[olug] Cox and port 25

[William E. Kempf]

First, my appologies that this isn't an actual reply.  Fetchmail is still working great, so may mail is pulled off of the Cox servers before I can respond to them that way.  Once on my system, the problems I have with Postfix and this port 25 blocking cause me to be unable to respond.  So, I have to use the Cox webmail system and copy/paste to do this round about response.  Bear with me until I get things worked out.

From: "Nathan Rotschafer (OLUG)" <olug at geniussystems.net> 

>I think we need to protest this...it seems instead of >allowing legit access 
>they want you to spoof your domain through their >servers...how is this a good 
>solution???

For the most part, I fully agree with you.  There's a number of reasons I think this decision is poor, and maybe even worse.  Unfortunately, in my own situation I'm technically already in violation of my contract with Cox, by running Postfix.  See http://support.cox.net/custsup/policies/acceptableuse.shtml#aup_6.  Of course, this particular policy could probably be fought in court, and won (the distinction between client and server is often difficult, if not impossible, to define in any terms that could be legally binding by a contract such as this).  Further, since I derive no profit and don't exceed any band width restrictions, I don't feel that Cox would care much if they discovered I was running servers (as most of us probably do!).  But if I were to rock the boat here by protesting, I'd have to use my situation as part of the protest, at which point Cox probably would care and would terminate my service. :(

I've spoken on here before about how I think the policies used by Cox and other ISPs are bad.  So I support anyone who wants to protest.

Now, does anyone know how I can circumvent the port blocking here?

William E. Kempf
wekempf at cox.net