There was actually a story in USA Today a couple of days ago where a family tried calling 911 on their VoIP service during a burglary only to be told by a recorded message that they must "dial 911 from another phone"...
I was surprised to see on Packet8's web site that they now offer E911 in a lot of places. You have to have a local phone number and pay an extra $1.50/mo. They remind you that if your power goes out, your phone still won't work, but if you can call 911, it'll be a real 911 call. This still has little to do with port blocking, but a lot to do with the whole question of what level of service people are paying for vs. what level they think they are paying for. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://www.johnlevine.com, Mayor "I dropped the toothpaste", said Tom, crestfallenly.