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Apple Mail receiving, not sending; Sends on other networks?

cloudnine

cloudnine

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 3, 2006
532
0
San Francisco, CA
So I'm having a REALLY odd problem with Apple Mail.

I have two email accounts set up in Apple Mail. The first is my .Mac account (which is IMAP), the second is my work account (which is POP3).

I can receive email on both accounts at home with no problem... and I can both send and receive email on both accounts when I'm anywhere but home. The problem is that I can't send email from home.

I spent 16 hours in the Apple store trying to figure this out, and the techs had absolutely no idea what to do. They consulted with our IT guy, changed every setting in Mail, used every port known to man, I've even backed up, format and reinstalled OSX from scratch (dragging over my "Mail" and "Mail Attachment" folders from the /User/Library/ backup), to no avail.

I've also "deleted" my home network information and recreated a network with a new name and pretty much "default" settings.

Does anyone have any ideas? I haven't the slightest idea what to do from here. I've been forced into creating a gmail account (which allows you to send/receive emails from external accounts), but I'm hoping this will be a very temporary solution.

Any help is appreciated, guys... Thanks!

I should also add that these settings worked up until just a couple weeks ago... out of the blue I was having intermittent errors, and now it just doesn't work at all...
 
May ISP's block the use of any smtp server but their own. Try changing the outgoing mail server to that of your ISP (Comcast) and see if that solves the problem.

Comcast's SMTP server is: smtp.comcast.net
 
swiftaw said:
May ISP's block the use of any smtp server but their own. Try changing the outgoing mail server to that of your ISP (Comcast) and see if that solves the problem.

Comcast's SMTP server is: smtp.comcast.net
Click to expand...

No such luck there :/ I even called them and got my comcast username and password, tried that for username and password in the authentication area... tried ports 25, 110, 465 and there was a 500-something in there that I tried, as well (587?).
 
In case anyone searches because they have the same problem, I just wanted to let people know the solution I used which worked...

I found this via Google:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20475726-Connectivity-Email-not-sending-through-Comcast-Cable

(Mind you, I don't know if this solution will work for everyone using Comcast... I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area).

the response that jbob gave on the page did the trick... except that I used the incoming server information for my work email account, but for the outgoing server, I input all of my Comcast information (username/password, port #465 with password authentication using my comcast account username and password).

And that's it... I'm able to use my work email address and my .Mac email address with the comcast server as the outgoing server.

That's it :)
 
I have a similar problem. I have one .Mac and two Gmail accounts, all IMAP. Starting a couple days ago, Apple Mail (10.5.3) stopped sending mail from all three accounts. I can still receive mail on all three accounts. The mail connection doctor confirms this. Similar to the OP, I tried changing the outgoing ports, and when that didn't work, I started fresh by deleting my mail plist and the mail folder in user library. That didn't help either. While the same settings and accounts work fine on my iPhone on the same network, my girlfriend's MacBook can only send from her Gmail account (the other two are yahoo.co.jp and .Mac), but receive fine on all three. Her Gmail settings are identical to mine (except for log in info and password, of course). This is really confusing.

I am also in San Francisco with Comcast.

Also, wouldn't the solution cloudnine suggest change the from address of emails to xxx@mac.com, xxx@gmail.com, etc, to xxx@comcast.net?
 
I have the exact same problem! I have been toggling between port 25 and 587, is this the only way to fix this issue? is there a magic port? that will allow all mail to flow nicely? any help would be appreciated however I am still actively researching.

Thanks
 
Csmitte said:
I have the exact same problem! I have been toggling between port 25 and 587, is this the only way to fix this issue? is there a magic port? that will allow all mail to flow nicely? any help would be appreciated however I am still actively researching.

Thanks
Click to expand...

At least with my setup, changing the outgoing ports to 587 from 25 solved the issue (contrary to what I posted above).

Mail automatically deletes the auth password when ports are changed, and since I didn't notice that yesterday, i was thinking changing ports do not solve the issue. But as soon as you change the ports and re-enter your auth password, it should work again, assuming you are having the same problem I was having.

What bothers me more now is why Comcast just closed my port 25. According to a Google search, it's because they determined I am sending out mass SPAM. I'm fully confident none of my computers on the network are, whether deliberately or unknowingly.
 
e.m. said:
I have a similar problem. I have one .Mac and two Gmail accounts, all IMAP. Starting a couple days ago, Apple Mail (10.5.3) stopped sending mail from all three accounts. I can still receive mail on all three accounts. The mail connection doctor confirms this. Similar to the OP, I tried changing the outgoing ports, and when that didn't work, I started fresh by deleting my mail plist and the mail folder in user library. That didn't help either. While the same settings and accounts work fine on my iPhone on the same network, my girlfriend's MacBook can only send from her Gmail account (the other two are yahoo.co.jp and .Mac), but receive fine on all three. Her Gmail settings are identical to mine (except for log in info and password, of course). This is really confusing.

I am also in San Francisco with Comcast.

Also, wouldn't the solution cloudnine suggest change the from address of emails to xxx@mac.com, xxx@gmail.com, etc, to xxx@comcast.net?
Click to expand...

Nope... it just sends it through the Comcast server, but doesn't change the "from" email address :)
 
cloudnine said:
Nope... it just sends it through the Comcast server, but doesn't change the "from" email address :)
Click to expand...

Cool. I have a laptop though, so this wouldn't be the ideal solution as I would have to change settings when I come home.

Was your issue also due to Comcast all of a sudden blocking port 25?
 
e.m. said:
Cool. I have a laptop though, so this wouldn't be the ideal solution as I would have to change settings when I come home.

Was your issue also due to Comcast all of a sudden blocking port 25?
Click to expand...

Honestly, I still don't really know what caused it. I never called Comcast to figure out if they could help (because they're usually a pain in the butt to deal with).

To be honest, you won't have to change any settings. If you input your comcast information as your outgoing server info, it'll work regardless of where you are :)
 
I'm having the exact same problem with Mac Mail

I wish I had an answer, but I could have written the exact same post as you. I haven't gone to your extremes to fix it (reinstalling OSX), but my cable provider has no clue. I upgraded to Leopard a month ago and last week started getting outgoing mail server error messages. I too, now must use a web-based email client. There's nothing wrong with my outgoing email server from my cable provider. I will let you know if I find a solution.
 
Try this....

I was having the same problem and I'm not using Comcast. Try this:
Change the outgoing mail server to:
"smtp.googlemail.com" instead of "smtp.gmail.com"
That worked for me.

jborrows
 
Apple mail : Failing on sends to SMTP SERVER : Fix needed?

This may be an old thread,above, but seems to be a recurring problem.

These links may well prove relevant, once the issue is solved - again! Though granted with later updates of software:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/19875202#19875202
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/os-x-operating-system/285994-e-mail-failing-sends-smtp-server.html
http://www.idnetters.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,29636.new.html#new

Interestingly, my ipad with the same settings is allowing a send! So no new software here - yet?

(Macbook 6.61; Intel core 2 duo 2.26 Mhz; Mac OS X 10.6.8 / Mac Mail 4.6(1085) / Firefox 15.0.1)
 
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