Re: the idiots at comcast suddenly started --> port 587

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

why did not comcst say something and spare alot of people grief

________________________________________
From: Suresh Ramasubramanian [suresh () hserus net]
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 9:47 PM
To: David Farber
Cc: kevin () gormican com
Subject: Re: [IP] the idiots at comcast suddenly started

David Farber [17/01/08 17:52 -0800]:
> On or about January 3, 2008 Comcast SF Bay Area did the same thing;
> blocking port 25... at least on some network drops.
> Network tech maintained it had been that way since 1/1/07.
> Clearly, false information.

Blocking, or otherwise managing port 25 has been a best practice for
several years, now formalized in the MAAWG best practice document on
managing port 25 - Comcast is a MAAWG member as are other large ISPs.

http://www.maawg.org/port25

> No notice, no suggested workaround... not even a good

Two very simple workarounds.

1. Use comcast's smtp server instead of your own remote server
1a. If you're running a mailserver on your comcast cablemodem, set it to
"smarthost" through the comcast smtp server

2. Use port 587 (first documented in rfc 2476, gellens & klensin, in 1998 -
significantly predates most large ISPs moving to block port 25)
2a. Alternative - vpn, ssh tunnels etc to send through the remote server

It is strange but complaints on IP about port 25 blocking have become fewer
and farther between - this is the first one I have seen in several months
now. And all these have previously been answered with the same suggestions
above ..

-------------------------------------------
Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com