I’m on a business trip for a couple of days, staying at a Hyatt. They offer wireless internet via a T-Mobile HotSpot ($10 for 24 hours). Alas, they block my ability to send email via my own server. As a security and spam-prevention measure, many of these hot spots (not just T-Mobile) will block you from connecting to any mail server other than their own. If you don’t have a web-based mail interface (say, .Mac or Yahoo), or a company-provided VPN solution, you’re screwed.

When will these companies learn that they’re not enhancing security or stopping SPAM. In fact, all they’re really doing is pissing off their customers. I know I will never join T-Mobile’s HotSpot network outside of any company-paid hotel connectivity requirements.

For the techies reading this, I ran a portscan against my personal server to confirm it was reachable and responding. I have all the important ports open, including port 25 for SMTP. When I telnet to port 25, I get redirected to T-Mobile’s own server at svcstatl07.hotspot.t-mobile.com. Oddly, I can seemingly hand-craft an outgoing email there, but the mail, despite being “accepted for delivery” appears to be dropped, as it never gets delivered.

Port Scan has started …

Port Scanning host: 71.143.110.185

Open TCP Port: 22
Open TCP Port: 25
Open TCP Port: 80
Open TCP Port: 106
Open TCP Port: 143
Open TCP Port: 311
Open TCP Port: 427
Open TCP Port: 548
Open TCP Port: 625
Open TCP Port: 687
Port Scan has completed …