On Jul 7, 2008, at 2:52 PM, BB wrote:
I'm supporting a small office network. The office just moved and in the process they changed ISPs from Rogers to Bell (Sympatico for Business). The way I had things set up at the old office, which was blessed by Rogers, was to have all users downloading their e-mail (POP3) from individual accounts at their hosting provider and sending outgoing (SMTP) mail using Rogers' mail servers. I've been trying to set things up the same way at the new office, but have only been 50% successful. Incoming mail (POP3) from the hosting provider works perfectly - no problems there. Sending mail through Bell does not work. When I send a message (and I have sent dozens to many different addresses), regardless of the mail client, no authentication or transmission errors are reported; the messages go into the ether and never come out. I have tried everything, including calling Bell Sympatico technical support. The support technician walked me through a bunch of troubleshooting exercises, and this is what we concluded: 1. We have been setting up the accounts correctly. The technician confirmed that we don't need to have a username and password for outgoing mail (SMTP Auth), (this surprised me because Rogers requires it.) and there are no special ports for mail. (Bell's STMP listens on port 25). 2. The username and password are correct. 3. Messages can be sent using Bell Sympatico web mail. Before calling Bell I deleted the e-mail account settings and created two new accounts that both send messages using Bell Sympatico: one for the branch manager that downloads his personal e-mail from the hosting provider, and one that downloads e-mail from the primary address that Bell Sympatico assigned to the account. Again, I could download e-mail from each provider, but could not send. I am concluding that the issue is with Bell and that somehow our messages are being dropped on their network. The issue is that I haven't found the right person at Bell who can confirm that there is something going on with their network. I'm anxious to hear from those of you out there who are using Sympatico who support a similar set up either at home or at work. I've been doing this kind of thing for more years than I care to admit, and I'm stumped. There must be things I'm overlooking. I'm wide open to suggestions. Thanks, Brian _______________________________________________
What if you telnet to their server and speak SMTP directly to it? At least you'll confirm that their server is accepting mail or you may get useful error messages...