Comcast blocks port 25 incoming, yet again

[Ben Scott]

On Fri, Apr 25, 2008 at 5:47 PM, Coleman Kane <cokane at cokane.org> wrote:
>  As far as I can tell, I need to get in touch with their business reps in
>  order to figure out a business package that works for me.

  Yah, their residential division cannot sell the business packages,
and indeed, are often not even aware of then.  If you seriously want
to go that route, I suggest identifying yourself to Comcast as a
business.  If you say you're calling from a residence you'll just
confuse them.  Say you have a small business office and want service.
This isn't even necessarily being misleaning; an individual can run a
sole proprietorship pretty much just by saying they are.

> I did find their "teleworker" package that must
>  be purchased in lots of ten by an employer and are a whopping $99 each.

  Yah, in addition to lousy customer service and draconian AUP,
Comcast's rates are also quite high.  Good, fast, cheap: Pick none.

>  When in Cincinnati, I had good service relations with Cincinnati Bell
>  out there. That may be due in part to them being the only remaining
>  local telco that wasn't a former vital organ of AT&T...

  That -- not being a Baby/Big Bell -- actually makes a really big
difference most of the time.  NH used to have a number of small local
telcos, who -- from what I've been told -- generally had good service.
 But anything that used to be Ma Bell -- forget it.  They practically
invented bad customer service[1].  "We don't care.  We don't have to.
We're the phone company."

[1] Well, actually, banks invented bad customer service, but the
telcos automated it.

>  Of course, your best bet with their DSL is if you live within the
>  inner-city limits.

  Yah, and even that can be really iffy in New England.  Some of the
outside plant (lines on the poles, junction boxes, etc.) is incredibly
old and outdated.  It's not at all uncommon to find stuff over 50
years old, and which hasn't been properly maintained, either.  You're
lucky to be able to run 28 Kbit/sec modem over it, let alone DSL.  In
my old hometown of Newton, I remember when they had to replace a large
junction box because the tree it was nailed to grew far enough to
start pulling the wires off the termination blocks.

-- Ben