06-18-2004, 10:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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ISPs Blocking Port 25 To Curb Spam Hurts The Honest Guy
This morning I woke up, logged into my laptop and started taking care of a number of emails in my various accounts. I have one work account and 4 personal accounts. Three of those personal accounts are using other SMTP servers, including my Pocket PC Thoughts account. Do do this, you need access to port 25. Why are ISPs blocking these? Because of ignorant people. They never run Windows Update, they installed a virus scanner in 2001 and haven't run a single update and click on every attachment in their inbox. Their computers are zombies sending out hundreds of millions of emails a day. Comcast admits "We're the biggest spammer on the Internet" because of these users.
Did Bellsouth.net, my ISP, warn me? Did they send out and email telling me port 25 would no longer be available? No! (Please note: the rest of this post can best be appreciated it you print it off and read it while storming around the room, occasionally giving a stilted kick or two at nothing in particular, and, of course, a bit of spittle can't hurt either.) So after about 30 minutes of figuring out why most of my emails weren't sending through various accounts and 3 different email clients, it dawned on me that port 25 was probably blocked. I called their customer service department and after getting bounced around to 4 people, I finally got someone that knew what was going on. "Yup. 25 has been blocked and we aren't unblocking it for anyone. Period."
AAARGGGHHH!!! I've been with them nearly three years and they took away my ability to send emails through my other email servers. I have a laptop and can't reconfigure all of my accounts to send through their servers because when I am on the road or connected through another network, their email server is unavailable to me. They allow no external access to their SMTP server. Idiots. So, the solution to the spam problem cause by a few ignorant people with zombie machines and the occasional intentional spammer is to block everyone?!? What IT genius at Bellsouth.net's made this decision? And who's decision was it to not open that port back up for customers that need it and haven't been accused of spamming?
With this logic, I can also fix the prostitution problem. Let's just block driving up and down the roads ladies of the evening hang out at. Never mind the thousands of drivers that use those same roads daily for legitimate reasons. For those few offenders, we'll inconvenience everyone. :evil:
I do have a potential alternative that many don't. I could theoretically always VPN into my corporate LAN and send through there, but there is one small problem, and I am not going to beat around the bush on this. Connection Manager for the Pocket PC sucks! It has been broken since Pocket PC 2002 and is still broken in Pocket PC 2003 SE. You cannot VPN into a LAN and send "internet" traffic through that connection unless you have a Proxy Server installed, so this solution would be for my laptop only and on my wireless LAN, that just isn't good enough.
So now I have an $80/month business account, which does open port 25, instead of a $47/month home account. :bad-words: Totally insane. All because of some knee-jerk reaction to a valid problem solved with wrong-headed thinking, and as far as computing goes, that is the most evil thing that can happen. And in dealing with evil, Jules may said it best:
Jules said:  "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee."
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