Changing email provider from local company to iCloud email? Who is correct? Who is incorrect? What to do?

[Dervla]

Past:
A few days ago my email & internet provider notified me they would become internet only, ie, no email, at the end of this year.
I have an iCloud email account, set up about 10 years ago. I tried it yesterday. I can receive email on my M4 iMac but not send.
In Mail>Settings>iCloud>Server Settings>Outgoing Mail Account, it reads None.
Maybe I need to enter a server &/or port # &/or password for outgoing iCloud mail?
Can you help me make the change to using iCloud for email?
I have an iMac, an iPhone, and an Apple Watch.
I can send and receive email on my iPhone.

~~Present and future:
Spent about an hour on the telephone and screen sharing with Apple Support, spoke to one person, then to a Senior Advisor.

Turns out I can send messages using iCloud email on my iMac, they just take half an hour to be delivered. Senior advisor said it’s slow.

Senior Advisor said all settings on my iMac are correct. Said maybe my ISP is blocking SMTP.

He said, and at the Apple website:
"If you can receive messages but can't send them
→ Your IS might be blocking the protocol used to send email (SMTP) across their network. Contact your service provider and ask about SMTP traffic that crosses their network to an external service, such as iCloud. If your service provider blocks SMTP traffic, ask them how you can be exempted from SMTP blocking."

Called ISP, nope, they don’t block anybody, he said.

Anybody using iCloud email without problems? And whom for ISP?

Thank you.

 

[BrianBaughn]

It might be better to change your email to a Gmail address as Gmail has many more features than iCloud email. Gmail works great with the Apple ecosystem.

Anyway, you could set up a Gmail account and test it. I'll bet it "just works".

Stay away from Outlook.com. Folks with Macs are having issues with that.

I use iCloud for Reminders, Notes, Messages and iPhone backup only.

 

[Dervla]

It might be better to change your email to a Gmail address as Gmail has many more features than iCloud email. Gmail works great with the Apple ecosystem.

Anyway, you could set up a Gmail account and test it. I'll bet it "just works".

Stay away from Outlook.com. Folks with Macs are having issues with that.

I use iCloud for Reminders, Notes, Messages and iPhone backup only.

Thank you.

 

[GaryGnu]

smtp: smtp.mail.me.com
port: 587
username: <your icloud name before the @>
password: <your icloud password>
security: STARTTLS
authentication: Normal Password

 

[Dervla]

smtp: smtp.mail.me.com
port: 587
username: <your icloud name before the @>
password: <your icloud password>
security: STARTTLS
authentication: Normal Password

You know waaay more than me.

Would you have a guess why the two people at Apple Support did not suggest this?
.
<your icloud password> would be Apple ID password?
Normal Password would be what?

 

[GaryGnu]

You know waaay more than me.

No, I've just been bit by email settings before, but thank you.

Would you have a guess why the two people at Apple Support did not suggest this?

Yes, but forum decorum prevents me from answering.

<your icloud password> would be Apple ID password?

I think so, but it's the icloud password, which in my case is actually different then apple ID, but they could be the same. I'm a little password protective so I don't reuse any password, even an apple account and icloud.

Normal Password would be what?

On my system (which is Thunderbird), it's one of the options for authentication type. The others are no authentication, encrypted password, Kerberos and NTLM.

 

[Dervla]

No, I've just been bit by email settings before, but thank you.


Yes, but forum decorum prevents me from answering.


I think so, but it's the icloud password, which in my case is actually different then apple ID, but they could be the same. I'm a little password protective so I don't reuse any password, even an apple account and icloud.




On my system (which is Thunderbird), it's one of the options for authentication type. The others are no authentication, encrypted password, Kerberos and NTLM.

Thank you, and well done in #2.

 

[GaryGnu]

Thank you, and well done in #2.

Not a problem. I hope it works out for you. If you have any problems, you can ask, but honestly, I've reached my limit on what I can do for you without seeing your screen and all that other stuff.

 

[IvyKing]

Past:
A few days ago my email & internet provider notified me they would become internet only, ie, no email, at the end of this year.

I know your pain after having a speakeasy.net email for 14.5 years only to have speakeasy's ultimate successor, GTT, give a two month notice that the email service would be terminated. The 'fun' part was getting in touch with all of the entities that had my speakeasy email on file.

 

[Dervla]

I know your pain after having a speakeasy.net email for 14.5 years only to have speakeasy's ultimate successor, GTT, give a two month notice that the email service would be terminated. The 'fun' part was getting in touch with all of the entities that had my speakeasy email on file.

Yup