Marcus Cake

It is difficult to find an internet connection when travelling. It is even more difficult when you have found a connection and are unable to send email. Invariably, you believe the fault may be with your laptop and so you change a some settings. I recommend you don’t. The Internet Service Provider is probably just blocking your ability to send emails and will only allow you to send email with their account. The vast majority of people do not use the email address provided by their internet service provider (particularly when travelling). They use their employers email or other service. By blocking port 25, the internet service provider is stops the vast majority of people from sending email. This is considered international best practice. If you are visiting that country and temporarily using that provider, this simply stops business in its tracks.

Xtra.co.nz help page

Extract:

• Port 25 is the dedicated Internet port that is used for sending email. Unfortunately, it’s also used by spammers to send unwanted email and new viruses and worms will often spread across the Internet using this port. That’s why we want to filter it.
• Filtering port 25 traffic is now regarded as international best practice to help prevent the spread of spam, worms and viruses. Many large ISP’s in Europe, USA and even Australia have now adopted this practice.

Wikipedia extract - Electronic SPAM

• Spamming is the abuse of electronic messaging systems to indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages.
• Spamming is economically viable because advertisers have no operating costs beyond the management of their mailing lists, and it is difficult to hold senders accountable for their mass mailings. Because the barrier to entry is so low, spammers are numerous, and the volume of unsolicited mail has become very high. The costs, such as lost productivity and fraud, are borne by the public and by Internet service providers, which have been forced to add extra capacity to cope with the deluge.

Approximately 85% of all emails are SPAM.
Anyone can connect a computer to the internet. Anyone can send email from a computer. The internet is free, unrestricted, not owned or regulated by anyone and will allow online networks to drive the next stage of economic development. SPAM is its greatest problem.

Personal experiences of Port 25 (email send) blocking
As an executive, I find this very frustrating. I first encountered this problem at a relatives house two years ago. I spent two days changing settings on the ADSL modem, wireless router and laptop. Given that all other internet services were working, I thought it had to be local problem. It was beyond my conception that an ISP would block such a vital and fundamental internet service. Finally, I called the ISP. Customer service initially said it must be local. I forced the issue, escalated it to a senior engineer and they confirmed they were blocking port 25.

Today, a colleague called me to inform me that he could not send emails. As a favour, his email and web site runs on my servers. As a result, I end up occasionally experiencing the frustrations of customers. Universally, it is a travelling executive unaware that the ISP he is using is blocking access to port 25. I have a policy of not touching my email server and might need to look at it once a year. It just seems to keep going without any problems.

After a period of frustration, the idea that blocking could be international best practice seems ridiculous. But after some careful consideration, I would prefer the freedom provided by the internet even with this inconvenience.

Port 25 blocking may be a necessity?

Wikipedia extract - Electronic SPAM

• Spamming remains a hot discussion topic. In 2004, the seized Porsche of an indicted spammer was advertised on the Internet;[2] this revealed the extent of the financial rewards available to those who are willing to commit duplicitous acts online. However, some of the possible means used to stop spamming may lead to other side effects, such as increased government control over the Internet, loss of privacy, barriers to free expression, and the commercialization of e-mail.
• One of the chief values favored by many long-time Internet users and experts, as well as by many members of the public, is the free exchange of ideas. Many have valued the relative anarchy of the Internet, and bridle at the idea of restrictions placed upon it. A common refrain from spam-fighters is that spamming itself abridges the historical freedom of the Internet, by attempting to force users to carry the costs of material which they would not choose.
• An ongoing concern expressed by parties such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU has to do with so-called “stealth blocking”, a term for ISPs employing aggressive spam blocking without their users’ knowledge. These groups’ concern is that ISPs or technicians seeking to reduce spam-related costs may select tools which (either through error or design) also block non-spam e-mail from sites seen as “spam-friendly”. SPEWS is a common target of these criticisms. Few object to the existence of these tools; it is their use in filtering the mail of users who are not informed of their use which draws fire.

It has been argued that the primary motivation for Port 25 blocking is to discourage people from running web and mail servers from home. This means the ISP can sell more hosting services to its customers. This has foundation.

Solutions to port 25 blocking

There are limited solutions to Port 25 blocking. The vast majority of people will just not be able to send email when connecting through an ISP with this implemented.

• You can add the ISP’s email address to my email software and send email using the ISP’s email account and server. You will need the POP, SMTP addresses and the username and password. The usernames and passwords are not always available depending upon where you connect. Additionally. you can set the reply address this new email account to your main address and any replies to sent emails will be sent to your main address.
• If you can change the configuration of your own mail server, then add a new port. The ISP interferes with Port 25, communicate with your server and send email by another port. This is the solution I implemented after much frustration.
• If the problem connection is a temporary necessity, use the connection to receive emails and queue your replies. You can then visit an internet cafe (which are less likely to block email sending) to send your emails.
• If this is your permanent connection, I recommend you shift service providers to a provider that provides an unrestricted service. If enough people change providers because of this issue, it will also send the message that the community wants unrestricted access to the internet.

Is blocking the ability to send email international best practice. It may be! Let’s hope that initiatives to reduce SPAM do not eliminate the potential of online networks to drive the next stage of economic development (or even just basic communication!)