[olug] Cox and Web Servers

Phil Brutsche phil at brutsche.us
Thu Oct 10 03:43:07 UTC 2002


William E. Kempf wrote:
 >> Cox doesn't block port 80.  The block went away when we swiched to
 >> cox.net from home.com.
 >
 >
 > Nope, they are blocking again.  Check out
 > 
http://www.expressresponse.com/cgi-bin/cox_isp/displayfaq.cgi?search_input=N
 >  ULL and the question about what ports they block.  And I've tested
 > to verify that this is true.

Hrm...  They unblocked it just after the switch.  But yea, it's blocked
again.

That web site is inaccurate, though.  Port 25 is definitely NOT blocked.

 >> It's not terrible business practice.
 >
 >
 > Yes, it is.  They don't universally block port 80 (or the other
 > ports), they only do so for non-business accounts.  That's
 > unreasonably restrictive, and nothing but a ploy to milk their
 > customers of more money.

Think about it this way:

1) Something like Nimda hits a bunch of computers
2) Cox's network goes to crap due to all the traffic
3) People say "Cox is just d*** slow, I'm switching to DSL!"
4) Ooops, lost business

Or another way:

1) Something like Nimda hits
2) Cox's support is overwhelmed by clueless twits asking what's wrong
3) Support costs just went up
4) Ooops, just lost some money

Oh, and business accounts are much more likely to be running servers.

I won't mention how running a server is against their AUP.

 >> It's smart security, in the face of Nimda and Code Red.
 >
 >
 > That's a security issue for the user, and their responsibility if
 > they choose to run such servers.  That's not relevant to Cox.

Not all users choose to run a web server.  Sometimes it's installed for 
them, without their knowledge.  Sometimes they install it and forget 
about it, and sometimes they simply don't care.

I saw all of the above during my time as help desk staff.


Phil




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