Thunderbird Smtp Mail Problem

I'm suddenly completely unable to send any email.

I have 3 computers running Thunderbird and while I can receive mail from various sources with no bother, I can't send any email from any account through any smtp server.

I haven't changed anything at all, in fact hadn't used the laptop for a long time, yet all three PCs are having this problem. I use AOL as my ISP and have had this setup for a long time without encountering any issues whatsoever.

The message is along the lines that my email address isn't correct, or isn't verified. Specifically, trying to go through smtp.aol.com 587 it says: "Incorrect domain in mail/rcpt command. Please verify your email addres is correct in your Mail Preferences."

I've been in the habit of sending mail through yahoo's servers as that seemed to work. However I've since tried the above and that doesn't work at all. I can send mail from the respective web addresses, and I've followed the fairly simple instructions - in any case it all worked until a couple of days ago!

I connect to the internet via a router, but I've never had to particularly configure that to send email. Sygate and McAffee have long since been given "permission" to connect to the net. I have absolutely no idea what could be wrong and would welcome any suggestions.

Moira, contact AOL and be sure they aren't blocking port 25. Some ISPs do this as a supposed spam control measure, but all it really does is annoy their users.

I'm not using port 25 though ..... however, contacting AOL is something I'm reluctantly accepting that I'm going to have to do. This is a last resort! I just wanted to make sure I hadn't missed anything dumb or obvious.

You're sure? That's the default outgoing port for smtp mail.

Yes, all of the account settings stress that if you can't change the smtp port, you can't use that client for their mail. They all want port 587 to be used. ISP's had a huge problem with port 25 being used so much for spam which is the reason you'll find hardly any mail clients accept it for smtp now.

I've had some partial success :) although I still think I need to contact AOL and try to find a better solution than this.

I discovered that mail will send from my aol address, through AOL's smtp server, but fails when I try to send from any other email address. This means that while I can put whatever I want in the "reply to" field, the email appears to be sent from my aol address.

Not only is this confusing, but I don't actually want as many people to have my main ISP address, so that it stays relatively spam free. I can repoint aliases anywhere, but not my main aol email.

What's more, this never used to be the case and I can't understand why it's now happening. However at least it's progress of a kind!

Hi did you just recently update to Firefox 2.0, if so there are issues with the new version and thunderbird.

Quote:

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Version Notes

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Quote:

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Restores the mail functions that were removed in Firefox 2.0
Uses 24px & 16px icons and a "Tools" menu entry (below Add-ons).
Uses the original keyboard shortcut for "New Message" CTRL + M
Developer Comments

To use the supplied toolbar button:
Open the customize window, drag and drop the Get Mail icon to the toolbar.

Having problems setting or accessing the default email program?
Most problems seem to be with Windows... Please try the steps below one at a time:

Step 1. Make sure the email program you are trying to access is set as default through the program itself.

Step 2. Go to Start > Set Program Access and Defaults > click Custom. Set the default email program there.
You may need to restart your computer for this change to take affect.

Step 3. The Windows Default Mail Utility
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/defaultmail.htm

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https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3591/

I did just update to Firefox 2 - thanks for the info. It does sound though, that the problems with the new version and Thunderbird are for people either accessing mail through firefox, or who haven't set Thunderbird as their default mail client - not the kind of problem I'm having really.

Well regarding the spam factor, you might consider what I do, which is get a free throwaway email and use that for all websites that require an email, like purchases, forums, etc.

Oh I do, don't worry. But the fact that all the mail I can send at the moment has to go through aol's servers, which will show my aol email address, is a bit of a concern.

I can only hope that maybe Yahoo were tweaking their POP mail forwarding as that message suggested, and that this smtp server will work as before, once they've finished. I can appreciate why aol might have taken this stance, as ISP's are having to deal with a sudden upsurge in the amount of spam being sent at the moment, which is showing around a 30% increase. Full story here:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10...et_spam_surge/

But it means that I can't send email from my parent's house when i visit them. They're at an age where they need to have me around more to do things for em, and I can work from their house, except for this email issue.

Sorry - have I missed something here?

What email issue do you have and why can't you send email from your parent's house?

Their cable co. blocks port 25 and the email in question is smtp.

Surely you can send email from a webmail interface? That would do me if it was just somebody else's house, or work. It's just irritating not being able to make full use of Thunderbird at home.

Yes, but it's a lousy one. I use a great email client (The Bat!) with a lot of features I depend on. So yes, I can use the webmail but it really slows me down.

I know, it's annoying. You can't send mail from any alias either which is a big drawback for me (I have so many!).

Well this my work mail I'm referring to so no aliases are possible. I wish I knew what port to change to in my email client. I've tried a few and none worked.

Port 587 is used by Gmail, AOL and Yahoo (except that Yahoo's settings are down at the moment). There's been a major upsurge in spam recently, which could be why ISPs are tightening up on the ability to send mail so easily.

It's thought this is the work of a major botnet, gearing up for the christmas period. Either way, most people have noticed a heavy increase in the amount of spam in their inboxes over recent months. Story here:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10...et_spam_surge/

There are a few email clients that don't allow you to change the smtp port, but plenty that do. Until recently I would have recommended Thunderbird! It's still good, but I really need to get on to AOL when I have time and find out what's going on. I'm also hoping I will somehow regain the ability to send mail through Yahoo's servers because that worked brilliantly for a good year or more.

I can change it in mine, but I don't know what to change it to. Also, I was a thunderbird user for a yr. It's not up to snuff, for what I need. It eats memory like an italian eats pasta, it's profile is too easily corrupted (happened to me twice in a yr, on 2 different OS) and it basically has nothing in the way of features, compared to what I use now.

I suppose you can't find out from your IT dept or find the settings yourself at work?

You could try port 587 - it might work.

Yeah, I'll ask internally. Of course to find out it works necessitates a visit to the folks. I don't have that problem at home (thankfully). Thanks

I was all set to phone AOL and just so I didn't look an idiot, I tried sending a test message via Gmail's smtp servers. Guess what? It send with no problem at all! AOL's servers still won't send mail that doesn't originate from an AOL address, but the reverse doesn't seem to be true. Yahoo mail too, is happily sending via Gmail. I don't know why it's suddenly decided to work, but I'm just going to leave well alone and not try to fix what isn't broken :)

PS JPnc, your signature is curious :) There's no place like the loopback address ?? I think it ought to say, "Just click your heels 3 times, and say to yourself, there's no place like ~" (or whatever the linux home directory symbol is) :)

Yes, there's no place like home. I'm not a linux user. :D

Ah, but don't you think "~" is more 1337 than "127.0.0.1" ? :D

Well yeah, now that you mention it, but everyone knows what 127.0.0.1 means. Besides, I change my sig every week or so anyway. I get bored fast. :)