[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
More information about the mythtv-users
mailing list