[SLL] Dealings with Comcast

[dave johanson]

This morning when I downloaded my email there was a message from Comcast 
stating that my box was sending out spam and that they therefore were 
blocking any more outgoing messages until I logged onto their site to 
correct the situation. The message contained specific links depending on 
the email client used. So I clicked on the link for Firefox and was 
suddenly at a hanging, non working page. So I called Comcast support and 
a nice gentleman told me that yes, the email was from Comcast, and that 
they were sending this kind of stuff out but all I needed to do was to 
connect to the proper link - www.comcastsupport/rbl - and that once 
there all I needed to do was fill out a short form and that Comcast 
would then turn my outgoing mail back on. I thanked him and jumped out 
to the indicated page which, surprise, also didn't work. So I called 
Comcast again, got a different support technician who said that Comcast 
doesn't send out such messages and that the problem was simply with MY 
mail client. To prove it he had me log onto the Comcast web page, open 
up my email account, and send a message to myself. That was his proof 
that Comcast wasn't blocking my mail - because I could send and receive 
mail from within the Comcast web page - and that it had to be my email 
client that was creating all the problem by itself, something that had 
not happened before, in 16 months of service, until receiving the 
comcast message this morning. Unfortunately, when I asked him what could 
possibly be the problem, and how to fix it since the coincidental email 
message from Comcast and the simultaneously failed outgoing mail had to 
be MY problem, he calmly informed me that Comcast doesn't support 
Thunderbird and I should "call the company that makes Thunderbird."  I 
told him that wouldn't be necessary as I would simply get a real ISP as 
quickly as possible. At that point I was asked if I would hold the line 
while he talked to a supervisor. When he came back he assured me that 
Comcast didn't send the email (the one confirmed by another tech) and 
that Comcast wasn't blocking port 25 but I could try port 587 if I 
wanted. Switching to port 587 solved the Comcast problem immediately.

I do believe that this was the last straw for Comcast and it is finally 
time for a real ISP, one supporting both Linux and Thunderbird.

dave