[TriLUG] Suggestions for mail hosting.

[Jeremy Portzer]

J.C. Jones wrote:
> Dave and Brian,
> 
> I spoke with an earthlink business rep just a few minutes ago. He said 
> that earthlink service was open ports, except for 25 which is blocked. 
> He said that MOST providers are blocking 25.
> 

The odd part about Earthlink is that port 25 inbound isn't blocked on 
their cable service, which is resold from Time Warner in the Triangle 
area.  I run my servers in my parents' house in Apex (nice way to get 
free electricity!), and have no problems with inbound email.   So their 
policies must be dictated by the network they're reselling from, rather 
than Earthlink's internal controls.  Otherwise I wouldn't see why they'd 
have disparate policies, as last I checked, spammers don't care if you 
have DSL or cable!   (As has been discussed here in the past, Time 
Warner's policies aren't uniform either - some areas like Greenville 
have had stricter policies.)

I'm not sure if port 25 outbound is blocked from Earthlink over TWC, but 
even if it wasn't, I wouldn't use it, because the IP range is marked 
dynamic in the various DNSBLs and will cause flags in people's spam 
filters.  So all my outgoing mail is smarthosted through Earthlink's 
servers.

--Jeremy