[mythtv-users] Re: Comcast to drop analog cable

Rod Smith mythtv at rodsbooks.com
Wed Jun 25 03:09:21 UTC 2008


On Tuesday 24 June 2008 08:54:33 pm David Brodbeck wrote:
> Brian Wood wrote:
> > A lot of ISPs, especially the cable companies, block port 25 on
> > residential accounts. This is not so much to prevent your running a mail
> > server as it is to render consumer boxes unattractive to spammers since
> > even if they can hack into the machine they can't use it to send mail.
>
> It's not very smart on their part if that's the goal.  Blocking port 25
> *inbound* does nothing to stop *outgoing* spam.

FWIW, my current ISP (Cox) blocks outgoing port-25 traffic. I *THINK* they 
block incoming port-25 traffic, too, but I'm not 100% positive of that. (I 
vaguely recall testing it in the past, but that was probably 2-6 years ago.)

Personally, I find this slightly annoying, since their mail server 
occasionally takes it into its head to bounce my legitimate outgoing mail for 
no obvious reason with a "relaying denied" message. If I send it again a 
while later, it usually goes through. Of course, given that receivers often 
blacklist direct connections from residential ISPs, it'd probably be worse if 
I were to try to send directly these days, but that doesn't make Cox's 
occasional screwup any less annoying. Other than this, Cox has been pretty 
reliable.

> I currently have DSL from Speakeasy.  I have a static IP with no ports
> blocked, but I go through their mail servers for outgoing mail anyway.
...
> I pay about $60/month, more than I was paying Comcast, but the service
> is much more reliable and the support is better.

I had Speakeasy for a while, about 7-8 years ago. At that time, I ran my own 
domain from my DSL account (mail and Web server). I only dropped Speakeasy 
because I moved to an area they didn't serve. (They may offer service where I 
live now, though; I haven't checked.) Speakeasy was certainly more friendly 
to Linux, and to tech-savvy customers generally, than any other ISP with 
which I've dealt. Despite the price, I'll certainly consider switching to 
them the next time I move, or if Cox's service declines.

-- 
Rod Smith


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