An increasing number of ISP's (Internet Service Providers) have taken to blocking SMTP. This move is justified as a measure to curtail the amount of spam sent from their networks. In addition to intentional spamming by customers, several recent variants of internet worms have been designed to send spam from infected computers.

Unfortunately, this means that users are no longer able to use their own external mail servers to send mail outgoing mail. Everyone is asked to switch their SMTP servers to that of their ISP in order to send outgoing mail.

The following are ISP's known to block SMTP :

• 1st.net
• AT&T
• AT&T WorldNet
• BellSouth MSN
• Broadwing
• CableOne
• Comcast / ATTBI
• Cox
• EarthLink
• Flashnet
• GTE
• IONet
• Lineone.net
• MCI/Worldcom
• MediaOne
• MindSpring
• MSN
• NetZero
• Optimum Online
• People PC
• RCN
• SBC
• Sprynet
• Sympatico.ca
• Verio
• Verizon
  

If your ISP is not listed, you can check to see if it blocks SMTP.

*NOTE : NOT ALL OF THESE ISP'S BLOCK PORT 25 FOR EVERY ACCOUNT OR IN EVERY REGION, please check to see if they block SMTP for you before paying for our service.*

While using your ISP's outgoing mail server will work

• Reliability - With certain ISP's there has been considerable complaining about the quality of their SMTP servers. When your ISP's SMTP server goes down, nobody is able to send outgoing mail. This is not only frustrating, but can cost you and your company money. With our service, reliability once again depends on YOUR mail server, and not that of your ISP.
  
• Travel - While traveling you may use several different ISPs to connect to the internet. Unfortunately each ISP will require you to reconfigure your mail client to point their smtp servers. This requires you to find out what smtp server your ISP uses, and reconfiguration takes time. With our service, your e-mail works seemlessly from everywhere!
  
• Privacy - Since ISP's now require you to relay all outgoing mail through their servers, they have exceedingly easy access to all of your sent mail. Our service merely relays TCP/IP data from one port to another and there is never a record of the actual mail on our systems.
  
• Blocked Mail - Many internet servers now check Realtime Blackhole Lists to determine whether or not to accept mail. For instance, if another user uses your ISP to send tons of spam, your ISP's smtp server *could* be blocked by one of these lists limiting YOUR ability to send mail. You have no control over this! With our service you no longer have to share a server with potential spammers! All mail is sent using your own mail server, for which you are ultimately accountable.
  
• SPF - Many internet servers now check the origin of e-mail using the Sender Policy Framework. This could further limit your ability to send e-mail using your ISP's smtp server. Basically, if your e-mail address is you@yourdomain.com, yourdomain.com has to have a special DNS record set that authorizes a particular smtp server to send mail for this domain. Otherwise, domains that check SPF may reject your mail! This means that every ISP you use would need to have a DNS record allowing it to send mail on behalf of your domain. This is problematic because end users typically don't have the ability to modify their domain's DNS data. Furthermore, travelers would need to modify their domain's DNS with every ISP they use! With our service all mail is sent using YOUR OWN SMTP server, you only require one DNS record regardless of ISP!

NO! Our service merely allows legitimate use of your own mail server. All of the casual spammers and worms are still blocked by the ISP's restriction on port 25. We have a very strict anti-spam policy, and verify that your mail server is not a known source of spam or open relay before activating your account.

Upon activation you are given a referral code. Give this code out to your friends. For every new account that signs up with your referral code, you get a free year of service! You will be notified by e-mail for every free year you get.

***ANY REFERRALS GENERATED IN RESPONSE TO SPAM OR ANY OTHER FORM OF UNSOLICITED ADVERTISING WILL NOT BE HONORED***

Windows
Press Start->Run
type telnet smtp1.arin.net 25 (press enter)

Linux
type telnet smtp1.arin.net 25 (press enter)

if you get back 220 smtp1.arin.net . . . your ISP DOES NOT block port 25

if your connection hangs, fails, or returns somethign other than smtp1.arin.net then your ISP is blocking or redirecting port 25 to their own server, and you should consider using our service