A Cat Smtp Proxy Lately?

[paveet]

I noticed something odd yesterday night. All connections to whatever server on port 25, SMTP, seems to be connecting to this one particular server which reported itself as the server you try to connect to. Except that it has a Thai timestamp and does not support TLS (encryption). The fact that it didnt support TLS was what made me jump because my university mail server always forced us to use encrpytion or else it wont authenticate at all for the past 2.5 years.

The latest CAT's (incompetent) attempt to block spammers amongst their users?

The government's way of logging people's emails?

I don't know. It went away in the morning today and now it seems to be back again. Anyone noticing anything similar? I'm on CAT's g.shdsl 2/2Mbps and this (along with the 15 hour disconnects) is annoying to the point I signed up for CSLoxinfo 4/1Mbps ADSL today.

[paveet]

Technical bits, just incase anyone's interested:

> telnet smtp.gmail.com 25

220 [209.85.143.109] ESMTP Smtpd; Sat, 27 Sep 2008 01:12:44 +0700

...

> telnet a.mx.mail.yahoo.com 25

220 [209.191.118.103] ESMTP Smtpd; Sat, 27 Sep 2008 01:13:34 +0700

...

..all the same server welcome message and Thai timestamp. The server is definitely local because it replies to my commands instantly (as opposed to the 300ms or so you can feel):

EHLO fakeCAT

250-[209.191.118.103] Hello [119.42.71.xxx], pleased to meet you

250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES

250-PIPELINING

250-8BITMIME

250-SIZE 31457280

250-DSN

250-AUTH LOGIN PLAIN

250-DELIVERBY

250 HELP

Notice the no STARTTLS.

Edited: to remove my IP address from what I pasted.

Edited September 26, 2008 by paveet

[monty]

CAT always has had my own smtp servers blocked, although never had problems with gmail (odd/secure smtp portnumber).

And CAT's own smtp server (relay.cat.net.th) is blacklisted pretty much the world over