Comcast Blocks Yet Another ISPs E-Mail 401
Nom du Keyboard writes, "Last week Comcast shutdown e-mail forwarding from NameZero entirely. People who have bought private domain names (i.e. yourname@yourdomain.com) and have e-mail forwarding to their current Comcast e-mail account through NameZero aren't receiving it any longer. No warnings — no e-mail. Now, again without warning, they've blocked out The Well, one of the oldest ISPs on the net. And nobody can get through to the Comcast people in charge of this to discuss the issue with them. Not the ISPs being blocked. Not the customers who pay Comcast to deliver e-mail to them. Comcast says they're protecting 10M customers from spam. I am a current Comcast broadband customer and I feel I should have the right to whitelist and receive e-mail from whomever I designate. I don't want as much protection as Comcast is giving me. Is it a basic right to be allowed to receive e-mail from whomever I desire, or does Comcast have the right to censor as they wish?" Last week Comcast was also blocking mail from alum.mit.edu. I (probably among many others) left a complaint on the phone line identified in bounce messages; the block was eventually lifted.
Re:I think I may have identified your problem... (Score:4, Interesting)
I saw the comcast guy pull up so I go to the door but he ran upstairs to another apartment..
I'm thinking ok he'll stop by when he's done up there.
Nope.. 5 min later the van was gone..
I called comcast and they said I wasn't home.. ARGH!!
I finally got them to come back 3 days later and a free install..
Then to top it off, the install was on my bill the next month then a credit the month after..
FYI (Score:5, Interesting)
When you form a contract with another party, you earn a "right" to receive the consideration from them that you bargained for.
Amazingly enough, courts will actually enforce this right. I'll be around in case you need any more corrections of your obviously wrong assumptions. Thank you.
Re:This is a problem with every ISP I've ever used (Score:3, Interesting)
For my private company mail servers, they end up averaging about 60%-80% of all incoming mail is SPAM. I'd expect with larger ISPs, such as AOL and Comcast, this ratio is even worse -- perhaps 4 spams or more for every 1 legitimate mail (or greater) due to being a much larger target for things like distributed mail campaigns, dictionary-based mailings, etc.
So this is a HUGE problem. Unfortunately it is getting worse with no real tangable solution available. As a result, spam filtering is getting more agressive and false positives are more common.
Re:I think I may have identified your problem... (Score:3, Interesting)
But as far as the charges, they've charged me 3 times my normal rate every other month since this happened, and I've actually been told by a tech support person that I was stupid, and that the billing problems are my fault...
Moreover, why forward backwards? (Score:3, Interesting)
My mail gets forwarded via Godaddy to Gmail. Godaddy does a halfway decent job filtering out most of the junk and Gmail handles the rest. The idea being to forward TO the agent with the most effective spam filtering.
The Well has a pretty good reputation, and I would expect them to be fairly adept at spam filtering, and have decent customer support. Why forward backwards?
They're blocking Yahoo mail for godssakes (Score:3, Interesting)
Comcast is blocking a whole range of yahoo IP addresses. I've emailed them three times asking them to open up the whole block, but they won't do it, they'll only open up each IP i send them individually.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
This sort of thing really pisses me off (Score:3, Interesting)
And, hell if I'm going to pay GoodMail for beans. Sigh...
Pretty easy to get this fixed (Score:2, Interesting)
From: abuse-noreply@comcast.net
Date: August 22, 2006 12:10:25 PM EDT
Subject: Comcast.net Blacklist Removal Response
Please do not reply to this message.
This is to notify you that your request for removal from the
comcast.net blocklist has been received.
The following IPs were found within your request. Below each one,
we've included the results of our research.
38.xxx.xxx.xxx
The IP you previously provided has been removed from the
Comcast.net blocklist.
After review of the blocking, the IP you submitted was found to
have been blocked due to the fact that the majority of the traffic
from that IP contained content indicative of spam. If you are not
aware of the traffic that could have caused this, we recommend a
review of your outbound mail logs and ensuring that all computers
connecting to through the submitted IP are clear of any security
exploits.
Thank You
Comcast Network Abuse and Policy Observance
Re:Say What? (Score:3, Interesting)
How comcast does things (Score:3, Interesting)
They have a unique way of dealing with their customers.
