[Mikester]

Can anyone please help me. I have Mail set up to receive my .Mac account email. I can receive my email, but when I try and send email, it comes up with a warning messages saying, "cannot send message using stmp.mac.com". I use Wanadoo for my broadband and have tried changing the stmp address to stmp.wanadoo.co.uk and stmp.wanadoo.com, but to no avail.

Any suggestions to help me out?

Thanks in advance,

Mike

[julesstoop]

It's called 'smtp', not 'stmp'...
Does that solve your problem?

[Mikester]

Originally Posted by julesstoop It's called 'smtp', not 'stmp'... Does that solve your problem?

'Fraid not - that's just my inability to type!

[Gargoyle]

Why the hell is it that every wanadoo customer on the planet is unable to find this page on their own!

http://www.wanadoo.co.uk/help/email/....htm#section_5

[AsLan^]

Heres a link on using the .Mac smtp server...

Using the .Mac SMTP server

If that doesn't work... try telneting to port 25 of smtp.mac.com from the terminal ($ telnet smtp.mac.com 25).

you should see something like this...

Trying 17.250.248.48... Connected to smtp.mac.com. Escape character is '^]'. 220 smtp.mac.com ESMTP Service

if you are unable to see this, it means your ISP might be blocking outgoing connections to port 25. As per the above link you can test port 587 ($ telnet smtp.mac.com 587).

[Mikester]

Originally Posted by Gargoyle Why the hell is it that every wanadoo customer on the planet is unable to find this page on their own! http://www.wanadoo.co.uk/help/email/....htm#section_5

Actually, I did find that page - if you'd bothered to read my post properly, you'd find that I had tried smtp.wanadoo.co.uk. I have also tried the Freeserve one. Seeing as I have managed to set up both a Blackberry and a Treo 600 to receive my email, but can't get Mail to do it, suggests that maybe what's going wrong isn't that obvious?

Have you finished being a smart-ass now?

On another note, why does it default to smtp.mac.com if this cannot send out emails?

[Gargoyle]

Originally Posted by Mikester Have you finished being a smart-ass now?

Not quite! If you actually bothered to read the help pages properly you would know that Wanadoo is one of the many ISP's in the UK that block access to port 25 to all but their own mail servers. You'll be able to verify this with AsLan's suggestions.

Your .mac account defaults to smtp.mac.com because normally this is the correct outgoing mail server.

I suggest you revisit your account preferences and carefully check that all is correct. Eg, the correct tick boxes for security and SSL, not just the server name.

I know for a fact that Mail will work fine with Wanadoo, so you ether have an incorrect setting, or a corrupt Mail app, or non standard network setup!

Edit: While I am still in smart arse mode, as you put it. Read this too!

[Mikester]

Originally Posted by Gargoyle Edit: While I am still in smart arse mode, as you put it. Read this too!

Much of that could also apply to the way people give advice, as well as asking for it.

[Gargoyle]

Originally Posted by Mikester Much of that could also apply to the way people give advice, as well as asking for it.

It's meant so that we can help you quicker without the need for all the "default" questions. Eg, if you were to say that you have double checked all the settings and its still not working then we as people trying to help you would have to start asking things like what OS version, Mail version, Network setup, router, firewall, modem, etc???

Plus there is more chance of someone else popping up early in the thread and saying "I had the same problem with my XYZ... try this..".

BTW, Is it fixed now?

[Mikester]

The problem is that whilst I understand the need for an incoming and outgoing server address, references to ports, etc. are quite confusing. Therefore the Wanadoo help page does not always make sense to someone who is not familiar with those terms - therefore phrases like "try telneting to port 25 of smtp.mac.com from the terminal" (above) mean zip all to me (it also does not help that Wanadoo only provides support for Outlook users and not Mac/Mail users).

Anyway, thank you to everyone for your suggestions. I have not yet been able to try and make it work as I am currently at work and don't have my iBook here, but I will try it out as soon as I get home.

[AsLan^]

Originally Posted by Mikester The problem is that whilst I understand the need for an incoming and outgoing server address, references to ports, etc. are quite confusing. Therefore the Wanadoo help page does not always make sense to someone who is not familiar with those terms - therefore phrases like "try telneting to port 25 of smtp.mac.com from the terminal" (above) mean zip all to me (it also does not help that Wanadoo only provides support for Outlook users and not Mac/Mail users). Anyway, thank you to everyone for your suggestions. I have not yet been able to try and make it work as I am currently at work and don't have my iBook here, but I will try it out as soon as I get home.

That's okay, not everyone has to be a k-rad leet haxxor to execute a terminal command or two

When you get a chance...

open terminal, it's in your utilities folder, and type...

telnet smtp.mac.com 25

if you don't see what I quoted above then it means telnet cannot connect to port 25 on smtp.mac.com. There could be many reasons why this is so but based on what you and Gargoyle have already posted I would assume that Wanadoo is blocking outbound connections to port 25 (the default smtp port). The reason they do this is to prevent windows zombies (computers that have been taken over by people othe than their owners) from sending large amounts of spam to other mail servers resulting in the Wanadoo domain getting blocked by the other servers and none of their users can send mail.

Apple understands this and allows users to also connect to port 587 on smtp.mac.com bulk email programs are not generally configured to access port 587 so most providers will not block this port. To see if Wanadoo blocks port 587 execute the following in terminal

telnet smtp.mac.com 587

if you see what I quoted above then mail from your computer through smtp.mac.com is possible and you can follow the .mac configuration guidelines.

If you cannot see what I quoted above from either port 25 or 587 then you will have to resort to using the Wanadoo smtp servers. This might require some trial and error with the configuration settings but you should be able to get it working as you are a Wanadoo customer and there is no reason why it shouldn't work.

Please post back to let us know if you got it to work.

[Gargoyle]

Here's a translation piccy for when you get home...

[AsLan^]

now that's service!

[Mikester]

Gargoyle, AsLan^

Many thanks to both of you for all your (very detailed!) help - everything is now up and running. I am very pleased indeed.

Gargoyle - my apologies for getting a bit shirty earlier - I shouldn't have taken my frustrations at not being able to get this to work out on you.

Again, many thanks both for all your help.

[Gargoyle]

No worries, no harm done. Glad its all working and we were able to help.