Outgoing Mail Blues
Being unable to send Mail while on the road can be one of the most annoying parts of traveling. Most people don’t know why they can send emails from their home but not when they are at a friends house or at a hotel. This guide will help you send emails when you are on the road. Hopefully.
Most standard email accounts are based on the POP protocol. It uses different mail servers for sending and receiving emails. The problems lies when with the Outgoing Mail Servers because the Internet Service Provider(ISP) being used requires the use of their own server, which is not always the one you have set up in your Mail Application. Some even require a username and password.
So how are we to send emails when we’re on the road? Well, it’s just a matter of finding out the required Outgoing Mail Server. Peace of cake.
The common error given when Mail us unable to send emails.
Step 1: Find the ISP you are connecting with.
If you are a friend’s house you can just ask your friend what service he uses. At a Hotel there’s usually a splash page when you first log in. If you are unable to find out, you can most likely find it with a nifty little Utility that comes with Mac OSX called Network Utility.
Skip to Step 2 if you already know the ISP.
From the Finder, select Go > Utilities
Double-click to launch Network Utility
From the Traceroute tab, enter any url like allforces.com or amazon.com. The application will connect to that server and show all the servers it encounters in transit from your location to the final destination.
On the first few lines you should fine the name of your Internet Provider. In this case, it’s Bellsouth on line number five.
Step 2: Find the Outgoing Mail Server
Now that you know what ISP you are connected to, you need to find it’s Outgoing SMTP Mail Server. This is usually found on the Help pages on their websites. But to make your life easy, here’s a list I found at cordhosting.com of the most common ISPs and their smtp servers.
Adelphia mail.adelphia.net
America Online (AOL) Does not support pop mail.
Atlantic Broadband smtp.atlanticbb.net
AT&T (Broadband) mail.attbi.com
AT&T (Dialup) smtp1.attglobal.net
AT&T Worldnet mailhost.worldnet.att.net or imailhost.worldnet.att.net
BCPL mail.bcpl.net
Bellatlantic gtei.bellatlantic.net or smtpout.verizon.net
Bellatlantic.net smtpout.bellatlantic.net
Bellsouth mail.bellsouth.net
Bestweb smtp.bestweb.net
Blazenet smtp.blazenet.net
Cable One mail.cableone.net
CAIS smtp.cais.net
CAPU smtp.capu.net
Charm.net smtp.charm.net
Charter Communications smtp.charter.net
Comcast smtp.comcast.net
Compuserve smtp.compuserve.com or smtp.site1.csi.com
Concentric.net smtp.concentric.net
Covad smtp.covad.net
Cox West smtp.west.cox.net (west coast users)
Cox Central smtp.central.cox.net (central users)
Cox East smtp.east.cox.net (east coast users)
Cox Business smarthost.coxmail.com
Crosslink smtp.crosslink.net
DCANET smtp-relay.dca.net
Delmarva Online mail-gw.dmv.com
Delta Net smtp.deltanet.com
Direcway smtp.direcway.com
DSL Extreme smtp.dslextreme.com
Earthlink Network mail.earthlink.net or smtp.earthlink.net
Earthlink Network (International) ismtp.earthlink.net
Edge.net mail.edge.net
Enter smtp.enter.net
EROLS mail.erols.com
Ezy smtp.ezy.net
Flashcom mail.flashcom.net or smtp.flashcom.net
Frontline.net smtp.fcc.net
Gateway.net smtp.Gateway.net
GTI mail.gti.net
HotMail mail.hotmail.com
IBM.Global net smtp1.ibm.net
ioNet Inc mail.ionet.net
Interaccess.com smtp.interaccess.com
Internet America mail.airmail.net
ITOL mail.itol.com
Juno smtp.juno.com
Mediacom mail.mchsi.com
Mediaone.net smtp.ce.medione.net
MegaPath mail.megapathdsl.net
MCI mailrelay.mciworldcom.net mailrelay.internetmci.com
Mindspring smtp.mindspring.com
MSN smtp.email.msn.com
Nauticom mail.nauticom.net
Netcom smtp.ix.netcom.com
Netcom (Canada) smtp.netcom.ca
NetZero smtp.netzero.net
NYU.edu smtp.nyu.edu
OLG.com mail.olg.com
OPTOnline Internet Service mail.optonline.net
Pacbell mail.pacbell.net
Patriot Media smtp.patriot.net
Pipeline smtp.pipeline.com
Prodigy smtp.prodigy.net
PSI.net relay.smtp.psi.net
PTD.net mail.ptdprolog.net
QIS mail.qis.net
Qwest Internet Service pop.dnvr.qwest.net
RCN smtp.rcn.com
Rider.edu enigma.rider.edu
RoadRunner smtp-server..rr.com
SBC Global smtp.sbcglobal.net
SBC Global Yahoo smtp.sbcglobal.yahoo.com
Smallville Communications mail.toto.net
SNiP mail.snip.net
Spectrum DSL mail.webstable.com
SprintLink smtp.a001.sprintmail.com
Sprynet m6.sprynet.com
Starpower smtp.starpower.net
Sympatico mailhost.sk.sympatico.ca
UMBC smtp.gl.umbc.edu
USA.NET mail.netaddress.usa.net
US Internet smtp.usit.net
UUNet mail.uu.net
Verizon Internet Services outgoing.verizon.net or smtpout.verizon.net
Wide Open West smtp.mail.wideopenwest.com
XO Communications mail.njd.xo.com or smtp.concentric.net
Yahoo smtp.mail.yahoo.com
Ziplink smtp.ziplink.net
Step 3: Add the Outgoing Server to your Mail Settings
Now that we have our Outgoing SMTP Server we need to add it to our Mail Application. This example uses Apple’s Mail Application but you can easily add it to Entourage or any other Mail App.
From Mail, select Mail > Preferences…
Go to the Accounts Tab
Select your account and pulldown the Outgoing Mail Server menu
Select Add Server
Enter the server address we found and press OK
That’s it. We’ve done it. Unless the ISP requires that you have the username/password associated with the ISP account you should be able to send mail.