SBC Yahoo! Port 25
Thunderbird has been unable to connect to my mail SMTP server at home for a couple of weeks now and only while seeking an answer to the cost of a dedicated IP did I stumble across the news that they are blocking access to port 25 on their servers now in favor of port 587. I understand the need for standards (RFC2476) but the lack of info on this was crazy. They said something went out in September but I don't believe I ever received it.
I can't even begin to guess the look on all the SBC customers faces when their University or Business email accounts would no longer send mail, or better still the content of the letter explaining how to get around it... Contact your mail hosting provider for information about using Port 587 for sending authenticated outgoing email. Seriously. I'm a web savvy guy and the thought of having to reason with my hosting provider about switching to that port makes me nervous.
The best part was the lack of error message besides "couldn't contact host". I would think a more humane approach would be for SBC to leave the port open but with a monitor to check the from email address and send an auto-response to suggest switching to the new port. My CTO was in the kitchen while I filled my morning beaker of coffee and he told me that last night he got stuck helping a neighbor with his computer. Strangely enough, he too was digging into the port 25 problem and found it was blocked by telnet but couldn't find instructions either.
Come on SBC Yahoo! or whatever your name is. Stop thinking geek and try to help your customers.