Sorry I was trying to move these to a new thread but ended up deleting it instead. I had our Forum admin post back what was lost.. but thank you for the input and I will answer your questions below:
Yes, it is true that Port 26 can be configured through the WHM in Cpanel. However, this port can also be blocked by your ISP very easily. As the Link provided by D_Rayle shows, Cox is already blocking port 26. Cpanel will only allow the configuration of the main port 25 and one other port. It is impossible to implement multiple ports which will satisfy everyone.
We have reviewed and discussed this solution on many occasions and have concluded that it is not a permanent fix and may even result in disgruntled customers later. It is in the best interest of our customers that they are provided with a working fix and not a quick patch that may break later.
In my opinion the fix is simple and in no way compromises the integrity, security or performance of the server. It is also my opinion that we as customers should not be told that we have to pay full price to utilize 50% of a feature.
This is a very good question.
For the first part, in order for the server to listen on port 26, another Exim process will need to be spawned. This will actually increase the server load and may degrade the server performance to some extent.. but this is not the reason why we did not enable port 26.
As to whether you are paying full price for a 50% service, you will need to contact your ISP and ask them why. Your hosting account comes with all the services and is available for your use. We are not able control what services are being blocked by your Service Provider. Let’s take this for example:
We have many customers that access their control panel running on port 2083 at work. I get approximately 3 - 5 support calls per day about not able to connect to the control panel. About 90% of them are using a company Internet Connection with a firewall that only allows certain ports to be accessed by their employees. When they get home though, everything works fine.
Our services are available to you but we have no control on what gets blocked and by whom. This is in the control of your ISP. Your Internet Service Provider is suppose to grant 100% access to the Internet, but it seems that they are blocking and limiting the connection, hence providing less than a Full Service. With how spam is increasing, this problem is just going to get worse. This is why we provide technical support which work with our services and your ISPs.
We look for a long term relationship with our clients so every network policy, every fix and every patch that we place on a server is reviewed.. This is to ensure the long term survivability of our services.