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SMTP-Friendly ISPs?
alanpage asks: "My
ISP got out of the dial-up business and sold my account to Earthlink.
They do not allow me to send e-mail (via port 25) on behalf of the
web sites that I maintain. Are any of the major players in broadband
or dial-up port 25 friendly?"
By reading your question, it sounds like you want to send out mail via your ISPs SMTP using an e-mail address for a webdomain not hosted by them. Any GOOD ISP will not let you do this.
You may wonder why. Well, if I can do this, then I can forge e-mail addresses and send out any kind of mail I want. That's a good way to get blacklisted.
Basically "port 25 friendly" is also known as "spam friendly".
What I would recommend is seeing if those sites where those domains are hosted allow SMTP services with password authentication. Some place do, and then you can send out mail from any ISP using those mail server.
My personal e-mail is not connected to my ISP. I have password authentication in place.
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. - G.B. Shaw
Keep in mind that if you want to pay commodity prices for a service, you are going to get a service that has been sanitized and developed for the masses. What you're asking is essentially the same as "How can I get WinXP-home to work as a good server?".
If you want to connect to outside SMTP servers, you'll either have to go with a smaller ISP that doesn't have paranoid, 'we're not going to be the front for spam' policies in place (and make a sacrfice, be it limited dialing area, higher prices, or whatever) or tunnel out to a server that will allow you to connect to foreign SMTP servers.
my sig's at the bottom of the page.
Considering you said "on behalf of the web sites that I maintain", I assume you have some degree of control on at least one site outside your ISP.
Why don't you tunnel ? Then you can use whatever port you want.
If you have SSH running on one of these servers - and who doesn't nowadays - you can easily tunnel. Just check your ssh client configurations. If you're running windows, a good client is SecureCRT. If you're running linux, and the other side is windows NT/2000/XP, use this PPtP client
And there's another advantage with tunnelling: You can compress. Unless you have a very fast connection, you'll visibly notice a speed improvement when compressing.
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Roses are #FF0000, Violets are #0000FF, find / -name '*base*' |xargs chown -R us && mv zig greatjustice
With my $50 per month, uncapped, flat rate TDSL line, port 25 is unfirewalled both directions. I can send directly to most places, but sometimes have trouble as the dynamic IPs given to dialup users, are on spam lists. The solution:
They provide 2 outgoing smtp servers, the first one, rewrites any From: header with your official t-online email address.
The second one, which one has to register for, relays and preserves the From: address.
Both these servers only accept connections from ip numbers they own.
This is ideal, as it is flexible, and prevents against spammers. The only thing is the fact I now rely on the t-online server, which hasn't been a problem so far.
Although not the best DSL provider, they have shapen up in the past few months -- completely revamping all their routers etc, so no its pretty darn reliable. Anyway, DirectTV DSL is giving me great speeds (1.5/256) with good reliability, a static IP, as well as all ports not being firewalled. Only downside is their recent caps of bandwith on USENET groups :(
If you have a shell account on a box which is outside Earthlink's jurisdiction, you can do what I do:
ssh -L2001:mail.server.to.use:25 my.shell.server
Any connections to port 2001 on your local machine will then be forwarded (encrypted) to your shell server, and from there be forwarded to port 25 on the mail server.
ssh makes a great tool for busting out of firewalls.
1) it is directed to one of their addresses;
OR
2) it comes from one of their static IP addresses (mine -- dunno about their dialup accounts) and is addressed anywhere.
Of course, I make sure my SMTP server does not relay.
As far as I can tell, they have no trouble with SMTP traffic that they just route at the IP level -- they don't appear to firewall port 25 and force tou to send email via their SMTP servers. Theis is generally how I send mail.
So, they will accept mail for their destinations, and will relay mail that comes from their static IPs.
Yes, they know I am running an SMTP server, and ask only that I (a) do not spam (not relaying ensures that I do not permit others to do this); (b) send excessive traffic upstream. This strikes me as a reasonable policy. I am a satisfied customer.
You could've hired me.
Perhaps they're quite worried about spam with dialups, since they're so easy to setup that even giving a spammer a few hours of window will cause major problems for them. But since we've also had people using major dialups (like PacBell) who don't have a problem using the company's dialup to send email with an @OurCompany.com email address, I can't imagine that this should be a really major issue.
This won't do you any good if your ISP is blocking port 25 traffic... A big load of nothing will hit myrealbox's smtp port.
Second, the answer. Earthlink will gladly allow your sendmail to work, just set their mail server as your smarthost. It works like a charm, I use them as a backup net connection.
Adelphia (at least here in Massachusetts), doesn't restrict outgoing port 25 for customers using their PowerLink cable internet service.
1) I also own my own domain. I have my local mail clients set to send out mail with my domain in the From: line. It goes out through Earthlink's server. The From: line is not rewritten. Yes, there is an Earthlink Received: header, but that really shouldn't be a big deal. I can't imagine how this would hurt your business's credibility.
Of course, this may not be the same for all ISPs, but the original message was talking about Earthlink.
2) While I have seen many free-mail systems insert ads in outgoing messages, mail from my Earthlink account has never been altered. But not all ISPs are the same here, of course.
3) E-mail is never secure, no matter what server(s) you use. You are no more at risk using an ISP's server than using your own. Encryption of sensitive information is always a requirement, no matter what your network uses.
IMO, you may be more at risk using your own, because it is an attractive target for your competitors (and others who may wish you harm.) It is less likely that someone will attempt to hack a major ISP in order to get access to one customer.
Finally, there are plenty of broadband services that don't filter. But you may have to get a business line (which will cost more) if you require that level of service. For quite some time, my employer was paying for a business DSL line into my home - there was no filtering of any kind, but it cost about $150/mo for 256K SDSL. My current Earthlink line is much less expensive ($65/mo for 1.5M/128K ADSL and a static IP), but there are restrictions. That's the way things are - if you don't want any restrictions, you can get it, but it will cost more.
(This, of course, doesn't even discuss the wisdom of direct port-25 access over a dial-up line, which IMO is completely unsuitable for business purposes, even if it isn't blocked by an ISP.)
toad.net is a GREAT provider based in Severna Park, MD. They have nationwide coverage (if you can get DSL from any other company, you can get it from them too), and have no restrictions on port traffic. I run several sites with mail, web, SSL, SSH, etc, and have never had a problem.
Yahoo has pop and smtp. Until Jan 31, the smtp is pop-before-smtp, but afterwards it's normal smtp-auth. But yes, they also add that damn footer.
there is NO legitimate need for a dial-up user to connect directly to someone else's SMTP server. EVER.
What if one's ISP doesn't have SMTP service in the first place? Furthermore, suppose one lives where there is no competition in the ISP business, so it would be impossible to switch? Don't laugh, I've seen both cases in fairly large cities. Big companies swallowing up the small ones. Just because you might not have seen something, doesn't mean it hasn't happened to someone else.
Earthlink's SMTP server allow you to send out messages with return address for all domains, not just @earthlink.net etc. Just set your mail software to use Earthlink's mailserver instead.