Mon Mar 22, 2004 3:36 pm
Don''t get COX!
Hmmm anyone ever used this ISP? They have quite a monopoly in OC, CA area where I am now. And their service is horrible.
Let me say why:
1) They block port no. 25 and 80 their excuse is so to avoid spams originating from their servers. This blocks connection to SMTP server, for those of you using 3rd party email server. May be this is not important to many people, but as an ICS student who often sends very large file, and sharing apartment with roommate (raising privacy issue coz I need to ask for his email and pswd) using their server is out of the question. They claimed that they're doing this to fight spam originating from their server... I doubt that. It's more likely that they want people to pay for connecting to SMTP servers +39 USD more monthly. And someone with a little background in computer knows that you can bypass this restriction through VPN tunnelling. Or through other methods. That means this is more likely to impact those people who don't spam and aren't very computer literate. Why would they do this then?
2) Connection is terrible. Very unstable, and in 1 week there're couple of times when I get the feeling that a dial - up is faster than this so called "high-speed" connection. Highly frustrating. Especially when you have a deadline due, and your internet isn't even usable. You could also say that this is cheating. This is violating their promised upload/download speed.
3) Not terribly cheap compared to others, more reliable connections.
Conclusion: Stay out of COX and watch out when getting an ISP if they close any ports if at all. I have heard of another ISP that close some ports you need to play online games to curb the amount of bandwith you're using. This is a form of false advertising, as they often advertise on the ease of online gaming, emailing and such, but often it's not true with multiple ports blocked.
If you have COX and stuck to it and need to use 3rd party SMTP try using VPN to redirect your incoming outgoing traffic through another server (company or school) They can't peek into what's inside the secure connection. Or if you don't have any server to connect to, try this
And when you can, cancel it, unless multiple dropped connections, and speed slower than 14.4 kbps modem a few times a week is your idea of broadband.
Let me say why:
1) They block port no. 25 and 80 their excuse is so to avoid spams originating from their servers. This blocks connection to SMTP server, for those of you using 3rd party email server. May be this is not important to many people, but as an ICS student who often sends very large file, and sharing apartment with roommate (raising privacy issue coz I need to ask for his email and pswd) using their server is out of the question. They claimed that they're doing this to fight spam originating from their server... I doubt that. It's more likely that they want people to pay for connecting to SMTP servers +39 USD more monthly. And someone with a little background in computer knows that you can bypass this restriction through VPN tunnelling. Or through other methods. That means this is more likely to impact those people who don't spam and aren't very computer literate. Why would they do this then?
2) Connection is terrible. Very unstable, and in 1 week there're couple of times when I get the feeling that a dial - up is faster than this so called "high-speed" connection. Highly frustrating. Especially when you have a deadline due, and your internet isn't even usable. You could also say that this is cheating. This is violating their promised upload/download speed.
3) Not terribly cheap compared to others, more reliable connections.
Conclusion: Stay out of COX and watch out when getting an ISP if they close any ports if at all. I have heard of another ISP that close some ports you need to play online games to curb the amount of bandwith you're using. This is a form of false advertising, as they often advertise on the ease of online gaming, emailing and such, but often it's not true with multiple ports blocked.
If you have COX and stuck to it and need to use 3rd party SMTP try using VPN to redirect your incoming outgoing traffic through another server (company or school) They can't peek into what's inside the secure connection. Or if you don't have any server to connect to, try this
And when you can, cancel it, unless multiple dropped connections, and speed slower than 14.4 kbps modem a few times a week is your idea of broadband.
