Cox Cable Internet outgoing spam blocker is a horrible service and makes me mad.

Cox blocked one of my outgoing emails today. They have done so in the past.

Cox should not be blocking outgoing emails.

Think it is just a ploy to get people to pay for their business service.

It cannot serve any useful purpose in reducing spam.

Almost all spam is caused by illegal spammers sending out thousands to millions of messages.

Not by individuals replying to messages.

This difference is easily detectable.

Blocking the emails might be illegal in terms of free speech anyway.

Plus the spam blocker is simply a bad program. My message was not spam. So it is blocking a legitimate message. I have even seen the program block messages that I sent to myself, between my own mail accounts.

It is not like I have a choice. Cox is the only cable provider in my area.

Cox blocks smtp service, so I cannot use another mail server or send directly from my computer. They force me to use their email service, then they block my legitimate emails.

Email is the single most important thing I do on the Internet.

So, I have to give Cox Internet service a grade of D.

They should never block a legitimate email, never.

I send out a newsletter once a week via Aweber. It is just text about 180 lines long, with announcements of events. Each line about 30 letters with a lot of blank lines for spacing.

Someone replied to my newsletter and I tried to reply back and got this error message from Cox Cable.

The message could not be sent because its size exceeded the server's limit. You can use the option, located in Tools | Accounts | Properties | Advanced, to break messages into smaller parts.

Subject 'Re: International, English, Clogging, Contra, Swing Dance Party' Server Error: 552 Server Response: 552 5.2.0 BVXw1e0092VvKFc02VXweV This message was undeliverable. This message has been found to be a potential spam message, and has therefore been blocked. Please visit http://coxagainstspam.cox.net for more information. Server: 'smtp.east.cox.net' Windows Live Mail Error ID: 0x800CCC6D Protocol: SMTP Port: 25 Secure(SSL): No

Following the link gets to a generic page with no instructions on what to do. It should go to a page with a detailed explanation of the error.

Here is a solution to the problem. Sign up for a gmail.com email account.

Many people only use their gmail account via the web using the gmail.com web browser interface.

However, gmail has an option that lets you send an receive emails directly from your mail program, like with any of your other email addresses, without going to gmail.com.

After you signup for you gmail account, logon to gmail, go into settings and enable pop and smtp.

Then go to your mail program, add your gmail account and set up the gmail pop, and most importantly smtp server.

Now, when you send using your mail program, if you need to, you can select your gmail account and send emails that would otherwise be blocked by the Cox spam filter.

Some instructions for setting up your gmail settings are here.

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=13287

Add the gmail account to your mail program so you can send emails via your email program using gmail's smtp service.

By Andrew Weitzen (c) 2010

Weitzen is the publisher of several online Internet journals including: InternetHandholding.com, DomainNames.gs, DotNetNuke.bz, Programmer.bz, Software.vg, WebHosting.vg