[ NNSquad ] Re: [IP] Steve Jobs: Google TV Will Go the Way of TiVo and Roku. And other twisting and winding paths

[Dave Kristol <dmk-nnsquad@kristol.org>]

On 06/04/2010 11:53 AM, Bob Frankston wrote:
> [...]
> PS: Speaking of twisting winding passages. Verizon just started blocking 
> port 25 so this message didn’t go out till I guessed what was wrong. The 
> problem occurred while I was traveling to /All Things Digital!/ I got a 
> panicked call from my wife saying her email wasn’t going out. So I 
> remoted in to my desktop and thence her machine and corrected the problem.
>
> How do normal people deal with this? Would they even know to see mail 
> stuck in “outgoing”? What about devices that have port 25 wired-in for 
> error reporting? I long ago gave up trying to directly contact with 
> other sites’ port 25. This is another example of challenge in trying to 
> wend ones way through the twisting and winding passages in the hills and 
> valleys of the ancient land of tele-communications.

In fairness to Verizon, they actually announced that in email to 
customers on 5/4:

Email Program Users (Outlook®, Thunderbird, Mac Mail, etc)

    * If you use a non-Verizon account such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo or 
AOL to send your emails through a program like Outlook®, Thunderbird or 
MacMail, you will need to make a simple change to your 'Server Port 
Number' setting in your email account - change the 'Server Port 25' 
setting to 'Server Port 587' setting. Visit www.verizon.net/port25 for 
the quick and easy instructions on how to modify this setting.

Dave Kristol

   [ There is no valid reason to prevent users who wish to run
     their own mail servers -- for security and privacy reasons
     if nothing else -- from doing so if they do not behave
     in an abusive manner.  Running your own mail servers
     requires port 25 access.  Of course, blocking port 25
     for some tiers has proven to be a practical mechanism
     to push users up to more expensive tiers where port
     25 is more frequently available.  
       
           -- Lauren Weinstein
              NNSquad Moderator ]