outgoing SMTP mail server

parcival

I use Windows live mail within windows 7 starter edition on my netbook.

My ISP and email account is with Talktalk. At home my POP3 and SMTP servers are talktalk.net and all works fine. However when I use my sisters wireless setup I cannot send emails. Her ISP is Tiscali and I discovered that to send emails from my Talktalk account via her wireless network I needed to change my outgoing SMTP mail server from talktalk.net to tiscali.co.uk.

This is no problem in itself until I connect to a free wireless hotspot where I have no clue who the ISP is and therefore do not know what the outgoing SMTP server should be.

I know that I could use the talktalk 'hotmail' facility via the internet but I really need to be able to compose emails offline and just send them when I find a wireless connection.

Can anyone suggest if there is an SMTP server or setting that will allow me to send emails from any wireless connection regardless if who the ISP is.
Alternatively is there another email client I could use that would allow me to send my talktalk emails given that I must be able to compose them without an internet connection being present.

fwor

Hopefully someone will come up with a solution for you, but the problem you face has been caused by spammers. Until fairly recently it was quite easy to find an "open relay" (a mail server that will accept email from anyone), but the fight against spam has meant that they have almost all changed to require authentication.

I don't know TalkTalk specifically, but have you tried using their mail server, but including the authentication details from your primary TalkTalk email account?

Garetha

Sign up for a Google mailbox http://mail.google.com/mail/#inbox
You can use it online - like Hotmail - but also via Outlook & Outlook Express.
The SMTP settings are on Google and work via any connection.
You can retain exisiting email addresses and even collect emails from another mailbox.
The capacity is almost 7.5Gb - so you don't even need to delete old emails - using Google as an archive. It's the best mailbox I've used.

esuhl

Garetha wrote: »

The SMTP settings are on Google and work via any connection.

Likewise with GMX. Previously I used web mail to send email from my personal email when I was at work, but GMX has it's own SMTP server that you can use on any ISP.

computershack

I prefer GMX too. You can use it to download email messages from other accounts. Use the IMAP option and you can easily keep the email account synchronised over multiple computers.

davb

Usually when using POP3 and SMTP for email, the username and password you put in are just for POP3, leaving SMTP wide open for anyone to use. To prevent spammers using the SMTP servers for spam relay, the ISP's generally restrict access to their SMTP servers to people on their own IP address ranges. So on a Talktalk connection you are fine, but on Tiscali you are not.
Sometimes ISP's allow you to use their SMTP servers from other IP ranges if you authenticate with a username and password first. As Fwor suggested try using your POP3 credentials. There is usually a tick option in the advanced settings something like 'my outgoing server requires authentication' and then 'use the same settings as my incoming server' - it may work with talktalk.

kacetwo

parcival wrote: »

I know that I could use the talktalk 'hotmail' facility via the internet but I really need to be able to compose emails offline and just send them when I find a wireless connection.

Perhaps a bit old fashioned but you can cut and paste the text of any composed email into the webmail page so other than adding a few seconds per email it may not be such a hardship to use that facility.

parcival

Thanks guys - the GMX option looks the best - will set up and give a try