Why can't I send any emails?

-TangleFoot-

As far as POP-based e-mail is concerned, you can receive it no matter where you are so long as you know the name of the server your mailbox is stored on, along with your username and password.

The problem starts when you switch Internet Service Providers, as they will usually only allow you to send e-mail through their servers whilst you are connected to the internet through them.

What they don't often tell you, however, is that you can send e-mail from any server you can access: the only thing that needs to stay the same is the return address. Think of it as the electronic equivalent of a PO Box; you can write to anyone from anywhere, and all replies will be sent to one location, which you can access from wherever you are.

As has already been explained, you can get around the aforementioned limitation quite easily with a little jiggery-pokery. Retrieve your e-mails as normal; you'll have no problems there. To send mail, on the other hand, you must do one of two things:

• In your mailing application's account options, change the outgoing SMTP server to that of your current ISP (or alternatively, an open relay). Note that your ISP may or may not allow you to do this with impunity!
• Set up your own SMTP server, and use that instead. Something like PostCast would do.

Hope that helps. :cool:

Patr100

I'm with EFH broadband. They don't prevent you from using exisitng email addresses (eg I pick up Yahoo, hotmail and POP3 emails via Outllook) although you can purchase a separate EFH POP3 email adress from them. That is what they were referring to. Either they have misled you or you have misunderstood what they meant. However the crux of your problem is that other dialup ISPs often don't allow easy OE access unless you are connected to them - as mentioned you often need to tweak the settings.

mike_paterson

You could always set up a gmail account - this is accessible from any isp.
PM me if you would like an invite.
Cheers
Mike

davep

I have just signed up with EFH broadband as well and had the same problem, basically the easiest way is to pay them £10+Vat (per year) for access to their SMTP server so you can send emails, other ISP's generally will not allow you to route mail through their SMTP servers without being dialled in or authenticated in some way this is to prevent bulk email spammers who target open SMPT servers to route all their spam emails through so they can't be traced and stopped. You will struggle to find an open SMTP server these days because of spammers, believe me I have tried . You could set up your own SMTP server as suggested in this thread but this is more hassle than its worth + you run the risk of spammers targeting your server as above.
For £10+vat a year its still cheap when you consider how much you are paying for EFH broadband

mike_paterson

davep wrote:

For £10+vat a year its still cheap when you consider how much you are paying for EFH broadband

Not as cheap as a gmail account which is free !
Cheers
Mike