Comcast Gets Tough on Spam 405
WeakGeek writes "The Washington Post is reporting that Comcast, the nation's largest broadband ISP, has started blocking port 25 to reduce Spam. Jeanne Russo said Comcast is not blocking port 25 for all its users because it does not want to remove the option for legitimate customers who process their own e-mail. So the company is monitoring traffic and picking out machines that look suspicious. By blocking port 25, they say they cut Spam by 20% last week." ZDnet has another article, with a nice statistic: Comcast generates 800 million email messages/day, but only about 100 million of those are sent through Comcast's SMTP servers.
Question... (Score:2, Interesting)
what about mistakes? (Score:5, Interesting)
Is there a place to appeal?...as good as this could be, I think it's going to inconvenience a lot of people.
Fine by me (Score:5, Interesting)
Now, if comcast would sell me a static IP address, I might care, but since they don't it's clearly not meant for servers. As long as I can come up with a way to get my mail out (presumably you could set up sendmail or another MTA to use smtp.comcast.net as a relay even though you need to authenticate to use it, but I've never looked into it) it doesn't seem like an issue to me.
Reverse That (Score:5, Interesting)
Thanks Comcast (Score:3, Interesting)
Not only did they take effors to reduce spam, but for once, they actually listened to their own customers. Thanks Comcast.
All in the name of stopping spammers... (Score:5, Interesting)
On a side note, people with virus infected machines will now notice they can't send email to their external SMTP servers, and call Comcast, which they will reply that you have a mass mailing internet worm, and you've been spamming thousands of messages a day. Due to your incompetence, we have turned off your external access, forever.
Here is what I paste into spam complaints. (Score:4, Interesting)
Hi, I received this spam from out of your network. I trust sending spam is in violation of your terms and conditions.
Please take appropriate measures.
I read recently that about 80% of spam is sent via hacked computers on broadband: http://www.sandvine.com/news/pr_detail.asp?ID=50
You might consider closing port 25 per default and only open it for customers who explicitly want to run their own mail servers.
Thanks,
Comcast is clueless (Score:2, Interesting)
They're talking out of their asses. I have manually blacklisted their entire cablemodem space quite some time ago. Running a grep on the mail log files shows that this week I've already rejected approximately 20% more spam from Comcast than last week.
And the week ain't over yet. The log files rotate on Sundays.
I have concluded that Comcast is a lost cause. Damaged goods. The best thing to do is to blacklist their whole stinking sewer pit, and move on with your life.
Port 1080 (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Seems reasonable, as long as... (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm a comcast user.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Why not pass through their mail servers? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:All in the name of stopping spammers... (Score:2, Interesting)
They just make up those numbers to sell a product and/or service.
Well, what I'd like to know (Score:4, Interesting)
Okay, isn't that what GMail is doing but to ADD a small advert, and everyone goes bonkers..
Comcast does it to 'stop spam' and they're a hero...?
Re:what about mistakes? (Score:3, Interesting)
(Needless to say, I'm on cable
Lets see... (Score:3, Interesting)
Assuming that this is about average, it would only take 46666.67 customers using non-comcast servers to reach this number.
The following is only antidotal, but...
I have set up the cable modems of at least 18 friends and family members. In general I have found that parents tend to use work email addresses most, AOL accouts second most, Hotmail/other free providers, and comcast addresses least. Kids tend to use either AOL or a free email provider more often than using a comcast address.
Thats comes to about 8 comcast addresses that are actualy used out of the 50 or so email accounts used by these friends and family.
I am suprised the number is not much higher.
Re:We'll see how effective this is (Score:4, Interesting)
CBL: 19897 (2% of entire list)
WPBL: 5199 (10% of entire list!)
Wow, that does look like comcast is responsible for a ton of the world's spam!
Re:Reverse That (Score:3, Interesting)
Or better yet, make them pay for the opening the port. Then it would be both a revenue generator and an indirect way of making heavy users of upload bandwidth pay for their share.
