On 3/7/06, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Metrocast, last week, started filtering packets sent by their > customers to port 25 on ALL Internet hosts.
Yup. More and more ISPs are doing this -- generally the larger ones. Get used to it. It's not going to go away, because the problem is ultimately stupid people, and that problem is never going to be fixed. > Despite Mr. Bradley's assurances that this is an effort to reduce spam > and protect me (yeah right) ... It is very much an anti-spam measure. As others have pointed out, the *vast majority* of mail sent from consumer Internet feeds to a destination of TCP port 25 is spam, sent by compromised computers run by home users who install every piece of software "the Interweb tells them to". > ... what it really does is block legitimate e-mail. You happen to be in a small minority of people who are competent and running your own mail exchanger. You are considered "collateral damage" in the spam war. It sucks. Unfortunately, life often does. > As e-mail is an integral part of having Internet service, > this seems like an insane and completely, well, stupid thing to do. This does not effect the vast majority of their customers. Most people just use their local ISP's SMTP relay. The fact that you are a rare exception does not make them stupid. > As a result, I'm forming a working group to organize Metrocast > customers in a boycott of this now crippled Internet service. I assume you have already canceled their service? > I'm sure Verizon would be happy to help our group switch over to DSL. Verizon has variously employed outbound TCP 25 blocking and/or SMTP authentication for relay as well. > (3) Consult attorneys in the areas of civil liberties and contract > law to determine: > > (A) If censoring e-mail constitutes curtailment of free speech. Oh, please. Get a clue. You'll loose this one, big time. First of all, the protections of free speech are generally on what the government can do. The First Amendment says "Congress shall make no law...". It doesn't say one damn thing about me or you. A telco is under no obligation to provide you a particular kind of technical service. Second, they aren't censoring a damn thing. You can still send all the email you want. You just have to send it through their SMTP server. This is a technical infrastructure thing, not a censorship thing. Tin-foil hat people, please note that they can monitor/log/whatever your email using a packet sniffer just as easily as using an SMTP host, so that argument is bogus. > (B) If unilaterally making the change to restrict e-mail > constitutes violation of contract law. Read your ToS. It basically says they can do anything they want, and they're not obligated to provide any Class of Service. If you didn't like that, maybe you should have said something when you signed up? > Next thing you know, they'll be blocking port 80 and forcing us to use > a SOCKS 5 proxy! Their ToS prolly already say you have to run Windoze, too. -- Ben _______________________________________________ gnhlug-announce mailing list gnhlug-announce@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-announce _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
