[DarrenS]

Funny this topic came up this weekend. I was just wondering why my email was not going out. I had just determined that port 25 was blocked and sent my email out over my ISP's SMTP's server. And the I read this topic. I have BellSouth as well.

I think I will be using DynDNS.org's MailHop Outbound service. For $15/yr they offer SMTP replay server on either ports 25, 2525, 10025 with SSL. That is for 150 messages a day. I do not sent that many messages in one day and I'd be willing to pay the $15/yr fee.

I can understand why BellSouth and other ISPs are blocking port 25. What I am upset with BellSouth about is that they did not even give us any warning.

As for SPAM, I am looking for a good piece of s/w that will offer the challenge/response filter coupled with Bayesian. I figure that will get me what I want. I have been using I Hate Spam for 3 years now and it has really cut down the amount of spam I get. But they do not offer challenge/response. I really need that for my wife. I tried SpamBully, but my wife uses Outlook Express and SpamBully only supports challenge/response for Outlook.

[DarrenS]

Funny this topic came up this weekend. I was just wondering why my email was not going out. I had just determined that port 25 was blocked and sent my email out over my ISP's SMTP's server. And the I read this topic. I have BellSouth as well.

I think I will be using DynDNS.org's MailHop Outbound service. For $15/yr they offer SMTP replay server on either ports 25, 2525, 10025 with SSL. That is for 150 messages a day. I do not sent that many messages in one day and I'd be willing to pay the $15/yr fee.

I can understand why BellSouth and other ISPs are blocking port 25. What I am upset with BellSouth about is that they did not even give us any warning.

As for SPAM, I am looking for a good piece of s/w that will offer the challenge/response filter coupled with Bayesian. I figure that will get me what I want. I have been using I Hate Spam for 3 years now and it has really cut down the amount of spam I get. But they do not offer challenge/response. I really need that for my wife. I tried SpamBully, but my wife uses Outlook Express and SpamBully only supports challenge/response for Outlook.

[beq]

^ That looks good too DarrenS Outbound SMTP port-redirector service from other DNS providers that I could recall in addition to the venerable DynDNS.org, are No-IP.com's Alternate-port SMTP ($20/yr for 150 msgs per day, 25MB per msg) and DNSMadeEasy.com's SMTP Service ($10/yr for 500 msgs per day, 100MB per day, 10MB per msg). Not sure if either of these two support SMTP/SSL like DynDNS.org though?

I'd subscribed to DNSMadeEasy's premium DNS service before (but ended up never actually using it, oh well). Anyways I think many other DNS providers also offer this feature (you can check out lists such as this one -- although it's technically for "dynamic DNS" providers I'm sure some of them provide this feature).

I myself like using SMTP from the mail providers I'd mentioned in my previous post...

[h--b]

I don't understand all this whining. There is a service on port 587 for
exactly this situation. It is called the Message Submission Agent port
and almost all modern MTAs support it, even Exchange 2003. We use
this with our remote and travel users and it works great and haven't
had a problem using it with any ISP encountered to date.

Another method that many companies use is VPN or PPTP between
their remote clients and their home server. Not too hard to set up
and it is very secure.

In a perfect world, spam and network abuse would not exist and port 25
blocking would not be necessary. In the real world where AOL estimates
that there is now over 10 million home and business PCs that are infected
with backdoors and trojans (thanks to Windows insecurity), blocking port
25 is not only necessary, but should be required for every ISP. And this
is only the beginning if we are to get a handle on the abuse originating
from these infected PCs. At some point in the future, "consumer grade"
network access will be severely limited to HTTP and a few other standard
ports and protocols.

[Kacey Green]

same thing with cox cable as an ISP, thankfully I don't travel often.

[Ed Hansberry]

Fixed!

I just switched to Comcast. Got it up and running, configured my router and redid all of my WEP devices (4!) and port 25 is working for my outbound email. :-)

Now, to call Bellsouth and cancel everything! That's right - my home phone too. We are going 100% cellular. Smooth move Bellsouth. Your idiocy just cost you $1,200 a year from me. :devilboy:

[Janak Parekh]

Originally Posted by Ed Hansberry

I just switched to Comcast. Got it up and running, configured my router and redid all of my WEP devices (4!) and port 25 is working for my outbound email. :-)

Congrats. Are you finding cable much faster than DSL? There is no comparison between the two here in NY.

--janak

[Ed Hansberry]

Originally Posted by Janak Parekh

Congrats. Are you finding cable much faster than DSL? There is no comparison between the two here in NY.

Not really. IE only renders so fast and DSL here is claimed at 3MBb anyway. DSL Extreme.

[DarrenS]

Originally Posted by Ed Hansberry

Fixed!
Now, to call Bellsouth and cancel everything! That's right - my home phone too. We are going 100% cellular. Smooth move Bellsouth. Your idiocy just cost you $1,200 a year from me. :devilboy:

I have been thinking about doing the samething, except I'd be switching to Charter Communications. Thing is, Charter does not have a very good rep.

I have also been thinking about using Vonage. Anyone tried them?

BTW, I did signup with DynDNS.org and got the Outbound Mailhop. I am now sending email on port 2525 via DynDNS.org.

[Janak Parekh]

Originally Posted by DarrenS

I have also been thinking about using Vonage. Anyone tried them?

Two of my officemates use it, and seem very happy with it. The quality is certainly very good; I can't distinguish between it and a landline from the other end.

--janak