Mail - can no longer send emails

Polly Woodhouse

Registered
Hi,

Mail has been working just fine for ages and then for the last 4 weeks it cannot send any emails and gives me the following error message -

'Cannot send message using the server smtp-mbb.three.co.uk'

I phoned up the isp to see whether they had changed the outgoing mail server at all, and they haven't.

I have tried changing the port numbers to 110, 587 etc, but it still can't send.

I have defragmented the HD, verified it, verified permissions on it, cleared the cache, deleted the keychain password items for the mail accounts and the outgoing mail server details, deleted the mail accounts themselves and created new ones.

I don't know what else to do, please can someone help.

Kind regards and many thanks in advance,

Polly
 
If Mail can't send e-mail it *is* about SMTP. Always. (Unless it's not, but it never isn't.) Port is 25 then? Is there any authentication needed? What's the info that you're given by the provider? What do they tell you you should enter as SMTP info?
 
Hi Fryke,

thank you for your reply.

Yes, I am using port 25.

No authentication is required.

The outgoing server name I was given by my isp is -

smtp-mbb.three.co.uk

What is interesting is that this worked for absolutely ages, and then suddenly it stopped working. I contacted them and told them the problem asking them if they had made any changes to their outgoing mail server and they said that they hadn't.

I don't have another outgoing mail server that I can experiment with.

Thanks,

Polly
 
Hm. Well, since obviously something _is_ wrong, there are two paths you can go down from here:

1.) Delete the SMTP entry completely and recreate it from scratch. I'm not entirely sure whether Mail.app actually lets you do that, but it's worth a try. Worst case, you'd have to completely get rid of the account and recreate it from scratch.

2.) Try the whole settings in another mail client and see if they work fine there. You could use Thunderbird for testing, it's free.
 
Hi Fryke,

Thank you for your advice -

1.) Delete the SMTP entry completely and recreate it from scratch. I'm not entirely sure whether Mail.app actually lets you do that, but it's worth a try. Worst case, you'd have to completely get rid of the account and recreate it from scratch.

Yes, did this and it didn't work

2.) Try the whole settings in another mail client and see if they work fine there. You could use Thunderbird for testing, it's free.

Yes, did this and it can't send using the outgoing mail server either.

I then went on line looking at 3's reputation for outgoing mail servers, and it is bad - so we are deciding to change to another isp. The thing that was / is confusing is that it worked to begin with. Other people actually reported the same thing. Also, their technical people will swear there is nothing wrong with their service and that the problem is a one off and resides with us. I don't think so.

Thank you so much for your help. It has been great.

Kind regards,

Polly
 
Polly have you tried launching Mail and in Mails menu items select "Window" and in the drop-down select 'Connection Doctor". This way so can see what the SMTP error is saying.
 
Hi Satcomer,

Polly have you tried launching Mail and in Mails menu items select "Window" and in the drop-down select 'Connection Doctor". This way so can see what the SMTP error is saying.

Yes, thank you, I have done that and it says what it said in the error message, that it couldn't connect to the SMTP server and that I must check my network and account preferences settings.

Thank you for that tip.

Kind regards,

Polly
 
Polly maybe you can see if the SMTP server is even up. Open /Applications/Utilities/Network Utility and the in the application click on the "Ping" tab. Then put in your ISP SMTP server name they gave you and see if it replies to the pings. If it doesn't reply to the pings then you can go back to your ISP and strongly (but be nice) tell them it is not even replying to your pings. Tell them if you can't ping it then it maybe broke. Good Luck.
 
Hi Satcomer,

Thank you for the suggestion. I have pinged it previously and no packets were able to be sent. I then looked up other people with the same problem who contacted their isp and were told that the ping only showed problems on the local computer and not on the isp! How do you deal with that?

Well, happy new year to you.

Kind regards,

Polly
 
Polly-try this-go to hd>users>library>preferences>locate the mail.plst and trash it. you will have to reset "mail" and all its settings etc. pop acct.-smtp-port # etc. the port number on mine is 995. my mail server cox cable changed their server to an east coast one and it has been having some issues.
good luck and may this will work.
Dickster------------------------------------------------
 
Polly-try this-go to hd>users>library>preferences>locate the mail.plst and trash it. you will have to reset "mail" and all its settings etc. pop acct.-smtp-port # etc. ...
If the ISP has changed its SMTP server port number, then all the OP needs to do is to change the port number in her SMTP server settings. There is no need for her to trash her account settings and start over.

The place for her to start is her ISP's email technical support webpage. These pages are often out of date. If this is the case, then the OP should telephone technical support for her new account settings.
 
Polly I forgot to ask is the problem with email your ISP or is the email SMTP server (the send mail server) beyond your ISP? I ask this because most ISPs around the world are blocking port 25 (the traditional send mail logical port) beyond their servers to stop spamming from their users.

Plus is this a 3G email server ISP?

Lastly could you post a link to your ISP web page so we can poke around the site to see if we can find a hidden setting in their web pages. Thanks.
 
Last edited:
Hi Satcomer, MisterMe, and Dickster,

thank you all for your kind thoughts and advice on this.

Yes, I did delete the mail.pst file and start again, then I also changed the port number to 995.

I use the smtp server of my isp which is -

smtp-mbb.three.co.uk

My isp is mobile three broadband and I use their dongle to connect to their mobile broadband service. Their urls are -

Home page

http://www.three.co.uk/Home

Home page > Mobile Broadband
http://www.three.co.uk/Mobile_Broadband


When I connect to receive my mail, I go to a pophost client on another server (123-reg), and use the isp to connect to the internet.

So, thank you for all your help in this.

Kind regards,

Polly
 
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