email sending issue?

[catso]

I am having problems with sending email. My ISP is Wanadoo and I have been using their email for years without issue, however since last week when I try to send email it appears to send but is returned to me by AVG (anti virus) as an email titled "Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender" in which has, as an attachment, my original email and the text;

"This is the AVG E-mail Scanner program.

I'm sorry to have to inform you that the message returned
below could not be delivered to one or more destinations.

-------------------------------------------------------
Cannot open smtp connection to 'xxx.xxx.xx.xxx' "


This last line re the smtp connection is often repeated 20 or 30 times and it can take from a few minutes to several hours to return to me.

I have spoken with Wanadoo, who first said it was a problem with their server and that it would be fixed in a few hours but now tell me it is a problem with my PC or software, specifically Outlook express or AVG and that, for them, the issue is closed.

I have uninstalled AVG and email appears to send but does not arrive at it's recipient and I receive no error message, when re-installed the problem is still there but I receive the error email.

I can still send email by Wanadoo Webmail (from the homepage) but this is inconvenient as it is not recognised by subscribed to services, I can not use address book etc and it limits me to a max 3mb attachment size.

there is no problem receiving email but I have the same issue from 3 different computers.

Does anyone have any idea what the problem may be?

:beer:

[Tank Slapper]

Don't know how AVG works, but some email scanners act as a proxy server. You may need to check how this is configured.

If you are getting bounces giving an IP address, the SMTP server may have moved - make sure the server is specified by name.

[darrent]

catso said:

I am having problems with sending email. My ISP is Wanadoo and I have been using their email for years without issue, however since last week when I try to send email it appears to send but is returned to me by AVG (anti virus) as an email titled "Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender" in which has, as an attachment, my original email and the text; "This is the AVG E-mail Scanner program. I'm sorry to have to inform you that the message returned below could not be delivered to one or more destinations. Do you have a Sygate firewall? ------------------------------------------------------- Cannot open smtp connection to 'xxx.xxx.xx.xxx' " This last line re the smtp connection is often repeated 20 or 30 times and it can take from a few minutes to several hours to return to me. I have spoken with Wanadoo, who first said it was a problem with their server and that it would be fixed in a few hours but now tell me it is a problem with my PC or software, specifically Outlook express or AVG and that, for them, the issue is closed. I have uninstalled AVG and email appears to send but does not arrive at it's recipient and I receive no error message, when re-installed the problem is still there but I receive the error email. I can still send email by Wanadoo Webmail (from the homepage) but this is inconvenient as it is not recognised by subscribed to services, I can not use address book etc and it limits me to a max 3mb attachment size. there is no problem receiving email but I have the same issue from 3 different computers. Does anyone have any idea what the problem may be?

[CraigAlsop]

In a DOS (CMD) window, if you type:
telnet xxx.xxx.xx.xxx 25
(where xxx.... is the IP address of your smtp server - the one that you get back in the messages)
Do you get connected?

[catso]

CraigAlsop said:

In a DOS (CMD) window, if you type: telnet xxx.xxx.xx.xxx 25 (where xxx.... is the IP address of your smtp server - the one that you get back in the messages) Do you get connected?

Yes, I get AVG ESMTP proxy server

But I've no idea what that means.......

[_dobbo_]

catso said:

CraigAlsop said: In a DOS (CMD) window, if you type: telnet xxx.xxx.xx.xxx 25 (where xxx.... is the IP address of your smtp server - the one that you get back in the messages) Do you get connected? Yes, I get AVG ESMTP proxy server But I've no idea what that means.......

It means your AVG virus scanner is catching outbound connections to scan them before it then sends them on to the internet.

Disable AVG then try again - now what happens?

[catso]

_dobbo_ said:

It means your AVG virus scanner is catching outbound connections to scan them before it then sends them on to the internet. Disable AVG then try again - now what happens?

Just tried that and it still connects in CMD and emails appear to send but never get anywhere plus I don't get the error messages. I did uninstall AVG last week but still got nowhere, although I didn't try the 'telnet' thing with it uninstalled.

[darrent]

Sorry just seen that my post did not display properly! meant to ask if you have a Sygate firewall by any chance?

[malman]

catso said:

_dobbo_ said: It means your AVG virus scanner is catching outbound connections to scan them before it then sends them on to the internet. Disable AVG then try again - now what happens? Just tried that and it still connects in CMD and emails appear to send but never get anywhere plus I don't get the error messages. I did uninstall AVG last week but still got nowhere, although I didn't try the 'telnet' thing with it uninstalled.

