Verizon FIOS block port 80 and 25 for residential service

In InternetServiceVerizonFiosModerator writes: [snip]

Ports 25 and 80 aren't (commonly) used for voice but are, as the earlier poster kind of got, are used for web serving (port 80) and... for e-mail dropoff (port 25).

A hefty number of ISPs, as an anti spam measure, block off any attempts to get "out" to port 25 (the mail port) unless it's to their own system. This prevents a pretty good percentage of spam attempts, which come from compromised personal (and business) computers, from sending out their garbage.

Port 80 is the one most commonly used for web servicing. Far too many ISPs block it on their residential lines because, well, because they can... They claim that heavy usage of such will cripple the (slower) outgoing links and damage their service. (The majority of residential connections are "assymetrical" in speed design and topology; that is, they can provide much larger aggregate bandwidth "down" to the customer than "up" to the general internet.

I've just been in negotiations with a modest sized alternative competitive carrier ("RCN") to establish service for my 1,000 unit apartment complex. The rep, after I quite specifically pressed teh questions, confirmed that their default setting will be to block both ports.

Note that any while the block of port 80 prevents first attempts at web hosting, it's pretty trivial to work around it.

VoIP does not use ports 80 (web server) nor port 25 (email server). Most ISP will block these port for residential users who are not supposed to be hosting web servers, and especially port 25 which is used by spammers. In fact, some users computers have been turned into zombie computers that send out a lot of spam!

To the OP, it is not a problem with what game you play but the games that cyber criminals play using those ports.

Skype most certainly does reserve port 80. I found this out by accident when I installed Apache on my Windows box. Apache kept complaining that something else had port 80 assigned.

A little tracing of netstat told me it was Skype so I killed it and took it out of automatic startup. Now Apache starts up automatically and if I manually start Skype everythign is happy.

Thanks for that. I wonder if Skype was doing a 'phone home' of some sort.

Yes, you should have read the contract that you agreed to when you purchased the service.

If you absolutely HAVE to run a web server, you can do it on port 8080, but it is strictly speaking a violation of your terms of service.

You get whatever service you are willing to pay for. If you are willing to pay for the lowest level of home service where the contract specifically states that many ports are blocked, you should expect this to be the case.

I have never heard of it happening, but strictly speaking it is against the terms of service in the Verizon contract.

--scott