[ale] If you're on Bellsouth DSL, I recommend changing providers.

Mike Murphy mike at tyderia.net
Wed Aug 18 16:11:52 EDT 2004


incoming 587 is blocked. outgoing 587 is not. It is true that I could 
run it on another port, but which one? A few quick tries on 5 random 
incoming ports reveals:

26    blocked
1587  blocked
8587  blocked
87    blocked
31456 blocked

This is the thing: a lot of people here and elsewhere have written 
things to the effect of "they cut off outbound port 25? Good!". Well, 
they haven't just cut off outbound port 25, they have cut off almost all 
inbound ports. Not just those known for security issues, like 139 
(netbios), but pretty much everything but 22, 143, 80 and 993. (And I'm 
really surprised those are still on too at this point). And there is 
still be no official notification nor documentation of any of this from 
them, except for the document on their website about what they term 
"port 25 filtering".

Bellsouth Apologists want to chock this up as an issue about people 
violating their AUP. If its a simple matter of the AUP, why can't 
Bellsouth just throw up a document that says "sorry, we blocked pretty 
much every inbound port for your safety. If anyone was using those, 
tough, its a violation of the AUP", and let all of us that care decide 
to jump ship. Even better would be a gracious "we want to keep as much 
of your business as possible" policy of releasing anyone who wants out 
out of their contract. Otherwise, I'd say they run the risk of losing 
more revenue from the services that drive profits for them, like long 
distance and "complete choice".


michael d. ivey wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 18, 2004 at 03:06:49PM -0400, Mike Murphy wrote:
> 
>>Just tried it again to make sure I wasn't crazy, and 587 is blocked as
>>well.
> 
> 
> Incoming or outgoing?
> 
> You can run SMTP or SMTP AUTH on an alternate port, if you had to.
> 



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