dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
uniqs
27
56885201 (banned)
Ain't Nothin' But A Hound Dawg
join:2005-05-01
Dawg House

56885201 (banned) to CSampson

Member

to CSampson

Re: Comcast decides to block port 25 IN and OUT with no notice.

said by CSampson :

Yes, it is fair to say "without notice"
In case you missed the great book "hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy" posting notice where nobody can see it or would look...isn't notice at all. I don't read Comcast emails, I read my own emails that I use with my company. However, Comcast has been interfering with our ports for years now and yes, they cut them off entirely without proper notice.

The answer is simple: DOJ Anti-Trust division and FCC need to hear how this affects you, not just that it happens.

For year, net neutrality was discussed in the context of programming, but net vets like me were and should have been pointing out the Port Controls.

If Comcast wants to keep me from "spamming" via Comcast, that's their business. But to keep me from legit mailing via my own server out of their control issues...its wrong.

I think it is fair to say that because you deliberately do not read the emails that your ISP sends to you to notify you of changes to your account/service, you deserve to get whatever "surprises" may come your way.

I have seen this lame "I don't read email from my ISP" excuse more times than I can count. Besides the email that was sent to every customer, Comcast put this information on-line in their help/support pages. Exactly how do you think your ISP is supposed to notify you of account and service changes?

If your own email server is hosted somewhere, you should configure it to allow authenticated mail submission using something other than port 25. If you are running an email server on a Comcast residential account, you should configure it to use Comcast's SMTP server as a smarthost (and of course use port 587 (or port 465 with SSL) for outbound email. For inbound email, you will have to point your MX records to an offsite store and forward service. FWIW, I use the Comcast Business Class SMTP server as a smarthost, and I set my MX records to point to Comcast's hosted Exchange server, and my in-house email server simply polls and downloads the email to the local inboxes. I used to do the same thing with AT&T when they were my ISP, and with Covad before that.

What Comcast is doing for port 25 for residential accounts is what most responsible ISPs have been doing for years. Good luck with your complaint to the FCC and DOJ.

CSampson
@comcast.net

1 edit

CSampson

Anon

"I think it is fair to say that because you deliberately do not read the emails that your ISP sends to you to notify you of changes to your account/service, you deserve to get whatever "surprises" may come your way."

Deliberately,
NO...I will correct your pathetic take real quick:
COMCAST TOOK OVER OUR MARKET
I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR COMCAST. I NEVER ASKED FOR AN EMAIL. I HAVE USED THE SAME EMAIL FOR 15 YEARS.

Comcast has that email and sends me my bills every month.
They never sent this notice to my email...They sent it to an internal email they gave me. "deliberate" means to think about...I do not "deliberate" about reading an email someone gives me that I do not need.

They have my email, they send notifications about service, appointments and bills. They sent no notification of a permanent Port 25 Block. They have instituted their system for the past few years and starting Mar 2, they cut it off entirely without NOTICE.

I run an internet company. I don't arbitrarily give my clients emails they don't know about, don't ask for, then demand they check them for my needs. I use their emails for notification, as do 100% of the companies I use, including Comcast.

Comcast has my regular email and they did not send notice.
56885201 (banned)
Ain't Nothin' But A Hound Dawg
join:2005-05-01
Dawg House

56885201 (banned)

Member

I won't bother to respond to your additional rant about not wanting to read your Comcast email (because you obviously did not do it, and are not going to do it, and will not even consider that if you had done it, you would not have been taken by surprise).

However, I will take one very short sentence from your most recent rant as another example of how your current situation could have been avoided entirely.
said by CSampson :

I run an internet company.

If you are using a Comcast residential account for running a business related email server, you could have easily avoided this problem by simply getting a Comcast Business Class account instead of using a residential account.

Sometimes the simple solutions that are right under your nose are the hardest to see (especially when you don't want to see a particular solution).

owlyn
MVM
join:2004-06-05
Newtown, PA

owlyn to CSampson

MVM

to CSampson
I got the Comcast email, read it, and took the 20 seconds to change the ports for the accounts in my email client. What do you want them to do, call you on the phone? Come to your house? They have to contact you somehow.

tomp
@comcast.net

tomp to 56885201

Anon

to 56885201
Wow, I smell arrogance. I was not notified about the port change. I spent a significant amount of time wondering why what worked yesterday does not work today. Comcast wasted my time and has done so in many other situations. They have a monopoly in my area, we have lost choice in communications providers. Anti monopoly laws were put in place to maintain healthy competition that benefited consumers and promoted innovation. Those days are almost gone if we continue to tolerate this kind of behavior.
56885201 (banned)
Ain't Nothin' But A Hound Dawg
join:2005-05-01
Dawg House

56885201 (banned)

Member

said by tomp :

Wow, I smell arrogance. I was not notified about the port change. I spent a significant amount of time wondering why what worked yesterday does not work today. Comcast wasted my time and has done so in many other situations. They have a monopoly in my area, we have lost choice in communications providers. Anti monopoly laws were put in place to maintain healthy competition that benefited consumers and promoted innovation. Those days are almost gone if we continue to tolerate this kind of behavior.

