NormanS
Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
 ·Pacific Bell - SBC
edit:
May 10th, @04:19PM
| reply to banditws6
Re: Comcat Port Forward
said by banditws6  :Running a mail server on a residential connection is a big risk. If hacked, it could pose a significant spam threat. I realize you are the sole authorized user of the server and you're not offering it to others, but it's still not something I would do. Just having a high speed Internet connection is a big risk. Far more Comcast subscribers are infected with spamming 'bots than running compromised servers.
I am running an MTA on my DSL connection. Fortunately, the at&t Yahoo! HSI (ATTIS, not ATTW, or FastAccess) TOS is more liberal. I'd jump over to DSL Extreme, or Sonic, or Speakasy if I had to.
Other than mail and web servers, if you had been doing anything else with open ports, Comcast probably would look the other way. If you have to forward a port for some online game or voice chat app, for example, I doubt they're going to make a stink unless they really, really want to lose a customer for no practical reason.
Or BitTorrrent...Comcast is fussy about that.
If you need to host your own mail server for some business-critical reason, perhaps you could rent a server at a datacenter. Does Comcast Business Class allow you to run a mail server or some such thing? Knowing them, probably not.
If I was dependent on running a mail server for business, I'd do it from a business class AT&T account. I could get a /29 of IP addresses, and delegation of DNS for the block.
Securing a mail server against abuse is no more difficult than securing a W-LAN against abuse.
P.S. Given the price on an AT&T 5-IP addess plan, and the price on a Comcast Internet account, if I could justify spending that amount of money on the Internet, I'd pick the multiple static IP addresses at 3Mb over the single dynamic IP address at 8Mb (soon to be 16Mb?), given how restrictive the Comcast "Terms of Use" are, as compared with the at&t Yahoo! HSI TOS/AUP.
--
Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum |
