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13.2.06
When is an Internet Connection... Part II
While I can't help but think that forcing people to send e-mail through a mandatory server is a set-up for the recent provisions in the Patriot Act, I can see the reasoning behind it. Your average every-day user doesn't know how to clean viruses off their computers. You know, the viruses that get out there and start spewing spam to every fathomable reach of the net. It may seem that to combat these users, ignorant of their roles in the global problem of spam, the easiest thing to do is simply to filter the broadcast port.
However, I am not one of those users, I know how to take care of my computer, and I don't want someone else sending my mail for me thankyouverymuch.
I called today to get my wonderful BellSouth account deactivated. I figured it'd be an easy process, and it was for the most part. There were 2 things that caught me, however.
1) I was asked the standard "Why are you leaving us" question, but with a twist. The operator asked if I was leaving due to recent policy changes (I assumed she must mean the recent addition of the filtering of port 25).
2) When I answered that yes, I was leaving due to their restrictions on accessing the internet, they offered me the same class of service at a discount.
When I picked my jaw off the floor I declined the offer. Now, for those of you outside of the "Bell Monopoly" (consider yourselves lucky) you must understand that the 'Bell never never takes a profit hit. Perhaps they're losing more business from filtering the internet than they thought they would.
Still, the philisophical problems I see from ISP's restricting access to the Internet scares me. Right now, it's port 25, under the guise of spam control. What if they wanted to block other ports, perhaps ones used for gaming? Would they offer plans to charge for opening those ports back up? There's no law currently that says they can't. What about if they don't like a particular political group? They could simply filter all traffic to a specific website. We've already seen that beginning to happen in China. Even though it's just one port, if the program is successful, and people stand for it, what will the next step be?
9.2.06
When is an Internet Connection Not an Internet Connection
So...
I go to send an e-mail the other day, something I enjoy doing from time to time, and I realize that I can no longer send e-mail from my computer. Yay! So I dial up BellSouth tech support, and get the standard Indian-trying-to-speak-with-an-American-accent tech guy, who proceeds to tell me that I'll need to be using BellSouth's SMTP server from now on if I want to send mail. I politely inform him that the entire reason I have an SMTP server on my computer is that I don't want to use BellSouth's server, and ask him what I need to do to get port 25 unblocked.
He then tells me that Vishnu has commanded that any residential DSL customers who want the freedom of, say, e-mail, will have to upgrade to a commercial package. It's all good, though, because they can get me this great deal that only adds about $50 to my phone bill to give me access that an ISP should give me anyway.
*sigh*
RoadRunner, here I come.
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