more on Comcast blocking personal mail servers

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Ron Guerin <ron () vnetworx net>
Date: April 9, 2006 5:52:04 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: ip () v2 listbox com
Subject: Re: [IP] Comcast blocking personal mail servers

David Farber wrote:
> From: Robert Alberti <alberti () sanction net>

[snipped in various places]

> For IP if you deem appropriate...
>
> I run my own mail and web server, and over the last few weeks I have
> begun receiving messages such as this one following an e-mail to my
> birthmother...
>
>   550 Comcast does not support the direct connection to its mail
>   servers from residential IPs. Your mail should be sent to  
> comcast.net
>   users through your ISP. Please contact your ISP or mail  
> administrator
>   for more information.

> If I were a Comcast customer I could protest this move by canceling my
> service. But I am not a Comcast customer: why should I be subject to
> their foolish rules and what recourse have I?

> Finally, what right does this company have to inhibit my  
> communications?
> Would I be pleased to find that the phone company had determined  
> that a
> lot of prank calls came from pay phones, and tried to "help" me by
> preventing pay phones from calling my home?  I don't think so.

You don't mention who your ISP is, however, if Comcast is under the
impression you're on a residential IP address, odds are they got this
information from _your_ ISP, who is, in effect, telling Comcast to block
your mail.  Does your agreement with your ISP prohibit the running of
servers from your account?  If so, you have your answer, which is that
you're violating your agreement, and Comcast knows this because your ISP
has published their residential IP addresses for the express purpose of
allowing other ISPs to refuse mail coming from those addresses.  If your
service agreement does not prohibit the operation of servers, you still
should investigate whether your ISP has published their residential IP
space for blocking purposes.  Many, if not most residential blocking
lists are based on self-published IP ranges.

- Ron


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