Tired of Being Screwed By Cox (no pun intended)

[Don Calfa]

Earthlink/Mindspring has been doing this since 1999.  I remember the day 
it happened as I had several customers locked out.

craigwhite@azapple.com wrote:

>On Tue, 2003-06-17 at 14:52, Chad Horton wrote:
>  
>
>>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 
>>
>>    
>>
>-----
>Actually a lot of service providers are doing this and in fact,
>Earthlink has been doing this for quite some time now.
>
>If it reduces spam, it's a good thing.
>
>If you get a business account, you can run your own smtp server but not
>on the residential service.
>
>You can always vote with your wallet.
>
>I thought that their explanation was more than adequate.
>
>Craig
>
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