>From experience, I'd say they wouldn't even bother you if you ran it on port 80 with only very occasional access. This is still a TOS violation. I suspect that if you have a very active port they will check on it, no matter if its number. It isn't all that hard to monitor the traffic usage and when one is more than expected to do a bit of investigation. I don't recall anything in the TOS, but I bet they are allowed to port scan you and check on your available ports, but they shouldn't need to do that. They can see what port your traffic is going to.
Contrary to previous statements, they don't do port blocking. As you experienced, they shut you down if they find you violating their TOS. You will have noticed that it worked until they caught you. Your best option is to find a local colo with a plan for individuals. You can usually get this for around $20 from what I'm told. You'll just need a spare machine to pop Linux on and it's yours to do with as you wish. JSR/ > -----Original Message----- > From: UM Linux User's Group > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John Demme > Sent: Friday, July 01, 2005 2:57 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [UM-LINUX] Comcast > > Try running it on a different port. They can only catch for > that if they port scan all 65k ports, and try an HTTP > connection to each open port, which doesn't seem like a > reasonable thing to do. I'd bet they just check for an open port 80. > > John > > On Fri, 2005-07-01 at 14:23 -0400, Randolph Baden wrote: > > I didn't tell them that I was running Linux, personally, > that was my > > roommate.. But we have discovered what the issue really is. > > Apparently it violates the ToS to run a web server (which I didn't > > know when we signed up for it), so that was the problem. Of course > > this has nothing to do with Linux, except that now I have this > > excellent photo gallery that I made that I can't even > reasonably use > > because 1) I practically need root access to install it > anywhere, and > > 2) I have about 2.5 GB of pictures, which doesn't even include the > > thumbnails. > > > > GRRR. GRRR GRRR GRRR. > > :/ > > > > Oh well, on the bright side at least I can view it on my > own machine... > > > > On 7/1/05, Gary Ayvazov <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > the key is to never ever tell comcast (or any other ISP, really) > > > that you're running linux. they want to find any reason > to blame the > > > crappy service on you. i cant count how many times my > conversation > > > with the comcast guys went something like this: > > > > > > me: my service is down. > > > him: clear your cookies, and then reboot your computer > > > me: *does absolutely nothing* alright, its rebooting. *service > > > magically > > > restored* > > > > > > they dont really like to admit how often it goes down. > > > > > > -gary > > > > > > Randolph Baden wrote: > > > > > > >I figure some people on here must have used Comcast at > some point, > > > >so I figure I should ask you all for confirmation about > what those > > > >jerks tried to tell me today. > > > > > > > >We finally had our service working after about a week of > down time, > > > >but it recently cut out, and Comcast is claiming that > it's because > > > >they don't support Linux. If you ask me this sounds > like complete BS. > > > > They said that some of our packets were considered invalid or > > > >something so we were "wallblocked" or something > similarly nonsensical. > > > > > > > >Since there's no reason that a packet coming from a > Linux machine > > > >(especially after going through the router) should be > any different > > > >than a packet coming from any other machine, I wanted to know if > > > >anyone else has ever had this problem with Comcast, or else, if > > > >some people have explicitly not had this problem with > Comcast and > > > >instead we found yet another incompetent Customer Service rep. > > > > > > > > > > > >GRRR! And thanks. :/ > > > > > > > > > > > >-- > > > >-Randy Baden > > > >AIM: Randofu > > > >Cell: 301-751-5114 > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > -Randy Baden > > AIM: Randofu > > Cell: 301-751-5114 > > >
