Post by Maurice ON4BAMWhat ports do you need?
Port 25 in particular, but I do my own security and cannot benefit
from any ports being blocked. I'll be the judge of what firewall
policy best protects my assets. Windows-centric ISPs (as most clients
are on Windows) trying to do my security can only get in the way.
Post by Maurice ON4BAMPort 25 is blocked by all ISPs.
How would that be possible? How can businesses operate in Belgium if
they're all forced to outsource their email to the ISP, and thus be
forced to trust another company with a mission critical service, and
then also have metadata that is potentially sensitive to their trade
exposed?
Are you saying that if hushmail.com (for example) wanted to put a
server in Belgium, port 25 would be blocked and they would have to use
their ISPs mail server, or tunnel out of the country?
BTW, I've discovered that port 25 is not blocked by mobile broadband
carriers. So in principle an email provider could setup shop on a
mobile phone. That's not to say it's not silly, but I struggled to
believe that there are only silly options here. So after further
investigation, it turns out that cable and dsl providers sometimes
offer business plans that do not block ports.
Moreover, anyone looking to avoid a nanny ISP should stay well clear
of Proximus. They're blocking ~9 or so different port numbers, and
they don't know it! By "don't know it", I mean that ~6 sales people
and ~6 tech people claim with confidence that no ports are blocked.
So between sales people giving misinformation to prospective clients
and tech support being helpless, that service is a train wreck. The
list of Proximus-blocked ports is in fact buried in their website.