ISP And Contract Issues (was Re: Webone blocking port 25??)

[Alex Satrapa]

On Thursday, July 25, 2002, at 09:23 , Damien Elmes wrote:

> Alas, using the internet in the way it was intended (ie, freely), isn't 
> useful to most people.

The Internet was never intended to be used freely.  It was designed 
right from the beginning to be a robust communications network for the 
United States military.  Then the Universities in the USA adopted the 
technology from DARPA, and some point about 1994, commercial entities 
got involved.

Since you're not connected to mil.net, I can assume that you're not one 
of the intended target audience of the DARPA project, so you have no 
claim to any "rights" in this network.  The ISP that you purchase access 
from is a participant in the Internet - not you. You use their services 
on their terms.

Just because you can't do things your way, doesn't mean the system is 
broken.

If you can't configure your laptop to successfully use multiple dial-up 
connections, the problem lies in your expectations (and sysadmin 
skills), not the ISPs configuration.  If you drive a car or ride a 
motorcycle, you have to pay compulsory third party personal insurance.  
This is to protect other people (third party person) from your 
mistakes.  In much the same way, ISPs will be doing what they can to 
protect themselves from their client's mistakes.  No ISP wants to end up 
on the RBL.  No ISP admin wants to receive mail to the abuse@ account.  
No ISP admin wants to have their ISP gain a reputation as being a 
breeding ground for Microsoft LookOut virii.  If the ISP makes things 
easy for you, they're also making things easy for spammers and other 
morons.

Forced to choose between two eventualities, I would much rather lose my 
ability to send email for a day or two due to the ISP messing up their 
SMTP relay, than lose my ability to send email at all due to the ISP 
ending up on the RBL or other blacklist.  Switching ISPs is not a task 
to be undertaken lightly.

You demanding an ISP to remove its blocking of port 25 outbound is like 
a chemical company demanding the Government to remove their restrictions 
on dumping toxic waste into the Murray/Darling basin.

As Sam has said previously - if you're not getting what you paid for, 
complain to your provider. If you're expecting to get something you 
didn't pay for, review your expectations.

Alex
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