[JaredHK]

My problem with them began mid 2004 when they started blocking Port 25 hence I could not use my mail server in the US. Their excuse was that this was a government requirement but gave me a url to log into before I sent out my email and this temporarily gave me access to my servers.

On 5th Jan 2006 this was disabled and port 25 is totally blocked. The staff inform me now that this is because they need to "Monitor All Email" . When I asked why they insisted that it was for marketing reasons like my shopping habits etc. The staff also insisted that I must use ONLY my netvigator email address and servers as this was their policy.

I spoke with a senior Tech guy yesterday who again informed me that the port was blocked as Foreigners in HK are in the habit of spamming and all ISPs here block this port. Is this true that all ISPs in HK block this port? Also why should all our email be monitored? I am now considering switching to a different ISP so any recommendations would be helpful.

Thanks
J

[PDLM]

Not sure I understand what you are trying to achieve...

You can send emails from any domain using the Netvigator server provided that you logon first with your Netvigator ID. Why do you actually need to send the mail from the servers in the US?

[BenderBends]

have the same problem....

cant use USA mail server cause of netvigator...

i must use my USA mail server for security reasons...

if you find a way around this....let me know

[KnowItAll]

>> Why do you actually need to send the mail from the servers in the US?

Say, your email is from @domain1.com .. if it gets relayed through @netvigator.com .. there is a good chance it is being spoofed and that does add a few points to the spam factor.

>> Foreigners in HK are in the habit of spamming and all ISPs here block this port.

Now that is COMPLETE BULLSHIT .... give me that moron's email address and I'd be happy to forward my spam to him for further inspection.

[walesrob]

Originally Posted by JaredHK

Is this true that all ISPs in HK block this port? Also why should all our email be monitored? I am now considering switching to a different ISP so any recommendations would be helpful.

Thanks
J

Its nothing new. This is standard practice with nearly all ISP's in UK - you can only use your ISP's SMTP to send email, exceptions are that you use authenticated protocols - for example, I use GMail and I am allowed to use their servers for email as long as I can authenticate my account and use a different port - in my case 957.

The bit about spammers is rubbish!!

[HKNewBi]

Also, how exactly do you 'monitor' email? What do they mean by this? They have a room full of people reading email and drawing conclusions from what they read? The volume of email traffic is simply huge of which more than 99.99% would be meaningless to a 3rd party. They would have to have a huge number of people in this room.

[jimbo]

Originally Posted by HKNewBi

Also, how exactly do you 'monitor' email? What do they mean by this? They have a room full of people reading email and drawing conclusions from what they read? The volume of email traffic is simply huge of which more than 99.99% would be meaningless to a 3rd party. They would have to have a huge number of people in this room.

Its run through a server/pc configuration where they look for key words in the mail such as viagra, Loans, herbal etc etc etc.

Obviously its not some poor sod reading through every single e-mail, Your works e-mail is monitored in much the same way.

[HKNewBi]

Originally Posted by jimbo

Its run through a server/pc configuration where they look for key words in the mail such as viagra, Loans, herbal etc etc etc.

Obviously its not some poor sod reading through every single e-mail, Your works e-mail is monitored in much the same way.

Hi Jimbo

No, I am fully aware of that. But given my spam filter collects about 100 emails a day that meet those criteria someone still has to process the results and that would take a huge effort. I personally cannot be bothered to go through all the email my spam filter catches as it does misclassify the odd email from time to time, let alone do it for the whole company. And that is simply one company. And I am also sure if you were to read all the email generated here none of it would be of any interest to an ISP or 'the authorities'. Also it is so easy to encode a message, should you want, in an image file.

My guess is email is more 'monitored' if you are already under suspicion.

[JaredHK]

Had yet another conversation with one of their staff this evening regarding the server blocking issue. Since he brought up the mail monitoring issue I asked him what they were monitoring. His response was that they monitored shopping patterns and also had to monitor email to make sure that users were not sending out nuisance emails. I then asked him if our shopping patterns were monitored so that netvigator could sell our data. He had no answer to that question.

[Anthony Green]

I have read - on GRC.COM - the excellent Steve Gibson site, that if you want to find out what ports your ISP is blocking - unhitch your router and make a DIRECT connection to the ADSL modem or whatever and run his "Shields-Up" port scanning program.

Apparently - if I got it right - it'll show you what ports your ISP is blocking.

I may have this wrong - it wasn't something that bothered me, and I didn't want the hassle of setting up WITHOUT a router connection.