Can't send email (intermittent problem).

Fogmatic

Getting desperate; have spent maddening hours trying to send an email, checking settings & trying again. It happens occasionally & mysteriously.
Have to go soon, so please forgive me if I can't check back here till the morning.

I have a fixed-wireless broadband connection (transmitted by a local firm from a mast to the house, then by cable to the (Vista Home Premium) computer's network port (no router involved). It's been problem-free most of the time in the 10 months or so I've had it. All it needs (apart from plugging it in) is incoming server mail1.eircom.net + password (which was already there from my old dialup), and outgoing server (an IP address the BB provider gave me).
At the moment, Vista can't seem to get out of its head that I have a dialup connection, and keeps inviting me to press a button to connect, which has never been necessary for the broadband. When trying to send an email, I get 'connection to server failed - check your settings', and sometimes 'check SMTP server authentication (in both Thunderbird and Windows Mail). Receiving emails is fine.

The diagram in the Network and Sharing centre currently shows 'Network 2', with a house icon, between the computer & the internet, which isn't the normal picture (though I can't remember what that is). Nothing's networked in this house, either physically or wirelessly.

I've tried enabling/disabling so many things I've lost track (I've been doing it from Windows Mail, in case its settings override Thunderbird's, as Outlook Express's seemed to).

Could some Windows update have overridden some setting or other of mine?
Any ideas? (I'll probably kick myself when I find out what caused it!).

the_syco

Fogmatic wrote: »

Nothing's networked in this house, either physically or wirelessly.

What windows sees between your PC, and the connection to the internet, is a network.

What ISP are you with? I remember people not with Eircom having to do a different setup sometimes to send email with Eircom.

Fogmatic

Thanks for the response, the_syco.

Yes, I can't seem to get it through to Vista that there's no Lan here!

The problem's in my laptop, and I think today's first job is to try sending email from my desktop, which uses the same broadband & OS (I've only just found the time to extricated it from piles of stuff). If it works, I'll compare its mail settings with the notebook's. I hadn't consciously changed any settings between being able to send email and not, and still suspect some nannyish Windows update. But I'll probably find it's down to some dumb error of mine!

My ISP? Er... (a little complicated here I'm afraid!). First internet connection was pay-as-you-go dialup with Eircom, then changed ISP to UTV, with a phone/dialup bundle sub (UTVip Lite). My phone line only just manages voice, let alone dialup (forget broadband!). I made a formal complaint about it to Eircom (which had to be via UTV of course). That's ongoing; my man at UTV's waiting (about 6 months so far) for Eircom to answer a question. Meanwhile, broadband became available here, when a small local provider put up a new mast. Once the receiver was set up on the house, all I had to do (except for sending emails) was plug his data cable into my laptop's one network (RJ-45) port. (The laptop's wireless-enabled, but I haven't got round to using that feature yet, or doing any networking whatever). To be able to send email, I then entered the provider's IP address as the outgoing server. I didn't have to add, change or remove any other settings. There were already some dialup ones (including mail1.eircom.net for incoming), dating from attempts (unsuccessful) to connect the Vista machine that way.
My man at UTV then suggested dropping the internet part of my UTV sub ( leaving just the voice call element), and using UTV's pay-as-you-go dialup if the broadband's ever down (thanks to the old 98SE computer still being usable).
So I guess my ISP is now the wireless provider; Antenna Electronics, aka John.

the_syco

Fogmatic wrote: »

then changed ISP to UTV

Yeah. Ring Eircom say you have trouble connecting sending eircom email, and you have UTV as your ISP. Tell them you've been onto UTV, and they say the email problem is with the settings. I forget the settings, but remember from my brief time supporting dialup, that sending email with eircom from a non-eircom ISP is different settings than eircom.

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showpost.php?p=153924&postcount=8 confirms this, and tells you how to fix it. No need to ring eircom.

Fogmatic

Sorry - should have said I've already dropped the internet part of the UTV deal, so UTV isn't my ISP any more - just my voice call provider (though they're still pursuing the formal complaint to Eircom for me).
Thanks for taking the trouble to post the link, but it describes what I did a few years ago, when changing ISP from Eircom to UTV. It was the same procedure recently for changing ISP from UTV to Antenna.
I couldn't talk to Eircoma if I wanted to, as I don't have an account with them (UTV passes on the line rental to them).

Anyway, the mystery's now solved. I got the same error messages when I tried from the other computer, so rang Antenna to check that the outgoing address hadn't changed. It had, and he hadn't got round to ringing everyone; the new address did the trick. (There's something to be said for having a local ISP called John!)