On 4/19/06, Mark Foster
Just a quick email to the list to find out what other service providers are doing regarding XTRA blocking port 25 when your company does not provide internet connections, so many of your customers are using xtra as a service provider but not for other services wuch as mail.
Many of my customers are XTRA customers, but are also vodafone etc etc, so an external autheticated mail server is a huge bonus for them. Use secure port?
Xtra offer a product called 'Secure Remote Email' which is an alternative for roaming customers. SSL, and works regardless of the ISP you're on.
Is good to know for customer reference. Telstra Clear offers this already and i didnt know that Xtra do. Cool.
Note that if your Usually-via-Xtra customer was on Vodafone and sending to a destination other than xtra, using smtp.xtra.co.nz would never have worked in the first place as Xtra don't provide Authenticated SMTP except for their SRE product, IIRC.
Yea - our customers all use our servers which require authenticated access, so my issue was more with what todo with XTRA customers...
Likewise your Usually-via-someone-else customer attempting to send their mail back to someone-elses-smtp-server over a service with Port 25 Blocked will have similar relay issues unless theyre authenticating somehow - however, 'thems the breaks' if theyre on Xtra's network, and their network provider (whoever it is that is Xtra's customer on their behalf) hasn't gotten an exception to the rule. Solution, as already suggested: Use another port, or use smtp.xtra.co.nz.
Yep - was going to use port 2525, but have decided to use 587 which is an industry standard port for mail.
Noted that Xtra have stated that people who want to be excluded from the block need only ask.
Yep :) - have you seen what they want you to agree to for this? Tell them your AV software Tell them your firewall software State the reason for doing it Tell them your mail server software Agree to terms and conditions including that you will keep your AV and firewall software up to date at all times.
I say good on Xtra for finally implementing something which should have been done years ago! The doomsayers need to start thinking pragmatically about this; there are plenty of ways around this. (Heck, when i'm travelling, I am either using SSH or Webmail..)
Agreed, i think. I had a thought that it would be quite a good idea for service providers to be able to apply to XTRA to get there servers excluded from the list. Haven't thought about the practically or legal issues here - of which there are many! Side: I remember doing some work with Vodafone and Telecom a number of years ago regarding SMS gateways and having to sign some documents that basically said: "If you stuff our network, or dont, for any reason, or not, to do with anything, or nothing: You will pay" - was a laugh at the time! Simon