Comcast blocks port 25 incoming, yet again

[Ben Scott]

On Fri, Apr 25, 2008 at 5:16 PM, Coleman Kane <cokane at cokane.org> wrote:
>  "Serving of any kind is NOT allowed without express written consent from
>  ISP. Consent should be given in a separate service contract and should
>  be producible by the customer upon request from ISP."
>
>  I am not entirely sure what "ISP" constitutes in that sentence ...

  The world of telcom regulation is labarynthian.  First, some definitions:

  LEC = Local Exchange Carrier.  A company offering local connectivity
services in your area.

  CO = Central Office.  The building where LEC equipment lives.  The
other end of your home telephone line terminates in a CO.

  ILEC = Incumbent LEC.  The company that owns the common
infrastructure, such as the CO buildings, the wires on the poles, and
so on.  Traditionally, one of the "baby bells" or "big bells" leftover
from the AT&T divestiture.  In NH, it was Verizon.  Now it's
FairPoint.

  CLEC = Competitive LEC.  A company that doesn't own common
infrastructure, but is offering services.  They have to lease lines on
the poles from the ILEC.  Also, they generally rent either equipment,
or space in the CO, or both, from the ILEC.

  So: When an ILEC is offering DSL, they are required by law to offer
competitors access to their DSL equipment.  Thus, the DSL provider can
be different from the ISP.  For example, in NH, it may be possible to
subscribe to DSL from FairPoint, but with the ISP being Speakeasy.
Speakeasy rents a port on the FairPoint DSLAM, but then provides a
Speakeasy IP feed to you with it.  Generally speaking, you have to go
through the ISP.  In other words, call Speakeasy, and Speakeasy deals
with the ILEC.  From my experience, that is a good thing -- dealing
with ILECs is a severe pain in the asterisk.

-- Ben