posts:comcast: Add an update on Comcast's port blocking

And clean up the old Comcast post.  The links are likely dead, but I
was able to rescue some of my old Liki notes.

diff --git a/posts/Comcast.mdwn b/posts/Comcast.mdwn
new file mode 100644 (file)
index 0000000..0f10fa4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/posts/Comcast.mdwn
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+A while back I [[posted about Comcast blocking outgoing traffic on
+port 25|Comcast_rediculousness]].  We've spent some time with
+Verizon's DSL service, but after our recent move we're back with
+Comcast.  Luckily, Comcast now explicitly lists [the ports they
+block][block].  Nothing I care about, except for port 25 (incoming and
+outgoing).  For incoming mail, I use [Dyn][] to forward mail to [[port
+587|Postfix]].  For outgoing mail, I had been using [[stunnel]]
+through `outgoing.verizon.net` for my [[SMTP]] connections.  Comcast
+takes a [similar approach][comcast] forcing outgoing mail through port
+465 on `smtp.comcast.net`.
+
+[block]: http://customer.comcast.com/help-and-support/internet/list-of-blocked-ports/
+[Dyn]: http://dyn.com/
+[comcast]: http://customer.comcast.com/help-and-support/internet/email-client-programs-with-xfinity-email/
+
+[[!tag tags/linux]]

diff --git a/posts/Comcast_rediculousness.mdwn b/posts/Comcast_rediculousness.mdwn
index 696ba9a4fc9b64d09f32078bf07703749ad07546..7efdfe824a75bc5d14f1e2388ee5d1af2d8b88a5 100644 (file)
--- a/posts/Comcast_rediculousness.mdwn
+++ b/posts/Comcast_rediculousness.mdwn
@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
 [[!meta  title="Comcast rediculousness"]]
 [[!meta  date="2008-09-02 16:19:43"]]
-I recently paid a phone bill online for Comcast, and in order to do so
-I needed to set up a comcast email account.  While browsing through
-their documentation trying to locate an imap server, I ran across [this
-priceless gem](http://www.comcast.com/customers/faq/FaqDetails.ashx?Id=4394):
+
+I recently paid a phone bill online for [[Comcast]], and in order to
+do so I needed to set up a Comcast email account.  While browsing
+through their documentation trying to locate an IMAP server, I ran
+across [this priceless gem][FAQ]:
 
     Error #1 - Port 25. Secure (SSL); no Socket Error: 10053.  Error Number 0x800CC0F.
 
@@ -15,14 +16,13 @@ priceless gem](http://www.comcast.com/customers/faq/FaqDetails.ashx?Id=4394):
 
     How can I send email again?
 
-    If you would like to send emai lthrough Outlook Express, you can click
+    If you would like to send email through Outlook Express, you can click
     here to access a simple to use, one-click fix, which will upgrade
     Outlook Express to send email through alternate port 587.
 
 Your computer has a virus spewing junk to port 25?  No problem, simply
 move your activities somewhere else :p.  You would have though maybe
-links to anti-virus software, since I suppose linking
-[here](https://help.ubuntu.com/6.10/ubuntu/installation-guide/i386/index.html)
+links to anti-virus software, since I suppose linking [here][Ubuntu]
 is probably to complicated for Comcast to handle ;).
 
 Sadly Comcast doesn't support IMAPS:
@@ -46,10 +46,11 @@ Sadly Comcast doesn't support IMAPS:
     At this time, the only server that we sure for our email is POP. There
     is no plans to use IMAP.
 
-After some googling about, I found out how to setup mutt to not delete
-messages it downloads from a POP server, and got Comcast working
-through Mutt.  I was uncertain about the encryption, since Mutt fails
-on its first few authentication attempts, so I tcpdumped the connection with
+After some googling about, I found out how to setup [[Mutt]] to not
+delete messages it downloads from a POP server, and got Comcast
+working through Mutt.  I was uncertain about the encryption, since
+Mutt fails on its first few authentication attempts, so I tcpdumped
+the connection with
 
     # tcpdump -A > /tmp/dump
 
@@ -57,6 +58,41 @@ and grepped through the output for my username and password.  No
 matches, so apparently `pops` in the server name is sufficient for
 hiding the authentication.
 
-You can see my mutt configuration at the [Drexel liki](http://www.physics.drexel.edu/liki/index.php/Mutt).
+I put the Comcast information in a new file:
+
+    $ cat ~/.mutt/comcast
+    # Comcast information
+
+    # Comcast mail server addresses from
+    #  http://www.comcast.com/customers/faq/FaqDetails.ashx?Id=2165
+    # Ports from
+    #  http://www.comcast.com/customers/faq/FaqDetails.ashx?ID=2288
+    # email server location
+    set spoolfile=pops://<comcast-username>@mail.comcast.net:110/INBOX
+    set folder=pops://<comcast-username>@mail.comcast.net:110/
+
+    # gmail does this automatically
+    unset record
+
+    # use msmtp to send outgoing mail to the mailserver
+    # see ~/.msmtp for configuration
+    set sendmail="/usr/local/bin/msmtp -a gmail"
+
+    set from="<gmail-username>@gmail.com"
+
+    set nopop_delete
+    set pop_checkinterval="600"
+
+and added Comcast entries to my main Mutt configuration:
+
+    $ cat ~/.muttrc
+    mailboxes imaps://<drexel-username>@imap.mail.drexel.edu imaps://<gmail-username>@gmail.com@imap.gmail.com pops://<comcast-username>@mail.comcast.net
+    …
+    account-hook pops://<comcast-username>@mail.comcast.net \
+        'set pop_user=<comcast-username> pop_pass="<comcast-password>"'
+    folder-hook imaps://<comcast-username>@imap.comcast.net 'source ~/.mutt/comcast'
+
+[FAQ]: http://www.comcast.com/customers/faq/FaqDetails.ashx?Id=4394)
+[Ubuntu]: https://help.ubuntu.com/6.10/ubuntu/installation-guide/i386/index.html
 
 [[!tag tags/linux]]