Is your ISP blocking outgoing port 25?

Zhiyun Qian zhiyunq at umich.edu
Thu Jun 18 19:36:44 UTC 2009


It has been long heard that many ISPs block outgoing port 25 for the purpose
of reducing spam originated from their network.
 
I wonder which ISPs are still doing so. I know comcast has been doing that
but they cancelled it after many complaints. It seems to be the same case
for Verizon.
 
AT&T is the major one that I know of that is still enforcing this policy.
But they said they can unblock port 25 upon request. I am not sure how easy
it is.
 
One simple way to test if your ISP is blocking outgoing port 25 is to try:
"telnet mx2.hotmail.com 25" or "telnet gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com 25". If
the connection fails, it could be due to the fact your ISP is blocking
outgoing port 25, although it can also be other reasons such as local
firewall configuration. Can someone perform the test and let me know result
if possible? Thanks a lot! 
 
Regards.
-Zhiyun



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