AOL

HELP!
After a 65 minute on/on hold conversation with Aol and being told at one point I have a spider in my computer I am desperate. I am a complete and utter nerd with computers. Aol in their wisdom have blocked users who use a third party e-mail account from sending e-mails using their system. Something about port 25 being blocked to stop spam.
I now need another internet provider, recommendations please as I know a lot of you are really up to speed on this.
I was going to sign up to BT but will they have the same system in place. Help! PS I am on broadband

I have been on the other end of AOL's "protection policies" having had all of our company emails blocked by them. It took me weeks to sort out. So I am full of sympathy.

Unfortunately I am a nerd too. All I can say is that we use waitrose and would recommend it. It is easy to set up, the help line is good and it works. I suspect other more knowledgeable people here may give better advice though. You may want to say if you are using dial up or ADSL though - I think it may be relevant.

Sailor99 thanks for response, Waitrose seems good if only for the Mount Gay. I am glad its not just me who has to go through such a lot of c--p. I have not been so wound up for years. As a builder bring back the days when messages were carved on stone.

Hmmm, shouldn't really be a big deal - they should have alternative ports that can be used. Mind, this is AO-helL we're talking about...

Personally, I use PlusNet - £14.99pm for 2mbps ADSL inc 1Gb monthly download allowance - extra monthly download is only £1 per Gb. They've been excellent for me (oh, and if you want referring, PM me )

Cheers

Michael

Mcuth. You are right, they told me after 58 minutes to go to port 587 but that didn't access me either. One other point is I am getting to a stage in life where I wont deal with call centres in another continent as I want to support jobs in the UK. So It is definately goodbye to AOL.

Mount gay, Mmmmmmmmmmm. How nice of you to remember my fav tipple.

I told you an expert would be along to give some good advice. 14.99 pcm is 4.00 less that we pay, and we only get 1meg (mind you, that is the max our copper can carry I am told, and its fine for us).

There was me, all ready to recommend PlusNet as well, but mcuth beats me to it. He said it all really... No if only I could get file sharing working on my WLAN...

I use BT Internet, one reason is that with BTi as opposed to AOl is that I can send emails from my BT internet account i.e. [email protected] as [email protected] and people can send in emails to any of my accounts via [email protected], where AOL insist in it being say, [email protected] so when I change ISP's everyone has to have the new e;mail address again!

I use Wannado and I don't have any problem with them.

Hi Tony

Port 25 has been blocked due to massive abuse of this functionality by spammers - and not just on AOL. Furthermore, it's not just AOL who are blocking this port, but more and more ISPs are adopting this technique. A simple google search will reveal whats really going on - and importantly, why!

I dont know who your other third party email account is with, but if they want to be taken seriously as a vendor of secure email services, they should be offering authenticated SMTP on port 587. If they do NOT then you may want to consider moving this third party email account to another vendor, rather than moving your ISP account from AOL to someone else who does not have the same anti-spam resouce that AOL have. They are one of the worlds biggest anti-spam advocates, and are doing more whilst "batting for you" in this arena than you may think.

Contact me directly and I'll help you with more info about how to get this issue resolved asap. It's not hard to do, and will get you up and running with your 3rd party email again in no time.

Regarding the other folks who say AOL have been blocking inbound email from (for example) their company servers.... well there are a number of steps they can follow to ensure that legitimate business email is handled correctly, but the first, and most basic step, is to ensure that the vendor they use for sending email is a legitimate and responsible operator, and that they dont allow open access to their SMTP server. If spammers are using the same mail server as you to send out shedloads of spam, then the IP address of this server may be picked up, and it may be blocked. There are a wide variety of other reasons it may happen.
Go to http://postmaster.info.aol.com, where there are a number of online tools that can help you troubleshoot and resolve your problem. If the problems persist, then I'd suggest that you contact AOL at their head office in London, and ask to speak to Operations Security for assistance with resolving the matter, as they can investigate the matter for you.
David

Originally posted by Tony T
HELP!
After a 65 minute on/on hold conversation with Aol and being told at one point I have a spider in my computer I am desperate. I am a complete and utter nerd with computers. Aol in their wisdom have blocked users who use a third party e-mail account from sending e-mails using their system. Something about port 25 being blocked to stop spam.
I now need another internet provider, recommendations please as I know a lot of you are really up to speed on this.
I was going to sign up to BT but will they have the same system in place. Help! PS I am on broadband

(edited to include weblink)

Thanks guys for all your help. Scally you have put forward a very good case for me staying with AOL, however I have decided to go with Mcuth.

Last night I was realy p----d with AOL. Three phone calls totalling 117 minutes. The first with an Indian speaking guy who I could'nt understand, who rather than tell me about port 25 told me my service providers server was broke (28 minutes). The second with a woman with I believe a scottish accent which I also could'nt understand. She was adamant that I didn't have or never had had a third party e-mail account on AOL. I think in hindsight she may just have been the cleaner picking up the phone for a laugh. I repeatedly asked her to put me on to her supervisor which she refused, resulting in me hanging up (24 minutes).
Finally another Indian speaking guy who was extremely polite but kept putting me on hold whilst he spoke with his technical supervisor and his boss. He did suggest port 587 which I tried but to no avail
(65 minutes).

In my book last night was a complete lack of customer service and my time (and money). Thats why I am moving ISP.
Thanks

[mitchja]

I too would highly recommend Plus.net [y] (even though Michael beat me to refering you - isn't it something like 50p knocked off your monthly charge person you refer? Been with them for over 2 years and still havn't got round to refering anyone yet!!)

Plus.net support is based entirely in Sheffield and is an 0845 number too. Their online support ticketing system is also very good and pretty fast for getting responses. There's also a forum but be warned as it's usually full of people moaning about Plus.net. They now also have an automated online fault finding tool.

From March their 8Mb packages will be the same price as their current 2Mb packages On their £21.99 monthly 2Mb Premier package here.

Regards