Comcast and SORBS

[Don Levey]

discuss-bounces at blu.org wrote:
> I've had a Linux-based home SMTP server since, well, I first
> discovered Linux in 1992.  All of a sudden I'm having trouble getting
> messages sent out; about a third of them are getting bounced by spam
> filters.
>
> Turns out the good folks at SORBS, a service used by all the Big
> Corporate Giants in the email business, decided to add the netblock
> 66.31.0.0/16 to their SMTP blacklist.  The database entry was created
> 5 days ago.
>
> For now what I've been doing is adding Big Corporate Giant domains
> (and various smaller entities that use SORBS) one-by-one into my
> /etc/mail/mailertable file--forcing outbound email for those specific
> sites to relay through Comcast's SMTP server.  This is obviously not
> a reliable long-term solution, and over time is eroding my privacy
> rights as more companies tighten their rules against private SMTP
> servers.
>
> What's a cost-effective way around this?  Dump Comcast for an
> un-blocked service?  Buy a static IP from Comcast (I can't even
> figure out how, their marketing website is useless)?  Buy service at
> a web-hosting company somewhere?  Throw in the towel and relay all my
> email through Comcast, where it can be readily monitored by nefarious
> corporate and/or government entities who do NOT have consumer
> privacy-interests in mind?
>
> Or should we start a letter-writing campaign to SORBS and other
> blacklist providers to come up with an alternative spam-blocking
> solution that doesn't drop a sledgehammer on all those of us who
> prefer to run home-based SMTP servers to transmit a handful of emails
> per day?
>

I'm on the other side of this one.  I run on a dynamic IP cable modem, and
smarthost all my outgoing email through my ISP's smtp server.  Forget about
perceived privacy problems for a moment - it's in the contract.  I could buy
a static IP from them and route out directly; currently, they BLOCK outgoing
port 25 traffic past their network for dynamic IPs.

I wish more ISPs would do this.  In fact, I specifically wish Comcast would
do this.  I block each and every Comcast connection I can from their dynamic
blocks, because they DON'T do this.  Why?  Because at one point I was
getting hit with over 1000 attempts per day to deliver spam and viruses from
dynamic IPs on Comcast's network, and Comcast didn't do a damn thing about
it.  Still, I get quite a few hits; because of the blocks they go right in
the bitbucket.  I have no illusion about "privacy" rights when I'm using
someone else's private property for my transmission, even under contract.
And they'd be fools to permit unmonitored communication over their network.

 -Don