Re:Reverse That (Score:3, Interesting)
For the most part I'd agree, except that many large ISP's are notorious for making it virtually impossible to get a service back after they've blocked it.
My ISP here has been pretty good about working with me on any technical issues that have come up, which has been rather refreshing compared to the useless "support" from Rogers or AT&T. There is a great deal to be said for smaller vendors who still understand service, even if it costs a bit more.
Re:Bellsouth, on the other hand blocks all 25 (Score:2, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Finally ... now for all the other ISPs (Score:5, Interesting)
I generally don't like the idea of ISP's interfering with the network, but port 25 is the exception. I like the idea of them blocking 25 by default, but this plan of keeping an eye on their customers is the next best thing. Most people don't realize how much spam comes from broadband accounts. There is some legitimate mail, yes, but those people need to find a new way of life, because it's mostly spam. I use Sendmail at work, and realizing how things have changed on the spam front I updated my /etc/mail/access file so it now starts like this:
And it goes on, and on, and on, for well over a thousand lines. After implementing this I did some calculation and determined that I was blocking about 22% of our incoming mail. There have been some hiccups, but in general I'm really glad I did this. A few people have contacted me to complain that they can't send mail to my users, and I usually tell them to get a static IP address for their mail server or send through a designated relay. This inconvenience to cheap-o owners of SMTP servers with DHCP-assigned addresses has been a real shame, but my users have commented on how much less spam theiy've been getting recently. Blocking broadband users and using Spamcop have been a great combination. Perhaps one day if more ISPs follow Comcast we'll be able to trust those domains again.
Wait, comcast lets you run servers? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Seems reasonable, as long as... (Score:3, Interesting)
It works really well, and I've never heard any complaints about it. It's a lot easier for them than doing things like traffic monitoring etc. as well.
Curses, curses and more curses (Score:4, Interesting)
1) What if I want to create a mailing list for a project that I (hypothetically) am making and host the e-mail server myself?
2) I have absolutely no idea what their virus filter du jour is. Nor do I have any influence on it. If it nukes a ZIP file that I was trying to send (or hoping to receive) then it's just bad luck I guess.
3) The performerance of smtp.mail.dk has been known to be abysmal at times... I wouldn't call it smart to force all e-mail to go through your server if it couldn't even handle the load when only some percentage of what your customers sent went through it earlier...
And I have to deal with this crud because some morons don't belong on the internet, aren't using a firewall and get infected with every single fscking e-mail "virus" [*] that is sent their way.
Not to mention how frustrating it was when my e-mail suddenly one day just stopped working.
[*]: Trojan of course. But noone ever seems to use the right terminology.
Re:Comcast is clueless (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:E-mail Advertising? (Score:3, Interesting)
That number of people is probably much less than 1% of the recipients, but they are probably people that don't want to discuss their inadequacies face to face with other people. It is also these people that won't report a fraud to the police because they are too embarased to say what they tried to buy and too embarased to say they've been swindled.
Re:what about mistakes? (Score:3, Interesting)
As we come up with newer ways to block spammers, they will undoubtedly come up with more brilliant spelling errors and other methods to bypass blocks.
The time has come for real legislation to make this a crime, punishable by the law. Maybe some of it will stop from legal imprecations... My idea would be some sort of bounty hunting system... A system in which the government would set rewards for geeks who locate and inform the government of spamming distributors.
And as for those spammers overseas in China... I haven't given that any thought, maybe a great wall of some sort?
Re:what about mistakes? (Score:3, Interesting)
Here's why (Score:3, Interesting)
The fax address could also be faked.
At 20 million addresses, that makes my eyeballs worth
I am insulted!
(some stuff deleted to avoid lameness filter)
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ARE YOU TOO BUSY TO SEND OUT YOUR EMAILS YOURSELF?
WHY NOT LET US DO IT FOR YOU?
HOW MANY WOULD YOU LIKE US TO BROADCAST FOR YOU?
