Recently, SBC has decided that filtering traffic to external networks on port 25 would be a pretty funny thing to do. Since I don’t send very many e-mails, I’ve just noticed this.

Why would this bother me, you may be wondering? It’s simple, really. I, like hundreds of thousands of other people, use my own mail server for outgoing mail. And, you guessed it, most SMTP servers run on port 25!

After patching my settings up with the SBC server and shooting off my e-mail, I grabbed a phone and punched in a series of numbers.

I was greeted by a friendly woman’s voice, asking me if this was the phone number on my account. I shouted yes, you fucking moron, knowing full well that this was their horrible voice-driven menu system and not a real person. After about five minutes of verbally abusing their bot, I was connected with a real SBC tech.

‘Hello, can I begin by asking for the phone number on your acc…’
‘Shut up. Why are you filtering port 25? Do you find this funny?’
‘Ah, well, sir, in our recent attempts to combat spa…’
‘Shut up. I have never sent any spam, nor will you ever find any spam coming from my network. Your records clearly indicate that I know what the fuck I am doing, and that the ONE windows box on my home network has a virus scanner which is regularly updated. Again, I ask, do you find pissing off customers of 8+ years to be funny?’
‘Well, sir, please visit [he says a link] and fill out an opt-out form to get it unblocked. I’ll take care of your request personally once it has been submitted.’
‘Good. Thank you for your cooperation. I expect to be able to use my mail servers again by this evening.’
‘Thank you for calling SBC, an–’
Click. I’d heard enough of him. He can take his spam and SHOVE IT.

So, on a happier note, I’ve added some funny friends-link-relation thing. It’s just a tag I added to certain links that denotes the fact that I know the person.

Also, try out Leif’s puzzle.