BobF is talking about the telco's shameless rip off of their customers - us. Something that is compounded by a lack of attention or caring even when we know when we are being ripped off. I don't get why we are so resigned to these so-called "facts of life". Can someone explain to me why enough of us continue to pay for what we don't use or don't care about? Enough of us obviously do or my telco wouldn't continue to try and sell me things I still don't need?
The most annoying rip-off (I've already cancelled all of my smart network services like Call Answer etc.) that I'm being victimized by is the requirement that I *must* use my telco's SMTP server. I can't use someone elses. I've been told that this is a smart thing to do when it comes to fighting spam, but I have a really hard time believing that this is anything but a poor attempt to make me use their mail services instead of the ones that I might choose to use. This, coupled with the fact that they make me lie about my wi-fi router every time I call their support line (We're sorry sir, but we don't support networks. My god people, listen to yourself, you *are* supporting a network - that's why I pay you $50 per month!!), really raises my ire.
Anyways, I have a point. I came across some software that glosses over all of this for me - Autoroute SMTP. This is a great little utility that sits in my system tray and keeps track of what network I'm connected to. Based on various bits of information that it gathers, it makes a best guess regarding what mail server is most likely to handle my mail at any given time. All I do is tell my mail program to send its SMTP traffic to "localhost" and this little gizmo sends my mail to the right place whether I'm at home or at work.
Nifty - and it makes me hate my phone company just a little bit less.