One day after I got home from work and wanted to check the news I found my internet was down. This was upsetting as my phones were going through the cable modem and I had recently gotten vongo. I didn't think it too out of the ordinary their reliability wasn't great. I got out the cell phone and started calling customer support. Half an hour later I managed to get that there was positively no technical problems in my area. 20 Minutes and 2 supervisors later I found out my account was blocked. In order to do anything to fix my account I had to call the abuse dept. Aptly named that it was, the abuse dept abuses you. Calling them got me a tape recording telling me to leave a message and they would get back to me in one to 3 days. A day later I get a call from them. The abuse people, tell me I have been using the service too much. This was based on the average use in my area. No mention was made of this when I had it installed, nor in the advertising when I bought their "Always on service". Anyway I was told my account would be back in half an hour and I should curb my usage. Oddly enough my account didn't come back.
The following is not moral or ethical but it was immensely enjoyable. I called direct tv and had them install a system with a tivo at the earliest. I let comcast run up their bill to the max and when the direct tv was installed I took comcasts equipment down to the recycling center.
Comcast treats its customers like crap. They do so because they have a monopoly. If you can attend a Public service meeting town council or whatever your municipality uses to call them to task.
Re:This is a problem with every ISP I've ever used (Score:3, Interesting)
Email is never blocked, but simply cleaned and labeled.
- If it contains some sort of known malware, that file is quarantined before sending on the email.
- If it's "obviously" spam, then *******SPAM******* is prepended to the subject.
- If an html link appears to be a phishing attempt (tagged url doesn't match href url or similar) then it's put in plaintext with a warning
It's easy and simple. Yes, you need to slightly educate your users, but if you intelligently modify the subject or body it really shouldn't be a problem.
A Precedent Solution (Score:5, Interesting)
Get the affected ISP's admins, and who ever is sympathetic to their cause, and black hole * from Comcast.
Don't just do it, tell them you're doing it, and tell the press. When the press gets word that an ISP is being shunned as a bad neighbor, they climb all over it.
It took a dozen people issuing cancels for all messages originating from UUNet, and 3 people talking to the press about it, 4 days to force Worldcom to change their corporate policy with regards to their downstream customers' behavior. I'll always treasure the 10 minute fabulously obscene rant I got from John Sidgemore over it. Nor will I forget his VP and cheif scientist literally crying on the phone asking us to lift it. Sidgemore must have been a bitch to work for.
That was a 4.5 G$ US company. They live on their profit and loss statements, and how those affect their stock prices. Those stock prices are extremely sensitive to loud blasts of bad news.
Comcast: a law unto themselves? (Score:2, Interesting)
Here's a brief rundown of the story:
- Guy notices his phones aren't working
- Guy calls in Comcast to get phones fixed
- Comcast line tech digs up a buried cable
- Comcast line tech chops the aforementioned cable into little tiny bits
- Comcast line tech marches into the house and hurls abuse at the guy's wife
I have to admit, destroying someone's property, then screaming at his wife.. that's a good one. Obviously the tech was too much of a coward to actually confront the guy about it, and instead opted to throw abuse at his wife instead....It's an interesting story - at least read the messages from the OP before replying, he mentions a lot of important stuff later on (for instance, the cable was actually a private LAN cable and wasn't wired up to the DSL at all)...
It's COMCASTIC! (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem isn't what Comcast does, it's what they don't do: Provide humans.
Every try reaching someone with any authority at Comcast? It's impossible.
Not difficult: Impossible.
I'm beginning to suspect Comcast some sort of outsourced Vogon corporation and their offices are full of large green lumbering creatures, and anyone human is simply a hired shill, I mean, lobbyist.
Want to test? Try calling and asking a support monkey for the address of their ntp server(s). Not "nntp" (they have that in their keyword scripts), not usenet news, rather ntp as in time. It's a whose-on-first comedy routine trying to convince them that ntp != nntp and when you do, they escalate it, say someone will call you back, and nobody does. Ever.
That's a trivial geeky example but emblematic.
Every aspect of Comcast: Front line without power, whose only recourse is to ditch and run, and no second level. Nobody accountable, nobody responsable, just useless monkeys.
Heck, for two years after Comcast bought out ATT BI my net address from Comcast resolved to "maggard.ne.attbi.net". Who to call to get this updated? Nobody knew. Ever. Utter clulessness, absolute uselessness. Eventually my vanity setting went away entirely with nobody to talk to about reinstating it under comcast.net (so much for an easy VPN address!)
Email routing problems: Nobody to report to. False spam blocking: No recourse. Wonky DNS servers: Tough luck.
If anyone ever does get a phone number of a bipedal hominid at Comcast, with some degree of authority, please post it!
In the meantime the next time Comcasts license comes up in this town I'll be there recounting my stories with them, the outtages, blocked ports, the service people who never show up, the email problems, their own spam, etc. Oh, and 2 weeks ago Verizon ran fiber to my property line. At least I'll have a choice of scoundrels now - who it worse, the cable company or the phone company?
