tux : how are you connecting? Standard dial up? PPP? More details on how you are connecting as root would be nice. Is there any software that you are trying to use to aid you in this? I don't work much with dial up, but with more information, I can probably help. As Common_Exploit has stated, yours is likely a permissions issue.

Ratman : You can easily change the port most of your services are running on by modifying /etc/services

typically, you look at it and you will see something along the lines of this :

Code:
#
# WELL KNOWN PORT NUMBERS
#
rtmp              1/ddp    #Routing Table Maintenance Protocol
tcpmux            1/tcp    #TCP Port Service Multiplexer
tcpmux            1/udp    #TCP Port Service Multiplexer
nbp               2/ddp    #Name Binding Protocol
compressnet       2/tcp    #Management Utility
compressnet       2/udp    #Management Utility
compressnet       3/tcp    #Compression Process
compressnet       3/udp    #Compression Process
echo              4/ddp    #AppleTalk Echo Protocol
rje               5/tcp    #Remote Job Entry
rje               5/udp    #Remote Job Entry
zip               6/ddp    #Zone Information Protocol
echo              7/tcp
echo              7/udp
discard           9/tcp    sink null
discard           9/udp    sink null
systat           11/tcp    users        #Active Users
systat           11/udp    users        #Active Users
daytime          13/tcp
daytime          13/udp
qotd             17/tcp    quote        #Quote of the Day
qotd             17/udp    quote        #Quote of the Day
msp              18/tcp    #Message Send Protocol
msp              18/udp    #Message Send Protocol
chargen          19/tcp    ttytst source        #Character Generator
chargen          19/udp    ttytst source        #Character Generator
ftp-data         20/tcp    #File Transfer [Default Data]
ftp-data         20/udp    #File Transfer [Default Data]
ftp              21/tcp    #File Transfer [Control]
ftp              21/udp    #File Transfer [Control]
ssh              22/tcp    #Secure Shell Login
ssh              22/udp    #Secure Shell Login
smtp            25/tcp     #Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
smtp            25/udp    #Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
Change the numerical value next to the service you would like to use and make sure that if you change it to a value that is already in use on this list that you comment out (using # at the beginning of the line) the other service that is bound to that value you are assigning.
for example, moving ftp services to port 25 :
Code:
 
ftp               25/tcp  #File Transfer Protocol
ftp               25/udp #File Transfer Protocol
ssh              22/tcp  #Secure Shell Login
ssh              22/udp #secure Shell Login
#smtp           25/tcp  #Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
#smtp           25/udp #Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
I don't recommend moving it to another typically assigned port like this, but you are free to do is you like and if you aren't using the service normally used on that port it's not likely to be harmfull with proper firewalling.

Restart the service and all should be well. If in doubt on how to restart the service, then use the fast boot by using "fastboot" as root. The system will restart the service on boot.

Hope this helps.
Regards.


[edit]
I should let you know right away that you don't want to completely disable the smtp services. You are using them possibly without even knowing it. If you get reporting done to your root account to include disk usage, ipfw or other firewalling stats, file permissions changes, etc, disabling smtp services will disable the reporting and /var/log/maillog will show constant mail delivery failures from localhost to root. You may not care about this, but to keep yourself secure it is wise to leave it alone.