Correct SMTP Settings for V7 & Verio?

[elysian]

Hello,

I'm just about to upgrade to V7, having had (among other things) problems with customer confirmation emails etc in v6. Apparently, the problem was that Verio require smtp authorisation to connect to the smtp server, which I gather is something that's available in V7.

In the v6 forum, olderscott helpfully pointed me to this thread http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=14144 which has information for sites on a verio windows hosting plan. Our is on a unix shared hosting plan. I was wondering if anyone has any experience of what the correct smtp settings for this should be? I'm not very technical, so any clues in advance as to how to alter the setup successfully would be much appreciated. I'm presuming that the current smtp settings (mail-fwd.london21-verio.com) won't just magically start working when the upgrade's complete! Thank you.

[Mike Hughes]

There is another thread that I think is based around a verio unix server.

See:http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=11159

Here's what it boiled down to:

In Advanced, Network Setup, Common Settings, Mail (SMTP) Server, I had mail-fwd.london21-verio.com - Verio told me to use this months ago and it worked fine until a few days ago when Verio implemented their anti spam system. Then, when I pressed "send now", instead of the usual confirmation. I got a box which basically said can't do it - Abort, Retry or Cancel - Retry didn't work (same thing) and the other two weren't much use to me. So one day I just closed the box and I got the email sent confirmation shortly afterwards. Great except I found out later that the email hadn't been sent at all! I phoned Verio last night and was told that it had changed to mail-fwd.inlondon21-verio.com - tried this, didn't work. Phoned them again today and was told to use mail-fwd.in.london21-verio.com (it's those little dots that make the difference) - still doesn't work, although tests OK in the Network Setup box.

STOP PRESS - I've done an upload from Actinic to my site to change a product and the mail works now - sorry guys - didn't realise that was necessary to make changes to the email settings work - I'll get my coat...........

This may actually work with V6, in which case give verio a talking to for not telling you about the "in." bit before london.

Mike

[elysian]

Thank you for that information, Mike. I've been away for a week, but this morning did try the upgrade. Email settings are still not working now I'm in v7.

I tried 'localhost' and got this message when testing network settings "SMTP Authentication is not supported by this server!"

I tried mail-fwd.london21-verio.com and to the same message.

I tried mail-fwd.inlondon21-verio.com "The Network Test was unable to verify that the mail (SMTP) server you specified is valid (the name lookup failed). The mail server name may be correct. If it is (and your email address is correct), you will receive an email soon after this test has completed. This error can occur if the mail server you specified is incorrect, or if your PC network is not properly configured (for more information, see "DNS" in Windows help). If this problem is due to improper network configuration, you may not be able to place orders from this computer using the built in Actinic encryption method for credit card details."

Finally, I tried mail-fwd.in.london21-verio.com and got the same message as the first two attempts.

I've tried all of the above settings live too (as opposed to just with test network settings) and on none of them do I get a 'catalog order received' email nor an order confirmation for my test orders.

I have ticked the box in network settings which says username and password required, and filled those in correctly. Should I not have that box ticked?

Very stuck now! Thank you for any further advice.

[Mike Hughes]

I would try mail-fwd.in.london21-verio.com without authentication. The original suggestion for this came from someone using V6 which doesn't support authentication.

Mike

[bwalton]

Just an update on the smtp settings for Verio hosting.

For the last 12 months we have used the mail-fwd.in.london21-verio.com without problems until today when I got the familar error appearing, so I contacted Verio support you were unaware of any change but suggested I tried mail-fwd.london21-verio.com (ie without the 'in') as they had no record of the other, result - all working again.

Thought I would mention it in case anyone else has similar issues, I know how fickle this setting is.

Brian

[Bruce]

Thanks Brian, useful information is always welcome

Kind regards,

[Mista Dave]

Thanks for the heads up bwalton, had the same problem on the 21st and the new server works for me too.

However, before the old server stopped working we were using our username and password so the emails went auth smtp. Now it will only work without smtp.

I gave verio a call (seems like they have alot of actinic customers there because the lady on the phone knew what i was going to ask straight after i told her our domain name!); she said they no longer support auth smtp and they ahve changed mail servers because this one is more secure against spam.

All very well and good, however with my limited know how in this area, am I right in assuming that any spammer can send mail using this server if they so wished, and a user name and password is the only way to varify whos who?

I know from experimenting with newsletters that if i sent one out without auth smtp it most certainly gets put into outlook, hotmail and gmails spam folder, whereas it doesnt when its authorised.

Whats other peoples experiences with this? I'm trying the new settings out now with a test order to see if it gets blocked, as I said to the lady at verio, if it doesn't work we have no choice but to change hosts.

Cheers

Dave

[bwalton]

Hi

we have never used the username/password within Actinic to connect so don't think that this is the entire story.

We also use Groupmail for our newsletters etc and after just checking we can still send newsletters this way with SMTP authorisation on but again this may change over the forthcoming days.

I always thought that the SMTP authorisation was introduced to minimise the risk of spamming and thats why nearly everybody else adopted this.

[Mista Dave]

Hi,

It all seems to be working fine now so not to worry, I tested a few of my email addresses on test orders and all got through various ISPs spam filters.

Last year (i think) when there was a big push by ISPs to cut out spam we found that alot of our emails weren't being recieved. Using auth SMTP solved this then because it gives the emails a lower spam rating (servers use some formula to calculate the likelyhood of the email being spam).

Verio have obviously worked out a way to recognise official emails sent from their customers against ones sent by spammers trying to use the server.

Our normal outlook emails always have and still do work fine with auth smtp, I don't understand why the same settings (i use smtp.ukbikestore.co.uk) work in actinc......it all works though so I guess thats all that counts....nice of verio to give us a heads up though