Can't SEND mail from .mac account
 

I'm using Mail.app 1.2.5 on OSX 10.2.6 and I can't send mail from my .mac account. I can receive mail fine, but not send it. I can send mail from my other POP accounts, I can send mail from my .mac account if I log in from a browser, but not from Mail.app. I've been using Mail.app and this email account since 10.1.3, and I've never had a problem, until the other day. I tried re-configuring that account as .Mac, POP, IMAP and it doesn't work any which way. I have my .mac account entered as default email in System Prefs - Internet, I tried removing it, still doesn't work. I even tried deleting all the mail prefs and reconfigured everything. Still no dice. I'm using 'mail.mac.com' for my incoming server and 'smtp.mac.com:username' for my outgoing server. Every time I try to send a message, the progress bar says "accessing smtp.mac.com", and then it just sits there until I get, "The outgoing mail server 'smtp.mac.com' failed to deliver this message. An errror occurred while delivering this message via the SMTP server (null)." Any ideas?

What ISP do you use? Sometimes with the big ones you have to use their outgoing mail servers, since they block access to others.

I thought of that possiblity, but it's worked fine up until now, and I'd think my ISP would've notified me if they made a change like that. Anyway, I use these guys:

http://www.cox.net/

I have heard from other Cox users that they do indeed block port 25, so the only server you can use for SMTP is theirs. Any attempts to use another SMTP server will result in a connection time out. One would think a good ISP would inform their users of such a big change, but it is funny how they don't. You can test this by going to the terminal and trying 'telnet mail.mac.com 25' or 'telnet smtp.mac.com 25' or 'telnet whatever.mail.server.you.want 25' and it will very likely just time out. The point is any outgoing connection to any server on port 25 is blocked.

Copy/paste from the Terminal window:

% telnet smtp.mac.com 25
Trying 17.250.248.48...
Connected to a17-250-248-48.apple.com.

Interesting. I gues the port isn't blocked. I'll try deleting the account again and re-activating it.

Still not working... WTF!!!!!!!

Hrm. Do you have a laptop? If there isn't any reason you have to send mail from anywhere other than at home, just use your ISP's outgoing mail servers. You don't need to use Apple's. Your mail will get sent just the same. :) Here's Cox's SMTP info:

http://support.cox.net/custsup/email...settings.shtml

Yeah, yeah I know, and that's what I've been doing temporarily. I just want to know why it worked fine up until recently and why I can telent into the server from Terminal.app, but mail gets refused every time. There has to be an explanation.

Does it work from Eudora?
&
Does it work from another test user?

I know you tried this before but did you really get an answer from the .mac server?

[traveller:~] guy% telnet smtp.mac.com smtp
Trying 17.250.248.48...
Connected to smtp.mac.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 smtp-mx.mac.com ESMTP Service


You should get the output like above... if you do not get the last line then you are _not_ getting an SMTP connection to this server..

More and more ISPs are doing this blocking because of SPAM..

Cheers,
--Zed :cool:

Well, it looks like that's the case because I can't send mail from Outlook Express either. I wish they would've notified me of the change. Oh well. I'll just use thier outgoing server. Thanks for your help everybody.

I have similar problems, had for quite some time. Eudora is the only email app that I can use to send mail, it simply doesn't give up (read: time out) until the mail goes through.

I feel it's my ISP (some kind of murky and muddy SMTP handling), but I won't switch. I'm using the last truly free and public ISP left in the nation, the patience and being stuck with Eudora is worth the money I've saved over the past three or four years.

.Mac email problem (glitch?)
 

I also had a problem with my .mac mail. I could neither receive nor send. The "mac.com" label in Mail app In-box was gray. I encountered this problem both on my iMac and my PB12. I had no other problem with the internet connection and my pop account at another ISP was working fine.

Since the .mac email is imap based, I decided to just delete the account and create it again. Then everything started working again!

My problem may not be exactly the same as yours, but the timing is the same. It definitely seems like a glitch in .mac server with some recent changes.

Jacques,

what free ISP is that?

Re: .Mac email problem (glitch?)
 

.Mac support POP connections as well.

Yes, it does. I noticed that when I had to (re) create my account recently. When I signed up with the .mac service last year I set up my account as a pop account.

I created my .mac account just now with each of those three options, one after the other.

Choosing .mac seems to give you IMAP by default. This means you have to specifically choose a POP account for mac.com now. This seems new.

I also noticed that .mac supports SSL now. I think that is new too. The ISP where I host my domain does not support it yet. I like it!

Does choosing ".mac" do anything special, beyond configuring some server addresses aumatically?

Nothing special beyond what you noted.

at least you got it to work, I tried configuring my account as IMAP, POP, .Mac and none of them worked, I even tried deleting the .Mac account entirely from System Prefs - Internet, still no dice. It just plain and simple won't work for me. It strange how it happened all of the sudden though.

Deleting .mac email account
 

I deleted my .mac email account by going to the Accounts tab of Mail Preferences, selecting the .mac account entry, and then just clicking the "Remove" button.

Did you try that? Didn't that work for you?

You obviously didn't read the first thread before you posted. Naughty, naughty of you. ;)

I had the exact same problem that you described, and I fixed it by telling Mail to use pot 587 instead of port 25.
My ISP, SBC/AT&T, states on their website that they block port 25 to prevent spam (that's like hitting a nail with a thermo-nuclear weapon), and that you can try using port 587 instead.
So, I tried port 587 for smtp.mac.com and it worked! I hope this helps!

Thanks for the post, but you realize this thread is 3 year old, right? :)

Off topic, I wonder how long before spammers and zombifiers start spamming from port 587 too?