Email problem - new one on me! Home wifi provider blocking my emails...

That's an hour of my life I will never get back, on the Telecom helpline...

Turns out that if you use an internet provider other than the provider that your email account is through (eg my email is through Xtra/Telecom, not sure who the wifi at the house I am sitting is with, but not Telecom), you might have problems sending emails if that internet provider isn't set up to allow your company's emails to go out through it...

(Scratching head, think I have explained that as they explained it to me...)

I can access internet no problems, and receive my Xtra emails no problem through this wifi provider, but just can't send emails.

Is it just me this is news to? Or has a memo gone around that I have missed????? [!]

Grrrr....

I have the same problem....

Webmail still works though....

I actually have a second account setup on my mail program (I still use Eudora), but would work the same in Outlook etc - and this has the xtra smtp (mail) server set - I am not with xtra, but I often take my laptop to my parents house that is on xtra, so I can send my mail from there by using the other account... It does mean that you need to know the ISP that you are using, but it is a way around it.... If you are only in the one place for a period of time, simply change the outgoing mail settings on your account, and use them untl you go somewhere else.

Alan

When I signed up with BigFrog (useless company, soon subsumed by another) I had to set up my sending to go via their smtp servers. Later on, when the whole lot was taken over by Farmside, it didn't seem to be an issue any more and I could use my own domain's server.

I'd say the work-around when it's a short-term thing is webmail. Choose the option in the webmail to save a copy of sent messages, then when you're back where you can use your computer's email again, shift the sent emails (on webmail) to the webmail inbox and they'll download to your computer, where you can shift them into your sent folder.

reggit;489354 wrote: Turns out that if you use an internet provider other than the provider that your email account is through... you might have problems sending emails if that internet provider isn't set up to allow your company's emails to go out through it...

You shouldn't "might" have problems - it should be absolutely blocked!

This is to prevent pam emails. If you go back far enough in internet time, before spam was an issue, then there were no restrictions, anyone could send email as anybody through any mail server, and "the system" would do its best to ensure it was delivered. Such an email server is now called an "open mail relay", you can read a bit about the history on Wikipedia, url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_mail_relay"]link[/url. Open mail relays are now, effectively, banned, and an operator running such a server will be blocked by the internet in double quick time.

However, all is not lost. By simply changing a couple of parameters on your email client, you can cross the ISP barrier in safety. What you need to do s to configure your mail client to use the "Submit" port, port 587, rather than the SMTP port, port 25, and to use authenticated sending.

I found a set of instructions that seem quite detailed url="http://www.acns.colostate.edu/Help/Email-AuthSMTP"]link[/url, assuming you asre using Outlook Express; scroll down to the lower Outlook Express section, and see the screenshot on point 14.

I have the same problem. I always have to change my outgoing server to whatever ISP I am connecting through. Otherwise my mail will come in, but not send.

I've tried the workaround that dbuckley linked to above, and it doesn't work. I've given up trying - which is annoying as when I'm working on a random public network, I can't exactly find someone and ask who they get their internet from.

any other ideas, buckley? When I try that, it tells me that my outgoing client is wrong, or I've got the wrong login name and password.

Well that hour wasted on the Telecom helpline was well and truly wasted because...the non-Telecom provider was quite happy sending my Xtra emails the last two days...and now my own Telecom wifi broadband is exhibiting the same problems I originally called them about - ie won't send my emails!

So their logic isn't logical at all...grrr...[!]

Get off xtra!

PS thanks dbuckley, will try that when I have regained the will to live...tech stuff does my head in.

Is it just me who is having flashbacks to the old days of VHS vs Beta type set ups where things don't work together as they should?

Spam prevention should prevent spam, not individual emails...sigh. Maybe that's just too simple...

Going back to my wee cave now to light a candle and draw on the walls with a charcoal stick...

When you bump into something in that cave, don't panic, it is only me. I did not bring my candle. [}]

Sorry, just having a really bad day and really so want to crawl into a dark cave.... or a soft bed. []

spoook;489713 wrote:
Sorry, just having a really bad day and really so want to crawl into a dark cave.... or a soft bed. []

Sometimes the best thing is to just go with it and have what I call a Duvet Dive

So wish I could....... for a long, long time.

lisaeve;489702 wrote: When I try that, it tells me that my outgoing client is wrong, or I've got the wrong login name and password.

What is your home ISP where your email account is?

it's my work email, but I work at home, so I am using xnet there. Whenever I go anywhere else, I have to change my outgoing smtp to whatever is there.
The crazy thing is that neither of my work colleagues have this problem. They appear to have exactly the same set up as I do, and I recently upgraded to the same version of office as one of them, so I thought that would end my problems... but, NO.
I can send you more detail on PM if you think you can help?

Your next suggestion is probably going to be to tell me to route my work email through something like gmail... I'm not allowed to
I guess I could just do it and not tell them.

lisaeve;489723 wrote: it's my work email ... I can send you more detail on PM if you think you can help?

If its work then yes, go to PM as it'll be non-public stuff, and may be quite different to a public setup.

But for anyone with a "normal" email address hosted at an ISP or public email provider (eg hotmail or gmail), then using the submit port is the legal and supported way of getting email out, whether you are on the ISPs network or elsewhere. Even the fabulously incompetent Xtra (or rather, their... groping for word... colleagues at Yahoo who provide email for Xtra) who seem to get absolutely everything wrong can manage submit ports.

The submit port was born in April 2006 ( RFC 4409 , for the curious) when several someones figured out that the personal computer revolution caused email systems to be misused, and there had to be a better approach than to continue the misuse. Submit became best practice (ie how we should all do email) in November 2007 ( RFC 5068 ) and given that was now nearly seven years ago, these problems should be behind us all.