History and Technology
Until the 1990s being an open relay was a common configuration for a mail server and was often the default on UNIX systems at installation. This was due, in part, to the traditional store-and-forward method of getting e-mail to its destination. E-mail was passed from computer to computer (through and beyond the Internet) via modems on telephone lines. For many early networks, such as UUCPNET, FidoNet and BITNET, lists of machines that were open relays were a core part of those networks. Filtering and speed of e-mail delivery were not priorities at that time and in any case the government and educational servers which started the Internet were covered by a federal edict forbidding the transfer of commercial messages.
Read more about this topic: Open Mail Relay
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