PLEASE CHOOSE FORM THE FOLLOWING:
[ ] 5 Million ADDRESSES $400.00
[ ] 10 Million ADDRESSES $600.00
[ ] 20 Million ADDRESSES $1,000.00
[ ] 30 Million ADDRESSES $1,500.00
We use our own directory, so you do not need to pay one dime extra.
"69 percent of U.S. e-mail users have made purchases online, 59 percent have
Purchased in retail stores, 39 percent have purchased through catalogs,
34 percent through call centers and 20 percent through postal mail."
E-mail broadcasting is the simplest, fastest, and most effective way to
Communicate. Reach media messages, which invite recipients to respond live.
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{ } If you need more information it is quicker for us and for you to Communicate through email:
To be removed from the database please follow this link, http://notinuse.biz/takeoff/takeoff.html
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Message-ID:
From: "Scot Swain"
Reply-To: "Scot Swain"
To: CENSORED
Subject: ARE YOU TOO BUSY TO SEND OUT YOUR EMAILS YOURSELF?
Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2004 08:02:23 -0400
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Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="--263BC7F2E7F33859B"
X-Priority: 3
X-IP: 80.224.251.116
X-Loop-Detect:1
Status:
Road Runner and Others have blocked 25 for awhile. (Score:4, Interesting)
The solution was to open up another port for SMTP access on our server.
This happened years ago, I never thought twice about it.
And while we're on the subject of Comcast email... (Score:4, Interesting)
Has anyone noticed that email which passes through Comcast's servers is delayed for an amazing amount of time? I had a customer that I consult for miss deadlines (and consequently sales) because of mail that was sent at 0800 and got recieved at 2200 the next day. I'm not exaggerating.
Hearing this and playing around with it a bit, it became obvious that the mail was simply lounging around on Comcast's servers.
Now, of course, I can talk to their tech support until I'm blue in the face and ask them what's going on, but I'd like to take this chance to appeal to the Slashdot community, who usually have a much better understanding of these matters than the droids at the Comcast call center.
If you do a couple quick searches around dslreports and newsgroups and so on, you'll see that there are in fact many people who have the precise same issue, and have recieved no significant reply.
Are there any Comcast insiders who know why these emails float around in limbo for 24 hour periods?
I hope so, too. (Score:3, Interesting)
I hope so. Before Cox blocked port 25, I started getting more and more bounces but Exim was still more reliable than Cox's SMTP server. Not being able to run a real mail server bothered me, but having to point my MTA at Cox's SMTP servers has been a real pain.
This inconvenience to cheap-o owners of SMTP servers with DHCP-assigned addresses has been a real shame ...
Do me a favor and tell Cox to get rid of their expensive and money losing DHCP infrastructure for their "always on" internet connection with a 1:1 IP to client ratio. I liked the static IP I got from AtHome and I paid for one from Cox when they started to charge for that "service". I dropped it when they wanted $70/month for service that was slower than DSL.
Re:What does your average user need with 3 gigs/da (Score:1, Interesting)
I easily break 90gb a month on just unlicensed fansub anime. Not even counting listening to streaming mp3s.
Re:What does your average user need with 3 gigs/da (Score:4, Interesting)
Gaming server
IRC server
multiple VNC server
Internet radio
PHPnuke boards
Popular Blog
Popular Webcomic comic
Not so popular flavor of Linux you made yourself
Internet phone
Being a camgirl
Seriously, is your imagination so limited that you can't think of another way you use up a lot of uploading bandwidth legally?
Re:What does your average user need with 3 gigs/da (Score:1, Interesting)
SPF Records? (Score:3, Interesting)
One of the servers that I administer is on Comcast. I just set up SPF records for that domain, and I "include comcast.net" because we send most of our stuff through their SMTP server. Now if only Comcast would set up their SPF records, we could comply to this lovely standard.
Sorry to take this opportunity to rant about one of my pet peeves...
You can thank spam-viruses (Score:4, Interesting)