nozzer
join:2004-06-25
Waltham, MA
1 edit | Comcast blocking free speech again?
I'm getting reports from various sources that Comcast are blocking email messages with with »www.meetwithcindy.org in the message, both inbound and outbound. Can anyone here confirm?
And FWIW, the reports also suggest this is with spam filtering turned OFF. |
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NormanS
Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
 ·Pacific Bell - SBC
2 edits | said by nozzer  :I'm getting reports from various sources that Comcast are blocking email messages with with » www.meetwithcindy.org in the message, both inbound and outbound. Can anyone here confirm? And FWIW, the reports also suggest this is with spam filtering turned OFF. Have you undertaken to test that claim yourself? It is relatively easy to do. Just set up a free MSN Hotmail account, or a free Yahoo! Mail account, then send your self email; Comcast to Hotmail, and Hotmail to Comcast. Put the URL in the messages, and see what happens.
BTW, if you posted this from your Comcast account, then it is pretty obvious that Comcast is not "blocking free speech"; www.meetwithcindy.org showed up just fine in your message. The ultimate test of whether your ISP is "blocking free speech" is to try and mention the "censored" topic using a different venue than the ISP servers. If you can post the "censored" topic over your Comcast connection using non-Comcast servers, then Comcast is not "blocking free speech".
--
Norman
~A deam, dream, no dream
~Voices of the night go across the forest
~A dream, dream, no dream
~Good night my good child |
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J D McDorce
Premium
join:2001-12-29
Westland, MI
| said by NormanS :BTW, if you posted this from your Comcast account, then it is pretty obvious that Comcast is not "blocking free speech"; www.meetwithcindy.org showed up just fine in your message. There is a huge difference, both technologically and philosophically, between filtering email traffic and non-email data traffic (such as posting on this site). |
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MrBradTX
join:2001-05-23
Carrollton, TX | reply to nozzer
Also realize that your commercial relationship with Comcast is not bound by First Amendment law, which limits government. |
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Qumahlin
Never Enough Time
Premium,MVM
join:2001-10-05
united state
1 edit | reply to nozzer
said by nozzer :I'm getting reports from various sources that Comcast are blocking email messages with with » www.meetwithcindy.org in the message, both inbound and outbound. Can anyone here confirm? And FWIW, the reports also suggest this is with spam filtering turned OFF. I just sent emails from Comcast to Comcast with meetwithcindy.org all over the message and subject lines and they came through just fine.
I also did this from Gmail to Comcast and once again received it at all accounts just fine.
All accounts had spam filtering turned ON
Comcast isn't blocking any such messages, nor have they ever. There are rare cases where a legitimate mail will get flagged spam, but that happens with ALL ISP's and is easily remedied
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Forum Posts:6500 |
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nozzer
join:2004-06-25
Waltham, MA
1 edit | no WWW.meetwithcindy.org PLEASE NOTE the WWW
Its described at »www.bradblog.com/ - scroll down a bit.
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nozzer
join:2004-06-25
Waltham, MA | reply to NormanS
Also, if you look at my profile you will note I'm an RCN subscriber, not Comcast. |
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Qumahlin
Never Enough Time
Premium,MVM
join:2001-10-05
united state
| reply to nozzer
said by nozzer :no WWW.meetwithcindy.org PLEASE NOTE the WWW Its described at » www.bradblog.com/ - scroll down a bit. Yes, I did this. It's not being blocked whatsoever, your spreading FUD
I left the www out of my dslreports.com message, but it was indeed in my sent emails.
I'll say once again Comcast does not censor mail.
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Forum Posts:6500 |
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ropeguru
Premium
join:2001-01-25
Bridgeport, WV
clubs:
 ·VOIPo
| reply to nozzer
I run my own email server that relays through Comcast, I am a Comcast HSI subscriber, and I just sent an email from my home server account to my Comcast email account with a subject and body of www.meetwithcindy.org and it came through in about 3 seconds.
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FWD#: 223611 |
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Qumahlin
Never Enough Time
Premium,MVM
join:2001-10-05
united state
4 edits | reply to nozzer
For shits and giggles I just did the test from that site which told me to do
one with "www.meetwithcindy.org" in the subject line, and the words "test #1" in the body
one with "meetwithcindy.org" in the subject line, and the words "test #2" in the body
one with "www.meetwithcindy.org" in the body, and the words "test #3" in the subject line
one with "meetwithcindy.org" in the body, and the words "test #4" in the subject line
all 4 emails were received just fine. One labeled Test 3 was delayed for a minute or 2 longer then the others and did goto my screened mail folder, but there are tons of possible reasons for a delay and reason it was screened. All this shows is brightmail has had complaints/suspicions.
Comcast themself has no reason to block a site like Meetwithcindy...especially considering how useless the site is. Online petitions/protests don't work, all they do is stir up crap like what we are seeing now with false accusations of ISP's blocking them etc,
Noone stops to think all these people are sending out tons of links regarding these issues so some mail gets delayed, marked as spam etc.
But as I said all 4 emails arrived to MULTIPLE accounts just fine both from Comcast to Comcast and from Gmail to Comcast. I also did one mail from Verizon to Comcast which arrived just fine
Why is it that the heavy right/heavy left wing nuts are always the ones that swear there are conspiracies against them....hmmm 
If Comcast or any other ISP for that matter wanted to censor a site such as this all we would need to do is remove their DNS record so that unless your using a 3rd party DNS you'd never be able to access the site unless you had it's IP address. FAR FAR more effective.
