Tired of Being Screwed By Cox (no pun intended)

[Chad and Shaun Horton]

The bright folks at Cox have struck us with another one of their
brilliant ideas again. Apparently the Cox put a jimmy hat on port 25. 
Do you have an smtp server and also subscribe to Cox (http://www.cox.com
and http://www.cox.net)? Well, you poor sap. You are no longer allowed
to send email through your smtp server because Cox, in their infinite
wisdom, has now blocked port 25. This includes both servers within your
local network AND hosted by an external provider.

There has yet to be a supporting argument providing a realistic reason
why they started blocking port 25. (below is a poor explanation from
cox, which you can also read at
http://support.cox.net/custsup/email/email_info.shtml) 

Now, this may not be that big of a deal for some, since you can still
route all of your email through Cox's smtp server, but just the mere
fact that they would do something so ludicrous should tick everyone off.

So what can be done about this? According to Cox, "nothing." And be
prepared to get hung up on when you express your frustration over this
matter and to get the rhetorical statement, "We appologize for the
inconvenience, sir. Is there anything else we can help you with?" 

Now if you are desparate enough, Cox has been nice enough to offer a new
tiered service, to be announced soon. It is not certain yet as to what
these tiers mean for us, but be willing to bet that there will be
provisions allowing port 25 to be opened for a hefty fee.

So, if you are as displeased as I am, please express your disdain over
this new policy with Cox directly. You can contact your local Cox
division, or you can chat with a customer service agent at Cox Chat With
Us Live support section. 

An explanation from Cox about blocking port 25: 

Q. Why do you require the use Cox outbound (SMTP) email servers? 
A. It reduces the number of SPAM and virus emails originating from our
customers. Most Internet Service Providers have adopted this practice to
reduce spam. We must take this action to ensure that a few bulk emailers
do not get the entire Cox.net domain blacklisted from sending mail to
other Internet Service Providers. 

Q. Will this hinder my ability to send email? 
A. This will not impact the vast majority of customers, but there are
bound to be some people using third party mail servers. Any software
configured to use an SMTP server other than smtp.region.cox.net to
deliver email directly to a recipient's server will no longer work. An
indication of this problem may be a message similar to this in your mail
client: 
A time-out occurred while communicating with the server. Account:
'otheraccount.otherisp.com', Server: 'othersmtp.otherisp.com', Protocol:
SMTP, Port 25, Secure(SSL): No, Error Number: 0x800CCC19 Customers using
third party email services must configure their email clients to use
smtp.region.cox.net to send outbound email. Please remember that
operating an email or other server on a residential Cox High Speed
Internet connection is a violation of our Acceptable Use Policy. Email
Software Settings