Using two different smtp a/cs with one connection

milltown

I have NTL bb at home and Outlook (office 2k) set up to use my @ntlworld.ie address as the default for sending and receiving mail. My old mail @o2.ie is set up to receive (pop3) but cannot send mail on it. I believe the reason for this is to stop spammers relaying mail through servers as they can't send if they're not connected directly to the server, or something.

Anyway. During a conversation with an NTL support head he said it can be done, but he won't tell me how, just dropped some cryptic ( to my non networking brain at least) clues as to why it doesn't work, hoping I would twig how to work around the problem (see previous brackets).

Long story short I can't figure it out and I need somebody to tell me how 'cos NTL mail seems very fussy about which addresses it likes delivering to. Caused me to drop the OU course I was doing this year after I eventually found out my mails weren't being received. If this is dodgy legal ground for some reason then I apologise for asking and you may PM me for a personal apology

tomk

Originally posted by milltown
... 'cos NTL mail seems very fussy about which addresses it likes delivering to.

Sounds like this is really your problem. A properly configured mail system will not be "fussy" about delivery addresses - it will accept what ever you give it, and as long as it's a valid address, deliver it. It you're paying NTL for mail service, and you're mails aren't getting through, you need to be banging very loudly on their door and demanding a proper explanation - do not accept veiled hints from techies.

If you've already done this to no avail, here's my guesstimate of what your tech guy was hinting at: authenticated SMTP i.e. a mail delivery service that requires a username and password. Here's a real-world example.

My ISP is UTV, so I have an address at utvinternet.com. I'm also an O2 mobile user, so I have an address at dol.ie (dol = Digifone OnLine - remember them?). However, my main address is different again, because I use a separate mail service provider. I can access all these accounts over my UTV BB connection, because I have separate usernames & passwords for them. If you're @o2.ie is setup like my dol.ie, then you should have the same facility - as long as O2 see the right name/password combination, they won't care which network it originated from.

milltown

The O2 a/c is set up in outlook with my O2 username and p/w and this is how I can receive my O2 mail without a problem. If I try to send a mail through my O2 a/c it won't go, giving a message saying "relaying not allowed" "one of the recipients was rejected by the server" and the smtp server address (smtp@O2.ie).

I have been on to NTL a number of times about this and they have tracked specific e-mails that I have told them were not delivered. In all cases the mail has gone through the NTL system as normal and onwards to the intended recipient. No sending failed or message bounced errors come back so as far as NTL know there is no problem.

_CreeD_

Use your O2 POP server as you are but use NTL's SMTP server for that account (it should work fine, I have 3 different domain mails working through my ISP's SMTP server this way).

milltown

I'll try that when I get home. Just one question though:
Will I not then be using NTLs server then? The one that may or may not be causing me the problem in the first place?

_CreeD_

You will be, but what they're most likely doing (and what Cox, my ISP, did last year) is blocking SMTP traffic from anything but their own server. It's not a block on your specific address, and your mails are effectively signed by your Email client and not the SMTP server used. eg. You could set it up to mail from elvis@heaven.com and it would (should) still work through NTL's SMTP server - folks on the other end would see the mail as coming from that fictitious address, but obviously replies wouldn't work (since the King ain't dead baby ). It's your POP server that's more closely linked to your individual mail accounts, SMTP is a bit like a dumb transfer service.
Give it a go.

milltown

Well I'll be god damned! It works!
Thanks a million for the help, now it makes more sense why Mr.NTL wouldn't tell me more than that it can be done. They obviously don't want other domain's e-mail routed through their mail servers.

Thanks again.