OT - MS Outlook Question

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 8:36 pm

I am having problems with my email. Whenever I try to send something to someone new in my address book, I get a delivery error saying "relaying mail to xyz.com is not allowed by my ISP".

What is all that about?

Anyone?

CJ

aerial · Post by **aerial** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 9:06 pm

The first thing I would check would be your account settings. I think their under Tools-Accounts-Properties in Outlook. Make sure you have the correct server names, maybe your ISP recently changed them. Check their website. They should be something like

mail.myisp.com
or
smtp.myisp.com
pop3.myisp.com

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 9:10 pm

Thanks for the reply. I got that far and it seems okay.

I personally think it is Norton screwing up my works. In that case, my ISP tech support won't help. If you have ever contacted Norton's tech support, you can understand my hesitance to call them. They are outsourcing in India. Ya can't understand them!

CJ

Post by **Spike** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 9:47 pm

Hmmm, some adminstrators turn mail relay off on their smtp servers to protect from spam, etc. Maybe your provider has changed the config of their servers?

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 9:50 pm

What exactly IS mail relay?

CJ

Post by **Spike** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 10:05 pm

Mail relaying is when someone sends email through a mail server that has nothing to do with them. And the more I think about this it sounds like your mail server (ISP) has been black listed by the ISP's of the people you are sending mail to.

When you send email your computer calls up your ISP's mail server and gives it the mail. The mail server then forwards that mail to the mail server of your recipient. When that recipient opens outlook, outlook calls up its mail server and retrieves its mail. Mail servers by default dont really care who gives them email. I could potentially give email to your mail server at your ISP and have it send mail on my behalf.

Many times spammers do this so that they can send mail anonymously and in bulk. To combat that, ISP's *should* configure their mail servers to only except mail from known people, typically that ISP's customers. Otherwise anyone can use that server to send mail, many times spoofing the source, etc.

Now, when other ISP's get hit with spam from an "open relay" (one not secure) they many times will block out any emails recieved from that server. I believe that there is actually a list somewhere that is shared amongst providers. Patti may be able to chime in on that. It may be possible that your ISP's mail server is being blocked by your recipients email server because it thinks that your mail server is an open relay or a source of spam. (Wheew, long run-on sentence) If this is the case your ISP should figure out why and take actions to correct that.

Hope that makes sense.

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 10:23 pm

Thanks Spike,

It looks like I will call my ISP and run it past them.

BTW, is anyone using Thunderbird for their email client?

I am thinking of giving it a whirl.

CJ

svanarts · Post by **svanarts** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 12:38 am

MAPS and ORDB are well known blacklisting services and have web interfaces to check your server's status. More than likely it is a misconfiguation on either your T-bird mail client or your ISP changed something recently on their mail server.

So if your mail client is configured with the address cj@myisp.net. You send an email to your buddy. His email server accepts the email but before delivering it to him it does a reverse lookup on the return address and comes back with cj@smtp.myisp.net. The spam blocking software will delete the email without delivering it because the domain names do not match. At least, that's one possible scenario.

I run Thunderbird without too much trouble.

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 5:52 am

Thanks guys!

CJ

spikescopilot · Post by **spikescopilot** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 10:37 pm

Captain_John wrote:Thanks Spike,

It looks like I will call my ISP and run it past them.

BTW, is anyone using Thunderbird for their email client?

I am thinking of giving it a whirl.

CJ

Thunderbird rules.

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 6:54 am

Cool, I will download it sometime when I am not woking on the plane. I just wanna get away from Microsnot!

CJ

Thermos · Post by **Thermos** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 7:40 pm

I use Thunderbird too, and like it a bunch. It's good to be out from under Bill Gates' thumb!

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 9:55 pm

Thermos, I didn't know you were using it!

We need to chat!

Bring your laptop with you on Saturday!

CJ

Thermos · Post by **Thermos** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 6:53 am

Roger wilco, Cap'n John!

See you on Saturday...

Dave

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 11:39 am

I like this Firefox browser. I had been using it at school, but had no basis for speed comparison until I downloaded it here at home.

As we say around here, "It is WICKED FAST"!

Much leaner than Uncle Bill's product! More intuitive too!

I will d/l the T-Bird client and play with that too.

Thanks All, for your help!

CJ

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 9:24 pm

T-Bird and F-Fox ROCKS!!!

I am MIGRATED and LOVING IT!

I am going to make a LINUX box for the garage one day out of an old machine I have kicking around. On it, I plan on installing LINUX, T-Bird, F-Fox and Open Office!

By Byeeee Billie Boy!!!

CJ

Post by **Spike** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 9:27 pm

Your my kind of guy John!

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 10:06 pm

Are you using openoffice?

CJ

Post by **Spike** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 10:07 pm

No, actually Im not.

Wicked Stick · Post by **Wicked Stick** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 9:06 pm

Captain_John wrote:T-Bird and F-Fox ROCKS!!!

I am going to make a LINUX box for the garage one day out of an old machine I have kicking around. On it, I plan on installing LINUX, T-Bird, F-Fox and Open Office!

CJ

Hey Captn, you might as well get a video quickcam too, and have live video to the web of you building your 7

WS