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Ask Slashdot: Is There a War Against Small Mail Servers?

Posted by Soulskill on from the lazy-spam-prevention dept.

softegg writes "My company hosts our own mail server. We have high-speed business connections through Verizon and Comcast. Recently, Verizon and Comcast have been blocking port 25, causing our private mail server to stop functioning. Additionally, a lot of ISPs just started blocking any mail coming from any IP in the address block of cable modems. This caused us to start laundering our mail through a third-party service called DNSExit. Now, McAfee's MAPS anti-spam system tells us they are blocking DNSExit for spam. Essentially, we are finding ourselves increasingly cut off from sending any outgoing mail. What is a small company supposed to do if you want to host your own mail?"

3 of 459 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds like an ISP problem. by raitchison · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If your ISP (Verizon and Comcast) are blocking port 25 outbound it doesn't sound like they think you have a "Business" connection. Check your contract/TOS for any provisions that would prevent you from running a server (common for residential cable connections but not for business) and if there isn't one call and complain. If they won't unblock port 25 for your mail server (assuming it's properly configured) you need to find a new ISP.

    1. Re:Sounds like an ISP problem. by jimicus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If your ISP is preventing 25 outbound, you don't have an ISP.

      TBH, I'm not quite sure what you do have. I've met that sort of thing once before, I would describe them as a Web access provider.

  2. Re:Not much to do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You have several options.
    1) Get a real internet Service provider.
    2) Host mail on a different server such as a vps
    3) host mail on a different server and use Fetchmail to pull mail and send mail out bound.
    4) Configure your server to send mail through your ISPs send mail server. Receiving mail may be a problem depending on ISP.