Hotmail does not like Comcast mail?

Since yesterday I have been trying to email a friend with a hotmail account and was getting error messages about address not being recognized, or check my (SMTP) mail preferences...

Could not even reply to his mails.

On a whim decided to use my Yahoo account and it went OK.

So I called tech rep at Comcast and... yes, we know, hotmail is having problems... "but I do get his mails." Yes, "we" (Comcast) are allowing their mails to come but they do not allow Comcast?

What is it???

I cannot e-mail to msn.com but they can e-mail to me. Strange!

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trying to reply to an email from a hotmail account and it wont go through. He thought it was just his computer for some reason. The guy he's trying to email purchased something from him on ebay... and my fiance keeps getting the hotmail guy's nasty emails about lack of contact, but he cant respond. Its been since yesterday. He'll be glad to know its not just him. Comcast didnt know what was going on?

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and Microsoft competing to purchase AOL.

Your fiance may want to establish a yahoo (or a Hotmail, or a google) account and mail from there, just so that the guy does not wonder what happened. Also, tell the Hotmail person to contact his service.

but at least he got it.

and Comcast is still blocked. Bizarre.

These are the "politics" of the Internet. No internet service provider is required to permit traffic from other providers. Indeed, the only way in which the internet can ultimately protect "itself" is by the quarantine and excommunication of non-cooperative ISPs and domains.

Let's say that there are a LOT of Comcast customers who have their systems set up with email servers and without adequate protections. (After all, it's "fun" to run your own servers, right?) Such systems can be exploited by spammers, routing spam through them to the 'world' of marks. Let's say that other email service providers get fed up with handling the megabytes, gigabytes, or terabytes of illicit email traffic and Comcast's inability or refusal to shut down the systems of such costumers. (After all, that's revenue, right?) Well, the only way to get such an ISP's attention is to refuse to handle their traffic - or refuse to receive or forward their email. That causes that ISP's customers to complain - loudly. What those customers don't know is that their ISP has bee a "bad Internet citizen" and the other service providers are doing the only thing they can to discipline them.

Both Hotmail and Yahoo! have been notorious for spammers who sign up for a "free" account and use that account to flood the Internet with spam. Well, Hotmail and Yahoo! have taken some steps to shut down such accounts quickly and throttle such usage.

It's an open secret that the broadband (cable) ISPs are just about the most arrogant and incompetent on the net. @Home was an absolute disaster as an ISP ... intentionally! the cable companies are going for market share. They want to OWN subscriber access to the internet. Beyond TV, they see a rosy future in OWNING the local monopoly on Internet access and VOIP. They've got government-enforced entitlements in a closed market. That's why they're doing their damnedest to lobby all over the country against community-owned fiber optics to the curb -- the only infrastructural approach a true liberal democrat would ethically support.


IMHO, people should obtain their email and web services from an independent service provider. There are lots of them on the net and most are far, far better than your ISP. Your ISP offers email and webspace for one and only one reasons: anticannibalization. They realize you're less likely to change Internet access to a better service if youu have to go to the troulbel of moving your webspace files or changing your email address. That way, they can screw you and still keep your business. Most folks have no idea how much of their email is lost or delayed by hours or days by the cable company service providers. It's significant.

Some 7 years ago I first discovered Internet-based email - Hotmail - and had an account. Even then, there were so many spams that I finally closed the account. Actually, I could not close it; it has to be inactive for 3 months before Hotmail would close it.

Then I opened one Yahoo account, and had some spams and finally another yahoo account and comcast and, so far... no spams or very rare ones. Perhaps it helps that I do not go to ebay or former high school year book to register. Comcast actually prides itself on having anti spam - or is anti virus? - programs.

Using a Mac helps, too.

ever since they transferred my broadband to my new house a couple of weeks ago, email has been totally hosed.