Is Big Brother Watching?

[dominique355]

For years I had set up my private E-Mail (Thunderbird) using my own domain and consequently my own mail server.

For the outgoing server, I also used my own SMTP server. That was fine up until a week ago. Then, out of the blue, I could not sent out any e-mail anymore. The error message was something like: Connection to SMTP failed or server is unavailable or refuses connection.

I contacted my e-mail provider and after checking, He swore that his side is 100% OK. He even set up my e-mail account on his own computer and everything worked fine. (Obviously he connected to his own ISP.)

Things got interesting when I discovered that on my Blackberry, everything works fine, I can receive and send out e-mail, no problems at all. Blackberry uses a different ISP than I do from my home.

So I contacted my ISP, which happens to be TOT and they advised me to use their SMTP, which is smtp.totisp.net, also on Port 25. I deleted my own SMTP and put in TOT's SMTP, and - what do you know - I can send out E-Mails, no problems anymore.

This lead to my question: Why is TOT blocking my SMTP and forces me to use their own SMTP? The only answer is that they want to eavesdrop on all my e-mail going out. I cannot think of any other reason why they would want to force me using their SMTP instead of my own.

Am I right? Is this a new type of censorship we are about to face here?

Edited March 15, 2010 by dominique355

[fezzi]

Just use the alternative port 587 and all will be good... Thai ISP's simply block port 25

And if your provider give you the alternative to use ssl receiving and sending it shouldnt be a issue at all as the outgoing port for ssl connections is 465

Have fun and think positiv ;-)

[dominique355]

Just use the alternative port 587 and all will be good... Thai ISP's simply block port 25

And if your provider give you the alternative to use ssl receiving and sending it shouldnt be a issue at all as the outgoing port for ssl connections is 465

Have fun and think positiv ;-)

Wow, that's great. I tried again my own SMTP and - as fezzi suggested - port 587. And it works! Great. Thank you so much

The question remains: Why do Thai ISP and particular TOT block my SMTP on port 25?

[InSiSongkram]

I also had this problem with TOT for a long time now even on my own domain. I tried the two ports above and both don`t work for outgoing mail. The other problem that annoys me is when I move around Thailand and if I stay in hotels I cant send outgoing unless I find out which provider the hotel uses any solutions for these issues?

I`ve attached a screenshot of my setting are yours the same dominique? Just replacing smtp.totisp.net with your own domain right as it wont work for me?

Edited March 15, 2010 by InSiSongkram

[thaimite]

I was unable to send emails from my domain as my ISP did not have an alternative to port 25 until recently, so I set up a gmail account and I now use the Gmail SMTP server through Thunderbird for all my mails wherever in the world I am. Mails are received on my domain normally

[InSiSongkram]

Its with Outlook Express I`m looking to use this with do you know if that is possible? I`ve actually just found a solution by contacting my hosting company who specified another port to use and it works which is great.

So anyone else facing this issue contact your hosting company support for advice.

Thanks.

Edited March 15, 2010 by InSiSongkram

[Zolt]

The question remains: Why do Thai ISP and particular TOT block my SMTP on port 25?

I remember my own ISP doing the same thing back in France, so it's not a TOT issue only. I think that's mostly an old fashioned attitude from some consumer ISP's to consider that all customer would use their e-mail service and not another, more than an attempt to snoop in what you're sending.

Anyway, it's easily circumvented.

[astral]

Use a VPN service then the local ISP will only see a stream of encrypted data going in and out.

On the more general level I am sure that there is snooping on the internet definitely at government levels.

Also if you use public services like Google, Yahoo and Hotmail............

I notice that Thunderbird offers an encryption feature.

I must investigate for my more sensitive messages.

[Prasert]

TOT's explanation: this measure is taken to prevent spam.

Real explanation:

Blocking port 25 to any server except your own mailserver, forces (more or less) people to use that mailserver.

Once all outgoing email is going through this system, it's very easy to configure this machine to save a copy of each mail to disk. This way it's possible for the ISP to read every single email.

Since this might become an massive task, the government could use scanning and filtering software to scan each email for specific keywords, followed by a decision to forward it or to trash it.

If the Thai government is indeed censoring email this way, circumventing it by using SSL connections cannot be discussed here.... ouch

[DaveBKK]

It's very unlikely this is to snoop. They can read all your outgoing mail ANYWAY regardless if you are using their SMTP port or not (unless you're using an SSL connection to your SMTP). It's VERY easy for any ISP to see everything you're doing that isn't being sent over a specifically encrypted channel.

I believe they do this to try and reduce being SPAM originating from TOT owned IPs.

[JSixpack]

It's very unlikely this is to snoop. They can read all your outgoing mail ANYWAY regardless if you are using their SMTP port or not (unless you're using an SSL connection to your SMTP). It's VERY easy for any ISP to see everything you're doing that isn't being sent over a specifically encrypted channel.

I believe they do this to try and reduce being SPAM originating from TOT owned IPs.

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