Looking at my ISP options in various flats got me thinking, so I pose the following questions in the hopes that those who have the various providers can answer them.

• What ports do the various ISPs filter? (25 inbound/outbound is common. I have also seen 53,80,443, and 445)
• Do any still have Usenet News servers?
• Do any of them have data usage caps? (a 5 year old thread claims cablecom didn't for download, what about upload?)
• Do any of them do any traffic shaping? Perhaps some forum members could test this with the EFFs "Switzerland Network Testing Tool" https://www.eff.org/pages/switzerlan...k-testing-tool

Hi new2ch,

I'm also new to CH and I have UPC Cablecom ("smart combi" with 50mb broadband for 79 CHF per month).

I haven't had it for a full month yet but so far so good in terms of downloads! I use Torrents and Usenet Newsgroups (with SSL) and nothing's blocked for me!

I don't think there's any sort of traffic shaping when I'm using Torrents and there is certainly no download speed throttling when using Usenet Newsgroups (I download at full speed every time)!

Now, I haven't used Torrents and Usenet Newsgroups non-stop since getting UPC so I don't know how they react when you go mental downloading 24x7 but so far I couldn't recommend them enough!

That's only because of so much SPAM coming from DSL connections.
Use port 587 to submit mail to a non-swisscom SMTP-relay.

There's little point in running one's own SMTP-server on a domestic DSL-connection anyway IMO.

Are you using Cablecom's usenet server, or a third party? If Cablecom: How is the retention? Are there many missing articles? How many news groups do they carry?

This is true, you just get spam filtered due to coming from an IP range that gets dynamically assigned.

in short, inbound and outbound appear to be open. outbound smtp will likely be on SBLs so you'll need a smarthost for relaying.

the only traffic shaping I've seen is when you turn to a HD channel on SwisscomTV and have vdsl from Swisscom being used at the same time. I trippled download speed moving from Swisscom 20mbps to Cablecom 20mbps....

No I use a third party new2ch (usenet.net).