A rant about Optimum Online port 25
Over the past seven months we have tried to keep the site as objective as possible and report the facts, often confirming rumors with companies prior to posting them—if they don’t reject the rumor we post it. I have also stayed clear from turning the site into a personal blog or outpost for rants and/or raves about company experiences. Unfortunately, I am extremely fed-up and am going to use this post as a short rant about Optimum Online. If you are interested click on, if not I apologize and will make sure to wash my mouth out with soap after I am done.
I have been a subscriber of Optimum Online in New Jersey ever since the internet was available over cable lines. Monthly bills have only increased over the years and the speeds have yet to improve (unless you want to pay more). I also at times have spotty speeds and face the inherent issues of cable, Thursday nights the speeds are extremely slow since everyone in town has their TVs on. My most recent problem deals with port 25.
What is port 25? Port 25 is a very commonly used port for email servers to send email via Outlook (port 25=smtp). When moving our offices over the weekend I moved back to NJ and hooked up my PC to the internet. Like times past when I was in for a weekend or so I could only receive email not send it. Now that I will be working from here I need my outgoing mail server (it does not do much to be able to receive but not send). So I began to research this issue. It turns out that Optimum Online (as well as some other ISPs) block port 25, so you can not send email from non ISP addresses.
Thanks to the power of blogs I see that this issues started a while back. Howard Greenstein blogged about this issue back on August 29, 2004. Like I did today, he contact Optimum Online and asked about the problem. They said to both him and I that this was implemented to block spam and protect the integrity of their servers. Now I just finished business school and I heard about integrity for four years, and let me tell you, it has nothing to do with servers (yes, I know the word has multiple meanings). Regardless, I have the option of paying an extra $9.99 per month to remedy this problem.
Oh wait, you can solve this ‘problem’? How surprising that it will cost me an additional charge of $120 per year to solve this. Now I do have the option of changing my outgoing mail server to the Optimum server address (mail.optonline.net) but then my emails will appear as spam to the recipient because the server and email address names do not match). For now I will take the less expensive option because I cannot warrant paying even more for internet.
Hey Opt, ever hear of a spam blocker? Check these out.
Where is Google with free wireless nationwide internet when i need them…
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I hear ya, getting fed up with Opt myself. I’ve had it since the mid 90’s when it first hit LI and it was great when no one had it but now the service is horrid. I get a letter in the mail the other day to switch to Optimum Boost for up to 30megs a sec and chart showing regular Opt cable @ 15megs. I barely get 3 so should I get a refund? I am patiently waiting for FIOS to hit my ‘hood so I can drop that 50 bucks a month from an already ridiculous cable bill and maybe little Jimmy will concentrate on improving service with all these price increases and not on those god awful Knicks.
on May 16, 2006 at 02:41 AM - LINKWow, thanks! I’m on a business trip now and was baffled that I couldn’t send my optonline mail from Outlook Express. It wasn’t until your blog here that I found out the true answer. Ugh, I guess I’ll copy and paste all my outgoing emails into optonline’s webmail .....
on June 7, 2007 at 03:32 AM - LINKThanks again!
I recently made a rather “stupid” move by switching to Cablevision’s Optimum online , having already cable news/TV teature and Optimum online modem..It tool 3 service calls to fix thngs up, and today i received my 1st invoice 4 Times more than expected..A complete rip off.They charged me for 2 phone lines and 2 modems to start with, not to mention so many extras that were never ever told/mentioned in any paperwork..
on June 27, 2007 at 02:43 AM - LINKI plan to take them to small claims court and make sure that this is given publicity, in order to have them adopt a fair business policy
I have dealt with this problem many times, and have found only a signal solution which is using port number: 587
on August 25, 2007 at 01:10 AM - LINK>I have dealt with this problem many times, and have found only a signal solution which is using port number: 587
on September 6, 2007 at 05:51 PM - LINKPort 26 works as well
on September 6, 2007 at 05:51 PM - LINKHow do you change the port? Is it difficult?
on November 23, 2007 at 07:43 PM - LINKYes, I too have been an Optimum online customer for 10 years nows. I can’t wait for Verizon Fios to get to Brooklyn so we can drop these Monoplistic Bastards. They have controled by bandwidth by limited my upload speeds. I’m a very curtious user. I run my uploads in the middle of the night. They still limit me unless I want to pay for a T1 line. They told me They only provide connection to the web not bandwidth. That’s like saying we are only allowed to use the street with our if no one is on the road. because we might create traffic.
Cablevision is going to die just like AT&T;. Hello Verizon
on January 6, 2008 at 11:08 PM - LINK