[Mailman-Users] Commercial hosting for Mailman lists?

[Michael Stevens]

On Tue, Oct 05, 1999 at 09:06:46AM -0400, Eric S. Johansson wrote:
> as others have pointed out, there are an increasing number of ISPs that do 
> block port 25 access to all machines except for their relays.  Part of my 
> business is Internet infrastructure consulting and I have a fairly major 
> wholesale provider as one of my clients.  They are learning firsthand just 
> how bad "free" Internet access customers can be when it comes to 
> spamming.  They are in the process of locking down all of their pops and 
> forcing everyone to relay through their mail servers.
> 
> This lock down of dial-up access is unfortunately very necessary but it 
> really hurts small businesses/activists like myself that run servers at the 
> end of a dial-up line.  There is an unfortunate tendency in the industry to 
> categorize services as either cheap dial-up accounts connected to a single 
> "client only" PC or expensive leased line accounts for folks with a big 
> budget.  I'm finding it increasingly difficult to locate a middle tier of 
> service supporting the intermittently connected server like I have here at 
> Harvee.  This middle tier of service is essential for the widespread 
> adoption of thin server technology such as the whistle box and others.

Interesting. I suspect it's seen differently in the UK due to the
non-availability of free local calls, making running servers off a
dialup line expensive anyway. However, I do find there are ISPs such
as Demon (www.demon.net) who seem willing to offer service useful for
the slightly more advanced user. 

What is a whistle box? I have visions of some ill defined object from
the early part of this century, which seems to be unlikely to be what
you are referring to.