beta, incorporating use case feedback prior to being
finalized, both on usability as well as creating accurate records.  In
its current state It is intended to demonstrate the ease of creating a
text record and to assist in implementation and deployment once the spec
moves from the draft to proposed state.

On the home page
www.anti-spamtools.org/SenderIDEmailPolicyTool/Default.aspx  this is
called out as below;  

Note: This wizard is in beta and is intended to illustrate what SPF
records will look like and the ease of creating them. We anticipate
possible changes to the final format by the IETF. As such, records are
subject to change until the standard has been finalized and approved. 

If you have other suggestions, including usability please forward your
comments directly to [email-masked].  

Craig Spiezle
Director Industry & Partner Relations
Safety Technology Strategy Group
Microsoft Corporation

-----Original Message-----
From: [email-masked]
[mailto:[email-masked]] On Behalf Of Holm, Mark
Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2004 6:34 AM
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: DEPLOY: microsoft SenderID wizard seriously flawed,
unusable,

I'm the one who pointed out over on spf-discuss that the Microsoft
Sender ID record wizard appears to be broken.

Unlike some others, I don't see it as a sign of conspiricy.  Just a
screwed up piece of programming.  Probably the result of a rush job
based on incomplete or bad information.

The things I noted:

1. The  plain  a  mechanism doesn't work.  If you click the box to get
it, it never appears in the final record.

2.  Both the  a  and  mx  mechanism's encourage the user to put ipv4 or
ipv6 addresses as arguments to the mechanisms.  I understand this,
though not specifically forbidden by the spec., is not good practice.

3.  The wizard prefixes the records with v=spf2.0/pra   I understand
that this syntax is still very much under debate and can not yet be
considered part of the specification.

I'm not an expert.  I may have missed things or misunderstood things,
but I think there is evidence that the wizard needs some healing magic
:)

Mark Holm