
AT&T banning Bitcoin nodes by closing port 8333 in cable boxes - sinak
https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2015-September/010798.html
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dragonwriter
"The FCC's Open Internet rules protect and maintain open, uninhibited access
to lawful online content. The rules specifically prohibit: [...] Blocking:
Broadband providers may not block access to lawful content, applications,
services or non-harmful devices." [0]

[0] [https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-
us/articles/2042314...](https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-
us/articles/204231404-Open-Internet)

~~~
t0mbstone
There's a difference between blocking a customer's access to external
services, and blocking an _outgoing_ web server port like 80 or 443.

The terms of use of your residential internet contract most likely prohibits
using your connection in a "commercial" manner (running a full scale web
server) out of your home.

~~~
dragonwriter
> There's a difference between blocking a customer's access to external
> services, and blocking an outgoing web server port like 80 or 443.

There's obviously a _difference_.

It is less obviously a _relevant difference_ in regards to the FCC's Open
Internet rules.

> The terms of use of your residential internet contract most likely prohibits
> using your connection in a "commercial" manner (running a full scale web
> server) out of your home.

To the extent that they purport to limit your right to use applications,
devices, etc. that are not themselves unlawful on that connection, such
provisions would appear to be in direct violation of FCC Open Internet
regulations, which is probably among the reasons the ISPs with such rules also
generally opposed the FCC adopting those regulations.

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solotronics
I am a network engineer for TWC specifically running the business class fiber
network. As far as I know and can tell with my own connection we do not block
anything for our residential customers.

I always speak up internally for customers rights and privacy and I implore
anyone else in charge of a network do do the same.

~~~
jlgaddis
Ditto. I work for an ISP as well and, while I know ISP's don't get a lot of
love (especially from the more tech-savvy customers), I feel better knowing
that least I'm helping to Do The Right Thing(TM).

The company I work for is pretty small as far as ISPs go (our customer base
numbers in the four digits) so our headcount is pretty small too. While it
sucks sometimes, I am personally in charge of exactly how our network is ran
and have complete freedom to do whatever I want however I want (so long as it
doesn't significantly affect the bottom line, of course). I try to run things
the way I want my ISP to (I live outside our service area so I don't have our
service but I do have blazing fast FTTH so that makes up for it.)

I (we) don't block _anything_ although sometimes it would make my job a lot
easier... nor do I even bother forwarding to the customer all those requests I
got from "Echelon" (on behalf of HBO) complaining about people torrenting Game
of Thrones. Although, on a side note, I stopped receiving them after I started
enforcing FCrDNS on our incoming mail gateways. :-)

------
orionblastar
AT&T bans port 25 as well so you cannot run a SMTP server, they do that to cut
down on spam.

I remember my son was in an out of town Soccer game, and we stayed in a hotel.
One of the other families brought their XBox 360 and tried to plug it into the
Ethernet port and unplug the custom game console controller that rented
Nintendo 64 games and plug the XBox 360 into their TV set. For some reason
their Internet blocked access to the ports that the XBox 360 used to sign in
and play games so they couldn't play anything. I guess they wanted to force
people to rent N64 games on their custom video game console controller?

If enough ISPs block port 8333, the Bitcoin programs will have to be changed
to be like the Bittorrent clients to use a random port and connect via a
tracker or something to that port.

~~~
underscoremark
Did you call the front desk for assistance?

I used to work as a network analyst for a company providing high speed
Internet for hotels across North and South America. The default network
policies were quite aggressive (to limit network (ab)use). Other than opening
up specific ports for various VPNs, the greatest number of calls received was
to enable network access for gaming consoles.

Next time, give the front desk a call and ask. In an industry where customer
satisfaction _really_ is a concern, they should be more than happy to forward
your call to someone like me to help. :)

~~~
orionblastar
No it was another family who tried to hook up the XBox 360. I didn't think to
tell them to ask the front desk to unblock the ports. It was years ago, and my
son is in high school now and left the middle school behind.

Next time I encounter that situation I will advise them to call the front desk
to unblock the ports.

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nv-vn
They recently started blocking XMPP ports which is quite an annoyance. I
literally can't think of a single logical reason they would even do that.

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nosuchthing
What's the motivation?

I thought Bitcoin wasn't really that network intensive?

~~~
JonathonW
The motivation would presumably be to mitigate damage done by malware-- it's
not uncommon for malware authors to use infected machines to mine Bitcoin.

~~~
em3rgent0rdr
But using that motivation, then they should block other ports as well if they
suspect that IP address is infected.

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tired_man
You should all be using a VPN, even if it only connects to a server in the
next city. It's more for basic privacy from their intrusion more than anything
security related.

The less your ISP knows about you, the better off you are.

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jlgaddis
For what it's worth, "tcptraceroute" is a great tool to help diagnose these
kinds of things.

