E-mail blues

[ktinkel]

All of a sudden yesterday evening I became unable to send e-mail from any account that has its own SMTP — Eudora struggles for a minute or two, then tells me the server cannot be found.

Since that group includes my main e-mail address (“dominant” in Eudora parlance), it was extremely annoying.

Of course I figured it was the ISP, and they have been trying to help me unravel the problem. Turns out the guy also uses SBC DSL (in another part of the country), and he said they had changed something on his account so he could only send outbound e-mail through their servers.

So I went to the SBC web site and sure enough, they have put a “filter” on Port 25 so that I can only send e-mail through them, not via any other host. (Filter? I’d call it a block, myself!) They describe it as spam prevention.

Now I have three choices, to wit:

• Convert my outgoing mail to the SBC SNET mail servers
• Find alternate access for my 3rd party mail server (VPN, Web mail, Outlook Web Access)
• Ask SBC to remove the SMTP port 25 filter from my account (with the suggestion that that request may not necessarily be granted)

So my question to the assembled multitude is: Is there any reason not to try to get the filter removed? Are there likely to be hidden ramifications?

Or, turn it around, should I mind being forced to use them for outbound e-mail? (I never use them for incoming.)

[PeterArnel]

Kathleen - what a great song it would make "Email Blues"
Peter

[ktinkel]

Originally Posted by PeterArnel

Kathleen - what a great song it would make "Email Blues"

Yeah — I told Jack to find my old autoharp. After a few weeks of restringing, well, who knows? I may have a cool new song! <g>

Meanwhile, I am just cranky.

[PeterArnel]

I can understand that - the problem we all have is that now toilet paper has gone soft on us - it just doesnt sound the same when you play it on the comb :-)
Peter

[ktinkel]

Originally Posted by PeterArnel

I can understand that - the problem we all have is that now toilet paper has gone soft on us - it just doesnt sound the same when you play it on the comb :-)

Of course not! (Although having experienced British toilet paper from the old days, it might have worked fine! Somewhere I have a bit of mulberry-colored T.P. from the V&A, used as a place marker in some book or other. But I digress …)

Anyway, we are stuck with the digital hum of e-mail blues … :-)

[ElyseC]

Mulberry TP? Interesting color.

In the 70s when we could buy raspberry, gold or avocado color TP (remember when avocado plumbing fixtures and appliances were the rage?), it cost a lot more than regular ol' white stuff. Well, I had a sleepover with my teen buddies and we decided we needed to TP the neighbors house and yard. What was available? Avocado TP.

We made quite a fashion statement that night. <gggg> I wonder if Martha would've been proud...

[ktinkel]

Originally Posted by ElyseC

In the 70s when we could buy raspberry, gold or avocado color TP …

Yikes! I missed that altogether.

Maybe they didn’t sell it in NYC. <g>

[ElyseC]

Originally Posted by ktinkel

Yikes! I missed that altogether.

Maybe they didn’t sell it in NYC. <g>

With your great affection for bold color, I figure had you seen it available you'd have bought it in a flash. <g> It was more expensive than the ordinary stuff, so if you two were on a budget back then, you probably would've passed it up.

[ktinkel]

Originally Posted by ElyseC

With your great affection for bold color, I figure had you seen it available you'd have bought it in a flash. <g> It was more expensive than the ordinary stuff, so if you two were on a budget back then, you probably would've passed it up.

Actually, in usable dollars, we were flush in the 70s (until NYC decided to stop paying people! Jack was working for Hunter College then …).

And since when did I ever flinch at an esthetic opportunity?

Nope, no recollection whatsoever. Maybe it was a mid-western thing. I used to work for a marketing research company, and we did all our testing in the mid-west. If it didn't work, then it never went east or west! <g>

[ElyseC]

Originally Posted by ktinkel

Actually, in usable dollars, we were flush in the 70s (until NYC decided to stop paying people! Jack was working for Hunter College then …).

And since when did I ever flinch at an esthetic opportunity?

Nope, no recollection whatsoever. Maybe it was a mid-western thing. I used to work for a marketing research company, and we did all our testing in the mid-west. If it didn't work, then it never went east or west! <g>

That would explain it and that thought did occur to me!