Problem sending Emails

I'm having trouble sending emails. I use Eudora and get "Error 550 must check your mail first". However, I've already checked and receiving works ok.

I can send to myself - eg. from [email protected] to [email protected] and vice versa - but rarely need to do this. I can't send to anyone outside.

Can anyone offer any suggestions?

Thanks
Steve

 

hi, have you made any changes to the settings on Eudora (I haven't used this myself tho) - like on the host or something?

are you connected to a work e-mail account, or via an ISP..? - have you checked with them?
is it on your work, or home PC..?

have you tried to create a new profile on Eudora (like the way you would on outlook?)

do other people have the same issue on your pc, and do you have the same issue on another pc..?

pretty generic questions I guess, but it may spot an issue somewhere...

edit - I guess there maybe a problem with your port..? - if you can receive ok, but not send...look in the config and try to ping the server name and the respective port...
hope it helps tho

 

Thanks for the response. No, I haven't changed any settings or created any new profiles. The problem seemed to start suddenly, yesterday. I've visited Eudora's on-line support section but can't find anyone with the same problem. I'd email Eudora but my emails aren't working.

I have contacted my ISP - he's gone off to uni but his Mum says she will text him (he's pretty good, really, was a boy prodigy).

I haven't tried the port pinging thing. How exactly would I do that?

 

Assuming you're using SMTP/POP3 then I don't understand the error wording. The SMTP (for sending email) error 550 is defined as 'requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable' which in your case would imply a broken server, or that you're logging in as a non-existent person.

Paul

 

Steve, is your ISP's ISP NTL by any chance? Their email systems been up ndown like the proverbial courtesan's lingerie today.

 

Ah yes, the ever so reliable (not!) NTL e-mail servers. Thank goodness I'm moving away from them today from a dial-up account that goes at the speed of a snail on valium! As for the e-mail reliablity, I'm convinced my two cats could run an e-mail server between them with better uptime....

Going to do the self-install of my Plus.net broadband tonight, now that my D-Link wireless ADSL router has arrived.

I've moved to Gmail for my e-mail services and they seem pretty good so far.....

 

No, I'm pretty sure my ISP's ISP isn't NTL.

Paul, the exact error message is:

Perhaps my host's server is faulty. I'll have to wait for him to get back in touch with his Mummy.

I'm not a non-existent person. I'm a free man. :grrr:

nsherin: Can I borrow your cats?

 

ok, the reason I think it maybe port related is that fact that you can receive mails, but not send, I assume you can surf the web ok (do to posting on here too) - smtp will use 2 ports, one to send, and the other to recieve...

you'll have to go to the config of eudora and find out the name of the server and the port number for sending (again, not sure how to do this as I haven't used eudora)

then go to a dos command prompt and ah...sorry!
yeah, you need you telnet the server...

so, in the prompt type in -
telnet servername 25

if the port is 25 and if it works from what I remember you should just see the cursor flashing which will indicate that it's ok, try it with the other port too...

if the port isn't working then you will get an error - but again, it's worth tryiong on both ports!

 

Hmmm. A bit complicated at this stage. Steve, have you by any chance changed your firewall settings so that it is denying the connection for outgoing mail?

Another possibility is that one of your inboxes is full on the server. Some ISPs have spam filtering and place some of your emails in a 'Bulk' folder or somesuch.

Can you log into your email via a website?

 

Panic over. :MILD:

I guess that Charlie's Mum texted him and he then fixed the problem.

Thanks for all of your help.
Steve

 

FWIW if you can remember the protocol you can send emails using telnet, it's a good way to test basic connectivity. The polite way to disconnect is to send the server 'QUIT' in caps.

Paul

 

Slightly off the subject, but somewhere nearby. We're trying to get our "smart phones" to send and receive email. This works fine for receiving via using IMAP4 and sending from within the network using an IMAP client (Thunderbird) works fine too, but from outside our network the send (via SMTP) process doesnt work.

This does seem most likely to be our firewall blocking the send as the FW is the only differing factor. Regards ports - our firewall has the SMTP port (25) open and the IMAP4 port open too. Does anyone know if there's another port we need to open?

Mr Cat refers to 2 ports for SMTP but I thought SMTP handled both in and out over port 25 (in the same manner as http over port 80)?

Any ideas? Does IMAP send over SMTP do something trick vs standard SMTP?

 

A while since I messed with this stuff, but from what I recollect SMTP is SMTP ... the system or protocol you use for storing and accessing your email (IMAP, POP, Exchange, Novell, whatever) is irrelevant.

This doesn't help with your problem, but it eliminates one of the options I guess. I'd recheck your firewall settings. Those things can be a bugger to get right and are not a little confusing.

 

That's what I thought - so actually the IMAP aspect is just determining how mail is pulled down as opposed to POP3. The server in question sends and receives internet mail over SMTP (ie from other mail servers) through the firewall but those SMTP servers dont authenticate, whereas our phones are authenticating via LDAP. I wondered if perhaps a different port is used if the SMTP session is authenticated?

 

The Cisco Pix we use is lovely now it's configured, but bloody hell it was a pain in the ar5e to configure.

 

hi, I may have got slightly confused - it's been a few years since I last worked with this...when I mentioned the 2 ports for incoming & outgoing..? - just I remember setting up clients for the NHS and configuring outlook express (I don't have this on my pc now)...have you checked the client settings again?

sorry for not being much help, I'm winding down now...the users at work get the same treatment, don't worry!

 

Yes. The SMTP protocol moves stuff from system to system. IMAP and POP are two different ways of looking after the mail once its arrived. IMAP stores it on the server (so you can access your mail archive from anywhere), POP downloads it from the server and stores it on the local machine.

I don't know (as I said its been a while), but it sounds feasible.