Earthlink is not the only ISP blocking port 25. MSN also blocks port 25.
In my opinion port 25 blocking is an onerous and arrogant attempt to force people to abandon other ISP mail systems once a customer uses Earthlink or MSN. It serves no other purpose since mail relay can be stopped by much friendlier methods.
The following is a transcript of a dialog I conducted with MSN regarding port 25 blocking. It doesn't solve any problems (after all it's MS) but the inherent arrogance is humourous, see the passages where the MS representative claims port 25 blocking is an "industry standard".
John Clark
Transcript follows....
Paris Hello John. Thank you for using MSN Interactive Online Support. My name is Paris, I will be your Online Technical Support Engineer.
Paris John, I do appreciate your decision of using MSN Internet Access. Let me explain you the exact scenario.
John Clark OK, what is the scenario?
Paris If you are using Outlook Express with multiple e-mail accounts from different Internet Service Providers in addition to MSN Internet Access, you can no longer send e-mail from your other ISP accounts when you are signed in to MSN.
Paris MSN is implementing an industry-standard spam filtering system on our e-mail servers. This action is part of a new set of anti-spam initiatives designed to protect MSN customers and the MSN e-mail system from unsolicited commercial e-mail.
Paris MSN does not provide support for accessing e-mail from other ISP accounts through MSN. If you want to continue to do so while you are signed in to MSN, you must re-configure your Outgoing mail (SMTP) server information to ensure that all of your outbound e-mail is sent through the MSN SMTP mail servers.
Paris To do this, you will need to follow a set of instructions which will be set to you when you subscribe for an MSN IA account.
John Clark What is the industry standard you are referring to? Is it a standard from a standards group?
Paris John, this is an initiative from MSN Internet Access to protect it's customers from spamming and unsolicited commercial e-mail. Hence the MSN email system is to be configured in such a way that it is ensured that all of your outbound e-mail is sent through the MSN SMTP mail servers.
John Clark So, this isn't an industry standard?
John Clark One other question, does MSN block any other standard ports?
Paris This is the industry standard spam filtering system that MSN has introduced, John. As generally it is in the grass root level this is being done for e.g a customer has to set up Inbox Guradian or Message rules in order to avoid spamming. But what MSN is doing is for all MSN IA customers.
Paris Hence, this is a Industry-standard spam filtering system. That is done on the servers.
John Clark Does MSN also block port 587, the MSA port?
Paris No John, MSN does not block anyother standard ports.
Paris No John, MSN Internet Access does not block any other standard ports, not even the one you mentioned.
John Clark OK Paris, thanks for your help. I'll see if I can use alternative ports for outside mail providers. It sure is inconvenient that MSN is blocking a standard IP port.
Paris I do understand your concern, John. Please be rest assured as once you access your MSN Internet Access email account, you will never face any problems. All these are being done for the benefit of the MSN IA customers.
Paris Is there anything else I could assist you with ?
John Clark No thanks, bye...
Paris Thank you John, for using MSN Internet Access support today, I hope you found our session helpful. Here at MSN your comments are greatly appreciated. When our chat is finished, please take a moment to fill out the survey that appears in a separate window. Thank you for your ideas and suggestions.
Paris John, it was a pleasure chatting with you today, for your convenience and future reference, you will receive by e-mail a detailed transcript of our chat, including all site links and services. Thank you for choosing MSN Internet Access as your online service provider. We are available 24 hours, 7 days a week. If you need further assistance, please come back and visit us again. Have a nice day!
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Burke, Thomas G.
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2003 7:39 AM
To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'; '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
Subject: earthlink blocking outgoing mail?
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Hey gang,
I've got it up & running, finally - I found the bugs keeping me from
starting at boot (the tkpppoe script does not modify pppoe.conf -
after manual mod of this file, startup works fine)
I also had to put a sleep 10 command in my firewall script, as the
ppp connection isn't stable by the time it runs & will bomb the
sniffing of the IP address. If you're interested in my firewall
(been running it for 3 years, now with minor mods), a copy is
available at http://tomii.dnsalias.com/firewall.txt
Now for the question: It seems that Earthlink is blocking outgoing
sendmail connections. I have been using e-mail on this server for
quite some time & have had no problems. The box receives e-mails
just fine, but gives connection errors on the way out. Has anyone
else had this problem?
-Tom
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