Comcast Corp., the country's largest provider of high-speed Internet access, has begun blocking a channel frequently exploited by spammers to send out large volumes of e-mail, a move that many technologists say was long overdue and should be matched by other service providers.
On Monday, the company began targeting certain computers on its network of 5.7 million subscribers that appeared to be sending out large volumes of unsolicited e-mail. Spokeswoman Jeanne Russo said that in those cases, it is blocking what is known as port 25, a gateway used by computers to send e-mail to the Internet.
The result, she said, was a 20 percent reduction in spam.
"We're taking a precision approach . . . against the top talkers of the day," Russo said, referring to the computers being blocked.
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News source: The Washington Post
