Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : SMTP and ISPs

[chtyrone]

I fear I still haven't this sussed.
Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong here.

1) Some hosts will allow you smtp priviliges included in their packages
Eg your-site.com in the US give you a number pop3/smtp accounts

2) Some hosts will give you smtp priviliges for extra money.

3) some hosts just give you pop3 for receiving and that's it..
..but, your ISP may allow you to send mail through their server (eg port 2525)

Am I close?

and can anyone recommend a co.uk supplier who gives you the first option for a "competitiive" price.

Are a lot of companies deliberately ambiguous on this?

[HostRefugee-Vince]

Originally Posted by chtyrone

Are a lot of companies deliberately ambiguous on this?

I don't know if it's done on purpose, but POP3/SMTP seems to be a standard feature with most hosts. I have seen very few which charge extra or deny SMTP entirely.

I propose you contact any potential hosts you find and ask for clarification if it's not clearly defined.

[boonchuan]

I think it is so common a feature that the hosts never bother listing it as a feature, normally pop and smtp comes together. There are those ISPs who block port 25 for all IPs except their own. In such cases, you will need to use their SMTP.

[2Macs Jim]

Agreed, I can't imagine a host not having this as part of a everyday package. Never heard of one charging extra for it. There has been issues lately with some ISP's, but usually if you contact them it's resolved. (Sometimes you may have to contact them a few times).

[chtyrone]

It seems to be a UK thing.

34sp-co-uk-hostingfeatures

"If you use a mail client such as Outlook or Eudora to send and receive your email you will need an SMTP server to send email. You may find your ISP can offer you this as part of your basic internet connection package with them. Some ISP's have heavy restrictions on the use of their SMTP server, these may prevent you from sending out email with return addresses that match your domain name. Whatever the reason, we can offer you SMTP support at £15.00 per year. Please note you require one SMTP account per unique domain."

[EncoderZ]

I know I wouldn't pay seperate price for smtp access through a hosting account but, I can understand why they might try to charge as this discourages spammers (so they think).

Every host I've used allows SMTP access through the domain but,. in all honesty I use my ISPs SMTP with my domain as the sender.

If you have to use your ISPs SMTP authentication it doesn't outwardly show you sent the email via your ISP unless someone scans the email headers and even then it doesn't show any actual personal details of you.

So I wouldn't worry.