SMTP Blocking by Your ISP

Internet service providers (ISP's) are starting to block their customers from accessing Port 25 on servers located elsewhere on the internet. Port 25 is the default port used via SMTP. SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transport Protocol, and is the protocol used to send email to any outgoing email server. This port is used by all outgoing e-mail servers, and email programs which send email such as Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express. If you call them up and ask them why, they will tell you to use the mail server they provide to you and provide you with the instructions on how to use their outgoing email server.

Why are they doing this you might ask? They are doing this so the internet connection they provide to their customers is not used by their customers to send out massive amounts of spam emails. If a customer can only use an e-mail server provided by the ISP to send email, then the ISP is able to store logs which can be tracked back to a specific customers name, address, phone number, etc. If a customer abuses this mail server, they are kicked off and possibly sued by the ISP if the damages are massive enough (spam can really bog down a mail server, interrupting email for other users).

If you are able to receive email, but unable to send email, then you may be a customer of one of the ISP's implementing this new policy.

How We Help You Avoid This
To help our customers avoid these situations we have opened server port 26 to take the place of port 25. Your email will work the same and you won't experience any delays or interruptions by your ISP. Here is how to do this: Under the "Advanced" tab on your email account properties in Outlook Express, be sure to change the Server Port Number for the Outgoing mail (SMTP) from "25" to "26". Our mail ports are set to 26 because many ISPs block port 25 to protect their users from spammers.

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