[olug] Cox and Web Servers

[Trent Melcher]

Yea, they unblocked port 25 about 8-12 months ago.  I was running an SMTP
server at home for a long time as @home and cox then they shut it down.  Had
to host my SMTP server at my work,  was going to do the same with my
website, but changing the port to 3000 worked fine for me.  Haven't switched
my SMTP back to home, just in case they decide to block it again.

I'm not sure what their rationale is for blocking port 80.  Definitely isn't
bandwidth, file sharing programs eat up allot more bandwidth.  Isn't virus
protection either,  if I remember the stats email account for more than 90%
of the virus propagation in the world.  Oh well,  its not too much of an
inconvenience for me.

Trent


-----Original Message-----
From: olug-admin at olug.org [mailto:olug-admin at olug.org]On Behalf Of Phil
Brutsche
Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2002 10:43 PM
To: olug at olug.org
Subject: Re: [olug] Cox and Web Servers


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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