Re:on basic rights (Score:1, Interesting)
It is not a right from the perspective that anyone should be able to offer any set (any legal set, although you have a circular definition there already) of services at any price they want, and people should be free to buy it if they want. Comcast should be able to offer 'internet with email on Fridays only' or 'internet where you can only visit sites reached through our advertising platform'' without anyone saying those offerings are infringing on their basic human rights.
But - let's say you signed up a service with a company that would print and distribute newsletters you emailed through to them, according to a distribution list you set up online. After some months you had a couple of surprise conversations, as it turned out that several of the newsletters hadn't been received.
After tracing the issue it turned out that you had, in the newsletters, made reference to business in a certain province of Lebanon, and the CEO of the company had decided that in order to maintain international calmness towards the conflict there, newsletters with the word 'lebanon' would all be discarded. When you refer to your monthly subscription they point to a clause in the agreement saying that they had the right to "apply standards of decency when deciding if material would be unsuited for distribution".
In this case, have you had your human rights infringed on? Some would say yes, others no. Have you had your legal rights infringed on? Some would say yes, others no. I would certainly argue that in a situation like that _some_ form of rights would be infringed on. If a company applies a serious limitation to a service it provides for a fee, in a way that is likely to cause material damage to the activities of a customer, and the customer is unlikely to have considered could happen, it could be said the customer has a commercial right to, at the very least, be informed promptly.
In Comcast's case, what they should have done would be to, the first time it happens, forward an email saying that "The attached email from domain XYZ has been blocked, and any further emails from this source will be blocked as well for reason ABC".
Only the tip of the iceberg (Score:2, Interesting)
The Net Neutrality Debate in a Nutshell (Score:3, Interesting)
For all we know, Comcast is just fed up with people who are getting their 'net access from a less powerful competitor. They are saying "Sign up with us or this is what happens". Do you know who's the biggest ISP in the area that is served by The Well? Comcast, that's who.
An Internet without Net Neutrality protections would be like letting the auto manufacturers own oil companies. We'd start seeing Fords not able to run on Saturn's gasoline. Or letting auto manufacturers own the toll roads. Drive a Chyrsler? Well, you can use our road, but you have to stay in the slow lane.
Let's let the telcos continue to make huge profits from monthly fees for 'net access. But please, PLEASE, let's not let them become the owners of the Internet.
If you think that's bad... (Score:3, Interesting)
I had recently cancelled Comcast, and checking through my bank records I found that I had paid them for an extra month. I called up, gave my old account number, and said that I overpaid and would like a refund. They rattled off some number that was only about half of what I paid, but I didn't want to deal with the hastle of pushing the issue and accepted it. Soon thereafter, I moved, completely forgetting about the refund check that I should have received.
About three months later I go back to collect any mail that collected for me, only to find three notices from a debt collector- "is due, pay soon", "is due, pay now", and "is due, you're screwed"- on behalf of Comcast. Checking the amount owed, it was exactly the amount that they owed me!
It was Christmas day, I had had surgury less than a week before and was still in pain, so this just made me furious. I called the 800 number for comcast, who said I had to call the local place (they couldn't even provide the local number, feh). I dialed the local area, and, surprisingly, I got an answer. I explained my predicament to the woman on the phone, she saw where they had made mistake, and fixed it, removing the debt. I'll give them credit for being able to take care of my problem on Christmas day, but I will work my hardest to never use their service again.
I should have pushed to get my refund, but I decided that I didn't care that much, and I didn't want to wind up with another debt notice on my credit score. I really should check it to make sure it got scrubbed.
Re:I think I may have identified your problem... (Score:3, Interesting)
why use isp's email? (Score:3, Interesting)
It also means, if the ISP is being dumb and uses excessive filtering or places crazy restrictions on it, I don't have to worry, even if they are the only ISP I can access in a given geographic location.
Filtering is one reason I like using my isp's email. First they allow you to identify email as spam, which they then block the addies it came from. Then they allow to divert all email from addies that are not in your online addressbook, instead of it going to your inbox it is placed inside a suspicious folder. Then when you check your email from the web if you want you can look at the messages and decide if you want to delete it, put it in your inbox, or put it in the inbox and add the senter to your addressbook. Every day the ISP sends you a message with the sender and subjectline of all of the blocked or diverted messages. So I never get spam in my inbox. I also went with my isp, Earthlink, because it's a national isp not regional or local. I've moved four tymes since I signed up and haven't had any problems in the about 9 years I've been with them. That's not to say I don't have other email accounts, I do. I have an account with Yahoo!, for almost as long as I've had access to the net, another addy with a club I'm a member of, and a third account that is an education account. It is this account that I use for backup.
Falcon