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Forum Posts:6500 |
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NormanS
Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
·Pacific Bell - SBC
| said by Qumahlin :Why is it that the heavy right/heavy left wing nuts are always the ones that swear there are conspiracies against them....hmmm Because each is conspiring against the other?
--
Norman
~A deam, dream, no dream
~Voices of the night go across the forest
~A dream, dream, no dream
~Good night my good child |
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Warzau
Premium
join:2000-10-26
Naperville, IL
clubs: | reply to nozzer
Pure Crap
I received all 4 |
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NormanS
Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
·Pacific Bell - SBC
| reply to J D McDorce
said by J D McDorce :There is a huge difference, both technologically and philosophically, between filtering email traffic and non-email data traffic (such as posting on this site). Which is the reason for my suggested test. If Comcast was blocking freedom of speech, they would be blocking offensive content at a different level than just in email.
said by nozzer :Also, if you look at my profile you will note I'm an RCN subscriber, not Comcast. Which in no way reduces your obligation to try to make a first hand validation of the claim. It just means that you would have to enlist the aid of a Comcast customer to validate the claim. I was going to start a flurry of exchanges with my sister, a Comcast user, but I see that a couple of Comcast users have already posted the results of their own testing.
--
Norman
~A deam, dream, no dream
~Voices of the night go across the forest
~A dream, dream, no dream
~Good night my good child |
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dadkins
Can you do Blu?
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
 ·Comcast
| reply to nozzer
Worked fine here from Yahoo to Comcast. |
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funchords
Hello
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Washington, DC
·Verizon Online DSL
·Skype
| reply to nozzer
I don't know how Comcast does its spam filtering (or even whether it does spam filtering), but there are many dynamic blocklists (aka DNSBLs) that are extremely reliable.
What they do is look for traffic patterns of e-mail coming from an smtp server to a specific e-mail address that has not signed up for anything (although it may be published on the web somewhere for the spammers to harvest).
If only one are received at these mystery mailboxes, no problem. But as soon as two or three are hit, then the smtp server gets listed in the block list for a time period. The longer the spam run continues, the longer the server is listed on the dynamic block list.
Usually, no listings are permanent, so it adapts to the changing conditions.
So this could be one explanation of why a valid e-mail isn't delivered -- because someone else misused that server to send spam.
If you wish to look at this kind of protection for your e-mail account, free software that does this can be found at »www.spampal.org . You can read my review at »www.funchords.com/favorite/freew···ndex.htm .
--
Robb Topolski  http://www.funchords.com/  Hillsboro, Oregon USA
Dear Anonymous, Thank you!!! Thank you!!! |
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HockeyPuck86
join:2004-03-11
Ecorse, MI | reply to dadkins
I've sent an e-mail every which way you can and they havn't been blocked! |
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nozzer
join:2004-06-25
Waltham, MA
| reply to NormanS
said by NormanS :said by nozzer :Also, if you look at my profile you will note I'm an RCN subscriber, not Comcast. Which in no way reduces your obligation to try to make a first hand validation of the claim. It just means that you would have to enlist the aid of a Comcast customer to validate the claim. Which is why I posted the question in the comcast forum. Please pay attention.
It would seem from many other reports that there was indeed a problem, it was with BRIGHTMAIL (the service comcast uses to send/receive email), and they removed the block around the time my post appeared. The troubling thing is that this is the second time brightmail have decided to block emails containing links to what could be described as "sites with left of center views". I doubt its Brightmail, more likely a lone tech who made this decision.
If it were for instance Rush Limbaughs site, you could be sure there would be lots of people here screaming foul, and Brightmail/Comcast would be accused of being a communist run organization. |
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jansm38
Vn800-B
Premium
join:2003-05-19
Blackwood, NJ
| quote:
If it were for instance Rush Limbaughs site, you could be sure there would be lots of people here screaming foul.
I would have thought there would have been a lot more cheering than crying foul if that were to happen.
Are there really that many fans of a hypocritical drug abuser here? |
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funchords
Hello
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Washington, DC
·Verizon Online DSL
·Skype
| reply to nozzer
said by nozzer : The troubling thing is that this is the second time brightmail have decided to block emails containing links to what could be described as "sites with left of center views". I doubt its Brightmail, more likely a lone tech who made this decision. If it were for instance Rush Limbaughs site, you could be sure there would be lots of people here screaming foul, and Brightmail/Comcast would be accused of being a communist run organization. 
--
Robb Topolski http://www.funchords.com/ Hillsboro, Oregon USA
Dear Anonymous, Thank you!!! Thank you!!! |
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nategold
@comcast.net
| reply to nozzer
The fact is that the www.meetwithcindy.org web site *was* blocked if it was in the body of the email message. If it was just meetwithcindy.org it went through, but the www.meetwithcindy.org was blocked. I just spoke with the comcast abuse department and they admitted it. The fault was the Brightmail filters that all the big ISPs use. I don't know how long the blocking occurred for, but now it is not blocked. But your headline "No, Comcast Did Not Filter Cindy Sheehan Emails" is ABSOLUTELY FALSE. It may have been only for a day, maybe longer. I have no idea. But on 8/17 it absolutely was blocking them. I did many tests. I sent from yahoo into comcast, from comcast out to yahoo, yahoo to yahoo, and comcast to comcast. By about midday yesterday 8/18 it was fixed. All of you folks here who tested did so after comcast fixed the problem with the Brightmail filters. |
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