Alternate email ports?

Comcast has shut off my ability to send outgoing email - using their SMPT or even Dreamhost's. They say it's because I've either been spamming (simply not the case) or I have a virus. I'm a Mac user, so that's not the case either.

Right now Comcast insists my Mac has a virus.

Anyway, IIRC there are alternate SMTP ports I can use on DH. However, the wiki is down so I can't find them. Can someone remind me what they are?

Thanks.

GiraffeDesign.com

I wasn't aware of Comcast being able to shutoff ports for just a single user. They can block the ports being used from a specific IP however.... which leads me to believe that you (your router/computer/etc) recently acquired a new IP address that the previous owner used to spam emails out through.

Therefore my first suggestion would be, before going through any other hassles: Try renewing your connection to get a new IP. There are several ways to do this...
If you own a router, you can either try shutting it down for ~30mins-1hr or change its external MAC Address (if your router provides for it).
Otherwise, if you're using a cable modem/dsl modem, unplug it for ~30mins-1hr. That *should* give you a fresh IP.

Just keep trying until it does if not.

Wow, good call. My IP hasn't changed for over three years. But a couple weeks ago we had a major power outage and shut everything down. My modem was off for a day or so. The power came back just a few days before I got this email... I just checked and I have a completely different IP.

GiraffeDesign.com

In reply to:

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Can someone remind me what they are?

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I'd suggest you try Mousee's suggestion first and attempt to obtain a new IP address, but if that doesn't rectify the issue you can use the alternate port 587 for SMTP.

Mark

I had a somewhat urgent email (invoice) that I needed to send off, so I was looking for a quicker fix than waiting 30 minutes - 1hr.

I ended up calling and talking to a couple different people. They actually just instructed me to use 587 and said that all customers are supposed to use that port now.

I'm going to file a complaint against the first guy who refused to move forward trying to solve the problem as he insisted my Mac had a virus that was blasting emails.

I'll shutoff my modem tonight. I wouldn't be surprised if my IP new is blocklisted elsewhere.

Thanks all.

GiraffeDesign.com

hehe, glad that was the issue then and not something more 'involved'

Wasn't this alternate port information in the wiki? http://wiki.dreamhost.com

Or was this Comcast's alternate port? (And believing anything comcast tells you is a huge mistake. The network is only up thanks to the 10 guys with a clue and heroics. The other 10,000 are 99% clueless.)

WhollyEdited by wholly on 12/28/06 06:24 AM (server time).

Like I mentioned in my first post, the DH wiki was down when this issue occurred.

I agree with you on your comment about how clueless most comcast employees are. One guy I talked to kept thinking that it was just some sort of issue on my end, even though I received an email from comcast regarding the issue.

GiraffeDesign.com

I missed the comment about the wiki being down. Since it's hosted on DH servers I just never expected that it would EVER be down. (choke!)

Just kidding.

Wholly