What message banner did you get after you disabled AVG

[catso]

darrent said:

Sorry just seen that my post did not display properly! meant to ask if you have a Sygate firewall by any chance?

No but I've got Zone Alarm Pro firewall.

[catso]

malman said:

What message banner did you get after you disabled AVG

Initially none but I have now uninstalled AVG (again) and am getting an error and email is not sending, this is the error;

An unknown error has occurred. Account: 'pop.wanadoo.co.uk', Server: 'smtp.wanadoo.co.uk', Protocol: SMTP, Server Response: '554 Please check your SMTP server is set to smtp.wanadoo.co.uk. Further help is available at www.wanadoo.co.uk/help/email/freeserveemailsettings/outlooksettings.htm', Port: 25, Secure(SSL): No, Server Error: 554, Error Number: 0x800CCC6F

All the account settings are correct, this is all that Wanadoo helpline staff seem able to advise me on - and I can do that myself anyway.

I have again spoken to Wanadoo support who now tell me that many of their customers using Outlook Express are having this problem and that I should re-install Outlook Express but I'm reluctant to do this as I will lose all my Address book, unanswered emails, emails that I've saved, message rules, signatures etc. That and I don't believe it will cure the problem as I have 3 computers that are connected to the internet here and all 3 have the same problem but only 1 is normally used for email (until I started testing this week) I may try uninstalling/reinstalling on my Laptop as there is nothing critical there but I think it is a Wanadoo problem.

I have also tried using Outlook and this gives the same error, it seems to me that the emails sent under AVG didn't give this error as they were sent to AVG then were returned when wanadoo couldn't accept them so showed as an AVG error.

If this is the case then should/are other Wanadoo/Freeserve users be having the same problem?

It's been a week since I was initially told that there was a server problem, which they then denied and told me it was my PC problem, I just wish they'd tell me the truth If they can't sort it soon I will need to look at changing ISP.

Thanks for help.

[TeamD]

Until you can get a connection to the SMTP server at your service provider your e-mails with not get sent. The advice so far is valid.

Firstly, disable all software that may be clouding the issue (anti-virus, firewalls etc) and then ensure that you can connect to the SMTP server. If you can't then there should be some sort of error/informational message as to why your connection failed. So using the telnet command suggested previously try to initiate a connection. It will either connect or it won't. If it won't then there is an issue with either the mail server or the ip address you are using for the mail server. Do not be confused by the fact that you can receive mails because it is more than likely that you are connecting to a POP3 server for inbound mails, this could even be on a totally different machine at the ISP so it is a red herring.

Is it possible that your ISP has enabled authentication for SMTP access? My ISP did this a while back and the end result was that until I ticked the right box in Outlook I couldn't send mails.

[catso]

TeamD said:

Until you can get a connection to the SMTP server at your service provider your e-mails with not get sent. The advice so far is valid. Firstly, disable all software that may be clouding the issue (anti-virus, firewalls etc) and then ensure that you can connect to the SMTP server. If you can't then there should be some sort of error/informational message as to why your connection failed. So using the telnet command suggested previously try to initiate a connection. It will either connect or it won't. If it won't then there is an issue with either the mail server or the ip address you are using for the mail server. Do not be confused by the fact that you can receive mails because it is more than likely that you are connecting to a POP3 server for inbound mails, this could even be on a totally different machine at the ISP so it is a red herring. Is it possible that your ISP has enabled authentication for SMTP access? My ISP did this a while back and the end result was that until I ticked the right box in Outlook I couldn't send mails.

OK tried this, I can not get a connection with the telnet command, yes the incoming is a POP3 server.

Re the ip address, how would I know if there was an issue, in the original AVG error mails there were, at times, 3 different ip adress no's (well the last 2 digits were different but sequential)

I was specifically told NOT to check the authentication box so didn't but I have now tried checking it and it makes no no difference.

