problems with sending email through OE

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fallcree

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Sep 26, 2005
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Hi, I set up an account for my mother's webpage. She is having problems sending e-mail through Outlook Express (OE). I live in Japan, she lives in Oregon, so I can't just go over and mess with her settings. Her e-mail was working initially when we set it up, but now it is not. I walked her through the download steps from the direct admin email accounts page again to try a redownload, but still no luck. This is the error message she gets when she tries to send an e-mail:

Your server has unexpectedly terminated the connection. Possible causes for this include server problems, network problems, or a long period of inactivity. Account: '[email protected]', Server: 'mail.fallcreeXXXXX.com', Protocol: SMTP, Port: 25, Secure(SSL): No, Error Number: 0x800CCC0F

I believe she connects to the internet through AOL. Could this be a problem? Or is there something else?

Thanks in adavance.
 
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Looks like she is trying to connect with ssl to port 25, that port normally does not use ssl or other mail servers won't be able to send email to that server. I'm not sure where the setting is for OE (I don't use it), but it should not be checked or enabled.

I would also remove her email address, so she doesn't get tons of spam. :-)
 
The real answer

AOL doesn't allow port 25 traffic off it's network.

No matter what's in your mother's copy of OE, AOL is redirecting all outgoing email through their own servers.

The only place to get support for port 25 traffic while using AOL is from AOL support.

Good luck on finding someone who actually knows about this issue.

You'll probably have to get past first level support before you can get anywhere.

You'd be better off if you enable port 587, the authenticated SMTP port, on your DA server.

The easiest way to do that is to ask me to send you a copy of the Spamblocker Version 2 Beta 4 file.

However you'll need to properly install it (I'll send a separate readme file) or exim will stop working completely.

Once your server has enabled port 587, you then need to walk your mother through changing her copy of OE to enable plain-text authentication and port 587 instead of port 25.

Then email should work properly through her AOL account and your server.

Jeff
 
Thanks, might be easier to have her dump and go netzero, earthlink, or att dial up.
 
All of whom might do exactly the same thing, or even worse, block port 25 completely. So check with them first.

And of course your mother would lose all the AOL content, etc., which she might very well be used to by now. It took me years to wean my brother from AOL.

When we were in the ISP business we blocked port 25 traffic off our network; you either had to use our mailserver or the authenticated SMTP port.

Why? Two important reasons:

First, if there were any systems on our network either because of viruses or because of user action, it would block any outgoing spam and spam programs, including all those direct spam servers spammers try to sell.

Second, if anyone did send spam through our servers it would end up in our logs where we could identify the sender and kill his account.

Jeff
 
my big question is why is OE trying to use port 25. We certainly did not dictate it. When we set up her OE, to make it easier on her, I had her click on the download option on the direct admin page which automatically set up her OE.
 
Port 25 is the standard SMTP port which is the protocol used for sending email. If I remember right, AOL redirects all connections to port 25 to their own servers, this was a while ago, and I don't know if they still do that. Of course, the best thing to do, is to use an alternate port if available from the server.
 
They still did it the last time we tested for it.

The way to test is to "tail -f" the /var/log/exim/errorlog while attempting to send email through a the server.

If the attempt doesn't show up in your log, then AOL is still redirecting all port 25 traffic.

We no longer attempt to resolve sending problems on port 25, since it's no longer recommended for submission and since switching to the recommended port almost always resolves the problem.

Jeff
 
I have to admit, I really not sure what you just said and I"m not sure if it was even directed to me.

Are you saying that I can change the outgoing SMTP port to some other value? If so what.

My mother configured her OE by pressing the "download" option on Direct Admin's email set up page. Doing so supposedly automatically sets up OE to send and recieve email. In this case it has not.

I went the automatic route on my own computer and have had no problems. However my mother is still having problems sending email. Our settings are identical, she can recieve email but cannot send it.

Help, and please forgive me if you all have given it and I haven't completely understood. Why isn't there a tech support phone number? I've been patient with this online posting thing, but my patience is waning with the lack of a real answer.
 
I forgot to mention, she is still getting the same error message even when connecting to the internet via netzero.
 
The automatic route works fine when you are with an ISP that doesn't block port 25. You happen to be very lucky, your mother is not. The only way around it is to have the mail server running on an alternate port and configure OE to use that port.

This has nothing to do with DA, except that it genereated the reg file. This is a very common problem, try reading this. especially the last paragraph.
 
Thanks. What if she dropped AOL and went with Netzero as her dial up. What port value should I use for her outgoing SMTP?

Thanks again for your patience.
 
Netzero blocks port 25, so you will have the same problem. I use Cox Cable for my internet access, and they block port 25. Most ISP's do, because of that, I added a second port for SMTP to listen to. You just need to configure the client to listen to that second port. What port that is, depends on your server, you may want to configure it to use port 587, then configure the clients to use that port. If the server is not yours, then you can ask the admin what port to use.
 
As I've mentioned previously, the new SpamBlocker 2 Beta 4 installs authenticated SMTP on port 587.

It's a closed beta, so the only way to get it is to write my email address (below in my sig) and ask for it.

If you decide to install it, be sure to read the installation instructions.

Jeff
 
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