email sending issue?

[catso]

It brings up the error immediately.

I am certain it's a Wanadoo problem but they seem very vague, even unhelpful and can't/won't do anything about it, when I call them all they can do to do is get me to remove and recreate my email account and even that takes 1/2 hour to do

Thanks for the help though

[TeamD]

But you're not getting that far, at the point where it is failing it doesn't know anything about your email address or anything. They're barking up the wrong tree IMHO. They should try your troubleshooting steps (as above) and attempt to reproduce your problem. Only by working out what is causing your problem can they come up with a resolution, anything else is just fobbing off and shots in the dark. Where do they get these morons from?

[catso]

TeamD said:

anything else is just fobbing off and shots in the dark. Where do they get these morons from?

Indeed , IIRC they used to have a UK (or Irish) support center I suspect that they have moved it offshore and probably pay peanuts....

[TeamD]

Sure, but how can you support software if you don't know anything about it? I guess these folks wouldn't know an RFC if it fell on their heads. Christ! I dispair sometimes. Some people just don't want to learn do they? My approach when I worked in customer support (many moons ago) was to walk the customer through the troubleshooting process and to ensure that they understood what had gone wrong and why the solution was what it was, in the hope that they'd never phone me about the same problem again.

In your case, if this is an SMTP server/networking issue (which it looks like it is) then I'd expect this to be causing a good number of Wanadoo users a problem. Therefore, it would be in their interest to fix it. Let's face it, you've even managed to reproduce the error without using an e-mail client so re-installing Outlook isn't going to make a jot of difference, all it does is waste your time. Godammit, have these people no pride?

[malman]

one last try if you are running 2000/xp

go to a command prompt and enter

nslookup smtp.wanadoo.co.uk

you should get something like this

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: smtp.wanadoo.co.uk
Addresses: 193.252.22.138, 193.252.22.139, 193.252.22.140

They use round robin dns to load balance so the order of the addresses may be different.


if that work try using telnet to each address and noting the response from the server.

telnet 193.252.22.138 25 "hit return then don't type anything"
it should produce a banner like this
220 mwinf3013.me.freeserve.com ESMTP ABO **************************

[malman]

The plot thickens. (Using my test freeserve account)

Freeserve/wanadoo used to redirect all smtp traffic to their server so if you logged onto freeserve and then tried to connect to mail.btconnect.com port 25 you would end up at a freeserve smtp server. I just tried that now as I thought it won't matter what settings you have in you smtp server in the account info as you will end up there anyway but low and behold when I tested this

telnet mail.btconnect.com 25

I got this

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/outlooks
ettings.htm

so basically wanadoo think you are trying to connect to something other than their smtp server.

This could still be down to something like zone alarm of AVG on your machine intercepting and sending smtp to something other than wanadoo

>> Edited by malman on Thursday 6th October 17:42

[TeamD]

Jesus! What a pain in the butt that would be, I'm glad my ISP doesn't do such rubbish. It's as bad as bloody AOL, they're a bunch of cts too.

[catso]

malman said:

one last try if you are running 2000/xp go to a command prompt and enter nslookup smtp.wanadoo.co.uk you should get something like this Non-authoritative answer: Name: smtp.wanadoo.co.uk Addresses: 193.252.22.138, 193.252.22.139, 193.252.22.140

Yes that's what I get

malman said:

If that work try using telnet to each address and noting the response from the server. telnet 193.252.22.138 25 "hit return then don't type anything" it should produce a banner like this 220 mwinf3013.me.freeserve.com ESMTP ABO **************************

In this case I get the "554 Please check your SMTP server........."

And

Connection to host lost.

Which to me would still suggest a Wanadoo fault, unless my PC is at fault - but if it is then so are the other 2 that I have here.

But wouldn't this means that all Wanadoo/freeserve users are also having problems, there must be some of you on here?

Thanks for the help chaps

[CraigAlsop]

catso said:

In this case I get the "554 Please check your SMTP server........." And Connection to host lost.

Well, if you can't telnet to port 25 on the smtp server then it's either a problem with their mail server, or possibly a problem with NAT if you are using a broadband router - you mentioned that you have several machines - can you tell us a bit about your network topology?

e.g. Do you have a broadband modem, connected to a router/firewall/switch & then a local network with PCs attached to it?
Do you have any firewall SW loaded on your PC? I know we've asked this before, but it's relevant
Do you have any HW firewall?

Can you try both:
telnet smtp.wanadoo.co.uk 25
telnet smtp.freeserve.com 25

If you are broadband, try powering off & on your cable modem. I'm wondering whether you may have been allocated an IP that is outside the normal range that the smtp server will normally accept from. This is something that a knowledgeable person at their end should easily be ablt to check, however you may need perseverance to get put through to them.

[catso]

CraigAlsop said:

Well, if you can't telnet to port 25 on the smtp server then it's either a problem with their mail server, or possibly a problem with NAT if you are using a broadband router - you mentioned that you have several machines - can you tell us a bit about your network topology? e.g. Do you have a broadband modem, connected to a router/firewall/switch & then a local network with PCs attached to it? Do you have any firewall SW loaded on your PC? I know we've asked this before, but it's relevant Do you have any HW firewall? Can you try both: telnet smtp.wanadoo.co.uk 25 telnet smtp.freeserve.com 25 If you are broadband, try powering off & on your cable modem. I'm wondering whether you may have been allocated an IP that is outside the normal range that the smtp server will normally accept from. This is something that a knowledgeable person at their end should easily be ablt to check, however you may need perseverance to get put through to them.

I have Wanadoo 2mb Broadband with a Wanadoo (Inventel) 'Livebox' - Broadband modem with wireless and 2 ethernet ports. Connected to the etehernet ports I have a PC (for the kids) with win XP, connected to the other port is a Linksys RT31P2 Broadband router which has 2 phone ports (1 phone, 1 Fax - Vonage) and 3 ethernet ports, my (main) PC is connected to 1 ethernet port and this PC is running Win XP, then I have a Laptop with a wireless connection to the Livebox this is running Win Me, The Livebox is configured to connect (wireless) with my Laptop and a Sony PSP via WEP security.

All 3 PC's are running with Zone Alarm Pro firewall and AVG 7 anti virus (although I have now uninstalled this on main PC) and the 'Livebox' has some kind of built-in Firewall, which is set to 'medium' (default) security level.

I have tried;
telnet smtp.wanadoo.co.uk 25
telnet smtp.freeserve.com 25

Both give me the same; "554 Please check your SMTP server......... Connection to host lost" error

I have powered off & on the modem with no change, I have also 're-configured' it with no change.

Hope this helps.

[catso]

Update, It seems that my email is fully working again, Wanadoo must have sorted it out.

Glad I didn't uninstall everything like they asked me.

Thanks for all your help.