[afnog] Cannot connect to remote pop3 server

[Shepherd Magumo]

Good day,

We connect to the internet via two independent service providers and
both connections cannot connect to a remote Pop3 server called
pop3.zonnet.nl on port 110.
In troubleshooting the problem I tried telnet pop3 port 110 via the
two ISPs and a similar test from a UK based server that we are
hosting.

The result is, when I do telnet pop3.zonnet.nl 110 from UK I get a
response, but a timeout via our two ISPs. As a result our clients
using this incoming server cannot receive pop3 emails.

[admin at ISP1#] > system telnet  pop3.zonnet.nl 110
ERR Cannot connect to POP server 62.58.50.236 (62.58.50.236:110), connect error
10060

[admin at ISP2#] > system telnet  pop3.zonnet.nl 110
ERR Cannot connect to POP server 62.58.50.236 (62.58.50.236:110), connect error
10060

[root at UK-server]# telnet pop3.zonnet.nl 110
Trying 62.58.50.236...
Connected to pop3.zonnet.nl (62.58.50.236).
Escape character is '^]'.
+OK POP3 Ready 10.170.1.173 0001fe31

ISPs are saying there is nothing they can do because this is a global
issue ( South Africa). Two questions:

1. Anyone else getting similar connect error elsewhere?
2. Can i work around this problem via some traffic tunneling of some
sort via the UK server?

Please help. Any comments and ideas are welcome.

Shepherd