[TeamD]

catso said:

An unknown error has occurred. Account: 'pop.wanadoo.co.uk', Server: 'smtp.wanadoo.co.uk', Protocol: SMTP, Server Response: '554 Please check your SMTP server is set to smtp.wanadoo.co.uk. Further help is available at www.wanadoo.co.uk/help/email/freeserveemailsettings/outlooksettings.htm', Port: 25, Secure(SSL): No, Server Error: 554, Error Number: 0x800CCC6F All the account settings are correct, this is all that Wanadoo helpline staff seem able to advise me on - and I can do that myself anyway. I have again spoken to Wanadoo support who now tell me that many of their customers using Outlook Express are having this problem and that I should re-install Outlook Express but I'm reluctant to do this as I will lose all my Address book, unanswered emails, emails that I've saved, message rules, signatures etc. That and I don't believe it will cure the problem as I have 3 computers that are connected to the internet here and all 3 have the same problem but only 1 is normally used for email (until I started testing this week) I may try uninstalling/reinstalling on my Laptop as there is nothing critical there but I think it is a Wanadoo problem. I have also tried using Outlook and this gives the same error, it seems to me that the emails sent under AVG didn't give this error as they were sent to AVG then were returned when wanadoo couldn't accept them so showed as an AVG error. If this is the case then should/are other Wanadoo/Freeserve users be having the same problem?

Ah! It doesn't like your e-mail address/domain name. The SMTP server is actively telling Outlook to fk off. Sounds like Wannadoo have changed the way their SMTP server works to stop people spoofing. Hence the e-mail address you configure in Outlook must match that supplied by wannadoo otherwise it will consider you as trying to send mails with a false origin and refuse to play ball. They should know about this, but there you go.

[catso]

TeamD said:

Ah! It doesn't like your e-mail address/domain name. The SMTP server is actively telling Outlook to fk off. Sounds like Wannadoo have changed the way their SMTP server works to stop people spoofing. Hence the e-mail address you configure in Outlook must match that supplied by wannadoo otherwise it will consider you as trying to send mails with a false origin and refuse to play ball. They should know about this, but there you go.

They don't seem to know very much at their offshore support centre

But I have the correct settings, in fact I've only changed them on the 1 PC at their request) and then only to what they were originally anyway. To be fair this is the first major issue I've had with them but I expect them to sort it quickly, doesn't seem to be happeneing though.
As mentioned before I can use their Webmail but it's a bu66er to use as I need to keep logging in few minutes, I have none of my Outlook details or features, it won't let me send large attachments either.

I really don't see how re-installing Outlook would help as the details will still be what they are.

Thanks for the help

[TeamD]

OK, so what does it say if you try to ping the smtp server from a command prompt? for example:

ping smtp.wanadoo.co.uk

It should to a DNS lookup to translate the name to an IP address.

If that works then what error to do get when you try the following?:

telnet smtp.wanadoo.co.uk 25

If the telnet session is established you should get some sort of message welcoming you and identifying the server as an SMTP or ESMTP server.

You can then type

HELO domainnameEGyourname.wanadoo.co.uk
MAIL FROM:<youremailaddress>

You should then get a response to each command, preferably "250 OK" but if not then the return code is important and will give us a better idea of what is wrong.

If all goes well up to this point then try:

RCPT TO:<somebodyelsesemailaddress>

DATA
This is a test blah blah blah
.
QUIT

By this point you should have sent an email, this is basically what Outlook does on your behalf. Hope this helps.


>> Edited by TeamD on Thursday 6th October 14:02

[catso]

TeamD said:

OK, so what does it say if you try to ping the smtp server from a command prompt? for example: ping smtp.wanadoo.co.uk

It says;

request timed out
ping statistics for xxx.xxx.xx.xxx:
packets sent = 4, received = 0, lost = 4 (100% loss)

[TeamD]

Hmmm, maybe they have turned off the Echo port so that may not be a complete show stopper. Does the telnet time out too?

[catso]

TeamD said:

Hmmm, maybe they have turned off the Echo port so that may not be a complete show stopper. Does the telnet time out too?

Telnet smtp.wanadoo.co.uk 25

gives the following;

554 Please check your SMTP server is set to smtp.wanadoo.co.uk. Further help is available at www.wanadoo.co.uk/help/email/freeservemailsettings/outlooksettings.htm

Connection to host lost.

[TeamD]

Well if you can't establish a conversation with the outgoing mail server then it won't send e-mails. Let me get this straight, when you telnet it immediately closes the connect after giving you the wonderfully helpful message? Or does it take a little while? Don't expect a prompt or anything before typing the HELO stuff. But the way I see it is because you get the message, which is described as following in the SMTP RFC...

554 Transaction failed (Or, in the case of a connection-opening response, "No SMTP service here"

? the SMTP server thinks it's not an SMTP server!??!!

I've run out of suggestions of things you can do at your end. You should at the very least be able to get a positive response when opening a connection to the SMTP server, if you don't then it can only be a Wanadoo issue. Maybe it's worth asking them what the IP address of the SMTP server is to check that you're talking to the right box, there could be a naming error or any number of things, all of which are pretty much outside your control.