Hmm, shall I tell you what I smell?

Comcast sent a notification email to subscribers; there have been other posters in this thread who have verified that (even if you don't believe me). I have no way of knowing if your email was eaten by a spam blocker or simply ignored, but nonetheless, the notification email was sent.

Even if there had been no email notification, port 25 for residential users is listed as being blocked on the Comcast support site (and it has been listed there for many months). The link to that document has already been posted in this thread and in this related thread: »[Rant] Crazy port blocking . Exactly how much notification do you think that Comcast should have given to you personally?

As for competetion, blocking port 25 for residential users is a very common practice; so even if you had a choice, most likely your alternative ISP would also block port 25.

NormanS
I gave her time to steal my mind away
MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
TP-Link TD-8616
Asus RT-AC66U B1
Netgear FR114P

NormanS to tomp

MVM

to tomp
said by tomp :

Wow, I smell arrogance. I was not notified about the port change. I spent a significant amount of time wondering why what worked yesterday does not work today. Comcast wasted my time and has done so in many other situations.

It took me all of 3 seconds to find:
»www.google.com/search?cl ··· =suggest

They have a monopoly in my area, we have lost choice in communications providers. Anti monopoly laws were put in place to maintain healthy competition that benefited consumers and promoted innovation. Those days are almost gone if we continue to tolerate this kind of behavior.

In my area, I have:

• AT&T
• Comcast
• DSL Extreme
• Sonic.net, LLC

... and probably some others. Port 25 is mostly blocked by default, but various customer service options will permit port 25 access for all competitors. A little judicious Internet searching would have turned up answers in less than half an hour.

graysonf
MVM
join:1999-07-16
Fort Lauderdale, FL

graysonf to tomp

MVM

to tomp
said by tomp :

Wow, I smell arrogance. I was not notified about the port change. I spent a significant amount of time wondering why what worked yesterday does not work today. Comcast wasted my time and has done so in many other situations. They have a monopoly in my area, we have lost choice in communications providers. Anti monopoly laws were put in place to maintain healthy competition that benefited consumers and promoted innovation. Those days are almost gone if we continue to tolerate this kind of behavior.

Well, you do have options. If there really is no competition in your area that will allow outbound TCP port 25, then absolutely, positively refuse to tolerate it:

Become your own ISP and run things the way you want to, or move to an area that has a service provider that will allow your use of outbound TCP port 25.

AnonMan
@comcast.net

AnonMan

Anon

I love people that say become your own ISP.

Too bad all the big companies have monopolized the states so much and lobbied for so many restrictions and laws it's almost impossible.

The only reason Google got to do it was they have deeper pockets.
When is the last time you really saw a new ISP start up much less expand far? ISP is a profitable business to run, no reason to not expand it but rules/laws make it hard. Stupid agreements may not allow competition or not allow one the same access as another etc.

The days of Dial-up are over and that is the days when everyone was becoming and ISP as all was restricted to the same rules. Today is a whole new game. Whoever has the deeper pockets will win. Heck even our presidency goes that way lol
efball
join:2010-08-31
Santa Rosa, CA

efball

Member

I do read my Comcast email, but I didn't get any notice.
When I signed up 2 years ago port 25 outbound was blocked, so I used port 587 and relayed thru comcast. That worked fine, but I was using port 25 inbound to receive mail for my domains, which stopped a couple days ago. Blocking port 25 inbound doesn't stop spam, they are doing this just because they can and they want to squeeze more money out of people. No way I'm upgrading to business class. I can buy a virtual server for $15/year and use that for my email server.

NormanS
I gave her time to steal my mind away
MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
TP-Link TD-8616
Asus RT-AC66U B1
Netgear FR114P

NormanS

MVM

said by efball:

Blocking port 25 inbound doesn't stop spam, they are doing this just because they can and they want to squeeze more money out of people. No way I'm upgrading to business class. I can buy a virtual server for $15/year and use that for my email server.

I believe the Comcast ToS prohibits servers on residential connections. Blocking inbound port 25 would effectively enforce that prohibition.

FWIW, my ISP, Sonic.net, blocks port 25, both outbound and inbound, on dynamic residential accounts. I have three static options:

• /32 for free.
• /30 for $10 a month extra.
• /29 for $20 a month extra.

I chose the /32.

JohnInSJ
Premium Member
join:2003-09-22
Aptos, CA

JohnInSJ to efball

Premium Member

to efball
said by efball:

I do read my Comcast email, but I didn't get any notice.
When I signed up 2 years ago port 25 outbound was blocked, so I used port 587 and relayed thru comcast. That worked fine, but I was using port 25 inbound to receive mail for my domains, which stopped a couple days ago. Blocking port 25 inbound doesn't stop spam, they are doing this just because they can and they want to squeeze more money out of people. No way I'm upgrading to business class. I can buy a virtual server for $15/year and use that for my email server.

Did you read the TOS/AUP two years ago? If so, then you knew what you were doing was not supported, and in fact not a valid use of residential service.