E-Mail Problem

[Ian Clyde]

Hi,

Not sure if anyone can help but I have an e-mail problem which has just started 'out of the blue'. My order despatch e-mails from Actinic have always worked OK until yesterday when I started to get an error message:

Failed to communicate with the SMTP server.

Possible Cause:
1. Network transmission problems.
2. Could have Changed the SMTP Server settings, but not Uploaded after that.

Recommendation:
1. Retry
2. Upload the Site First, if you have changed the SMTP Server Settings.

Resolution:
If retry fails, check your SMTP settings
or contact your ISP.

The error was:
58321rgb@miltonprecast.comError returned from SMTP server (3: From: address not verified; see http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mai...ndfrom-07.html


Command: send Filename

The web page quoted on the message refers to an alternate non-yahoo address requiring verification and I have followed these instructions seemingly successfully, however it still does not work.

Similarly if I do a Test in the Network Set Up I get this error message:

The computer you specified as your mail server is not a valid mail (SMTP) server. Check the computer name or address and try again. If it fails again, then it is possible, you were locked out by a firewall program, or you don't have network connection to this server.

My 'normal' Outlook Express is still working fine so I can't see that its anything to do with the webmail set-up. I have had some design work done for me by a developer very recently but the network settings have not been changed.

Its probably something obvious...but I'm lost!! Any ideas out there?

[NormanRouxel]

Post your network settings (hide all passwords) and also post the output you see when running the network test.

[Ian Clyde]

Hi, Network Settings:

HTTPPROXYMODE 0
HTTPPROXYADDRESS
HTTPPROXYPORT 80
HTTPPROXYUSER
HTTPPROXYPASSWORD
FTPPROXYMODE 0
FTPPROXYADDRESS
FTPPROXYPORT 21
FTPPROXYUSER
FTPPROXYPASSWORD
SCRIPTID 2
SCRIPTEXT .pl
SMTPHOST mail.btinternet.com
WEBSITEURL http://www.thecandlelightcompany.co.uk/
IGNOREPASSIVEERRORS true
USERELATIVECGIURLS false
PATHTOPERL /usr/bin/perl
USEENHANCEFTP true
FTPCLIENTTIMEOUT 15000
FTPRETRYDELAY 3000
FTPSILENT true
FTPMAXRETRIES 20
FTPCONNECTTIMEOUT 25000
SMTPAUTHREQUIRED true
SMTPUSERNAME candlelightcompany@talk21.com
SMTPPASSWORD
CATALOGURL http://www.thecandlelightcompany.co.uk/acatalog/
CGIBINURL http://www.thecandlelightcompany.co.uk/cgi-bin/
PATHFROMCGITOCATALOG /home/www/thecandlelightcompany/acatalog/
CODEBASE ./
FTPHOST www.thecandlelightcompany.co.uk
FTPUSERNAME thecandlelightcompa
FTPPASSWORD
PATHTOCGIBIN /home/www/thecandlelightcompany/cgi-bin/
USEPASSIVEFTP true
FTPPATHFROMCGITOCATALOG

and full Test results:

Actinic Mail Test completed successfully
server: passed
connection: passed
sockets: passed
communications: failed
authorisation: passed
message: From: address not verified; see http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mai...ndfrom-07.html



and specific e-mail test failure text:

The computer you specified as your mail server is not a valid mail (SMTP) server. Check the computer name or address and try again. If it fails again, then it is possible, you were locked out by a firewall program, or you don't have network connection to this server.


Any thoughts?

[TraceyHand]

have you tried using localhost as your smtp server?

[Ian Clyde]

Hi Tracey,

OK, time to show just how inept I am, to do that you mean simply enter 'localhost' into the SMTP field?

[TraceyHand]

I do, Ian, yes
Where you currently have mail.btinternet.com entered in the SMTP Server field (with nothing in the boxes below)

[Ian Clyde]

No luck I'm afraid, slightly different message in the test simply saying its not a valid server.

Thanks anyway....any other ideas?

[TraceyHand]

who is your hosting company?

[Ian Clyde]

Web hosting? NetNation

[TraceyHand]

what do NetNation recommend that you use as your SMTP server?
If you've always used the btinternet one and it's only just stopped working, then you'll probably need to contact NetNation and get them to look into it.

[Ian Clyde]

OK Tracey, I'll try asking them, many thanks for your help, much appreciated.

[NormanRouxel]

As Tracy has pointed out, you're trying to get BT Internet's SMTP server to accept outgoing email from an Actinic Perl script running on your website on a NetNation server.

That email will appear to come from info@thecandlelightcompany.co.uk, who BT Internet probably have no knowledge of.

BT may well have tightened up security and won't allow connections from scripts running on unknown systems.

I'm surprised that this ever worked at all. You should look into using NetNation's SMTP server.

In case you ask "why does Outlook Express work with these settings"? - Outlook Express is running on a system that's presumably connected to BT broadband. BT can therefore can be a bit more trusting of email coming from a system that's connected in an authenticated manner.

[NormanRouxel]

Assuming that the NetNation you're using is http://www.netnation.com/ - who appear to be an USA based organisation.

SMTP server: smtp.thecandlelightcompany.co.uk

With the same username and password you use to receive emails.

[Ian Clyde]

Thanks for your thoughts. I have tried the SMTP address you have suggested, but no luck, error message says: 535 5.7.0 Error: authentication failed: bad protocol / cancel.

Guess I will have to try and speak to NetNation to try to get this sorted.

I guess you are right, as it appears that BT yahoo have introduced an 'authentication' process they are trying to tighten things up so this has messed things up for me.

Thanks for your time (all)...much appreciated.

[Ian Clyde]

Have managed to get through to BT Yahoo this morning and they claim they have a known problem with many users not being able to send e-mail from other clients. They say they are working on it and hope to resolve within 24 hours, not sure if this is true/relevant but will wait to see.