I have been having repeated problems with customers on Earthlink and NetZero not being able to use my incoming / outgoing email servers. Do they have it blocked through their firewall? I have even tried connecting to Earthlink and had the same problem. Anyone know a way around this?

Thanks,

James R. Clark II
Nethosters Inc.

Have you tried contacting them to see what's wrong?

Rob.

You cannot get around it. Because large ISPs receive so many complaints about their customer's using other ISPs mail servers to send spam, they wil loften restrict port 25 access to only their mail servers, or, as in AT&T's case, they block port 25 Access all together. This is done at the RAS level, so there is not a way around it.

When we send out our welcome letters, we always include a disclaimer stating that customers may not be able to use our SMTP servers depending on the restrictions put in place by their ISP.

Here is our FAQ on this problem (feel free to use it if it is helpful):

I am getting an Error 0x800CCC0E sending mail?

Some ISPs, including DCAnet, AT&T WorldNet, MindSpring, MSN, Prodigy Internet, Sprynet, EarthLink, and NetZero, require you to send all outgoing messages through their mail servers.

In these cases when you try to send a message, you'll see an error similar to th e following:

The connection to the server has failed. Account: 'mail.version12.net', Server : 'mail.version12.net', Protocol: SMTP, Port: 25, Secure(SSL): No, Socket Error: 10060, Error Number: 0x800CCC0E

You'll need to reconfigure your outgoing mail server settings as follows:

Launch Outlook Express as usual.
From the Tools menu, select Accounts.
Select the Mail tab.
Select the server to your account and click the Properties button.
Select the Servers tab.


Change the Outgoing mail (SMTP) setting to the one required by your ISP:
If you're using DCAnet, enter postoffice.dca.net
If you're using AT&T WorldNet, enter mailhost.worldnet.att.net
If you're using MindSpring, enter smtp.mindspring.com
If you're using Microsoft's MSN, enter smtp.email.msn.com
If you're using Prodigy Internet, enter smtp.prodigy.net
If you're using Sprynet, enter smtp.sprynet.com
If you're using EarthLink, enter mail.earthlink.net
If you're using NetZero, enter smtp.netzero.net
If you're using AltaVista Free Access, enter email.1stup.com
If you're using another ISP, contact your ISP for the correct setting for their outgoing (or "SMTP") mail server.

Click OK to close the Properties window and then Close to close the Internet Accounts window.

Close Outlook Express and then restart it.

You should now be able to send and receive e-mail from your account using AT&T WorldNet, Prodigy Internet, NetZero, or other ISPs.

We went through the same deal. Customers thought we were lying about the SMTP, we told them to call their ISP's that we had no control over it.

Nice post uuallan. Does anyone know if there is a site with a compilation of ISP's that block SMTP servers?

Originally posted by jic
I have been having repeated problems with customers on Earthlink and NetZero not being able to use my incoming / outgoing email servers. Do they have it blocked through their firewall? I have even tried connecting to Earthlink and had the same problem. Anyone know a way around this?



I know that earthlink blocks port 25 (SMTP), but they do allow port 110 (pop3) unhindered. http://help.earthlink.net/port25/

I think just about all paid ISPs will let you receive POP3 e-mail. I was with a free one a while back that wouldn't, but I've tried most of the major ISPs at one time or another and receiving POP3 was fine.

I had a dial-up with AT&T about a year ago, and couldn't sent e-mail because of the port 25 block. I called their tech support (best tech support of any ISP I've ever used, by the way) and they stated that they block port 25 for the first month of usage to prevent spam. I explained to them my situation and they were happy to unblock port 25 for me right away. I don't know if they'll still do that or not.

Possibly the worst of the paid ISPs as far as e-mail is concerned is America Online (surprise!!!). They will let you receive POP3 e-mail, but they block you from sending. What makes it bad is that they have no SMTP servers, so your only option is to use their built-in e-mail system. This makes it impossible to send e-mail with Microsoft Outlook or any other e-mail client. Your only other option here (besides using their built-in e-mail) is to use a browser-based e-mail client.

Originally posted by IntelligentHosting.com
I had a dial-up with AT&T about a year ago, and couldn't sent e-mail because of the port 25 block. I called their tech support (best tech support of any ISP I've ever used, by the way)



AT&T WorldNet or AT&T GlobalNet?

I was a customer of AT&T GlobalNet (AT&T bought it from IBM, it used to be ibm.net). I signed up with ibm.net in 1994. ibm had excellent support. Once AT&T bought it, and the name changed from ibm.net to attglobal.net, both customer support and network reliability took a nose dive.

So I switched to earthlink, which has its pros and cons....

The host I am with has SMTP set up at port 25 and also at port 2525.

It appears that my ISP blocks me from using port 25, but I am able to get thru using port 2525.

So is there a way for you to set up SMTP for a port other than the usual port 25?



P.S. - I have no idea what I'm talking about with these ports, but this is what they told me to do, and it works.

Originally posted by Fred
We went through the same deal. Customers thought we were lying about the SMTP, we told them to call their ISP's that we had no control over it.

I have the WORST experience with my customers who use MSN. Would you believe MSN tech support actually told one of my clients that it was due to OUR servers not being configured correctly?!?!?!?

--Tina