HELP!

For the past couple of days I have not been able to send emails from my BT Openworld (= BT Internet = BT Yahoo) email accounts. Receiving mails is OK, but when I try to send, I get an error message like this:

"An error ocurred while sending mail. The Mail Server responded From address not verified" and then gives a BT Yahoo help page which doesn't actually provide any relevant help

We had something similar a while ago (a couple of months, maybe) and the solution was to change the SMTP outgoing mail server name, but that doesn't seem to help. I googled and found some oldish info suggested changing the Port number, but that didn't hep either.

Anyone else come across this and, more importantly, anyone know a solution?

Cheers

Simon

What client are you using? I use BT Yahoo for lots of mail with no probs.

Thunderbird... been using it for ages and only just started getting this problem

I gave up with BT just after the BT Yahoo deal was done, the instant BT Yahoo became active I got buried in a dailly mountain of spam. Also I always found BT DNS servers very unreliable. In medium & longterm I would advise you move These days with on the ball ISPs it only takes about 3 to 4 days and normally your internet connection will only be down for 30 minutes or so.

You could use web mail in the interim or a better solution you could register your own domain name with a cheap hosting company that provides a cheap hosting package an out going mail server. --- although I have recently fallen out with them myself Compila do this. for about £12.00 year.

http://www.compila.com/pages/hosting/linuxindex.html

[Edited on 13/3/08 by britishtrident]

[Edited on 13/3/08 by britishtrident]

In fact I do have and generally use an alternative email based on my own domain name, but my family tends to use the BT Openworld accounts and lots of friends and subscriptions, etc. use those, so at the moment it's not an option...

I'm not IT techy at all, but I think the problem is along the lines of this.....

When you open an account you use the one serive provider for incoming and outgoing e-mails. They use two completely different systems, SMTP and POP3. So lets say you are with BT, so both accounts will be BT.

If you then change to another ISP only the OUTGOING account changes to the new provider. (I think I've got this right, it may be other way round)

So, you are then with BT receiving e-mails and (lets say) AOL for sending e-mails.

If after a few months BT will see that you have not sent any e-mails (with them) so they shut your account down. Then you can't send or receive. So the way round this is to go onto their website and retrieve your account.

I've had to do this a number of times, as my old ISP shuts down the account it inactive for 3 months.

I hope that makes sense, and I hope it helps you sort out your problem.

Then you might want to consider switching to Plusnet or O2. Plusnet have been 100% reliable with me and have very good email facilities. They also give you a very good web interface that gives excellent control over your account. Plusnet are now owned by BT but the system is completely different.


O2 also have good email and have the big advantage of using ADSL2 in some areas -- which is twice as fast as adsl1.

Both Plusnet and O2 use the excellent speed touch wireless routers -- a good bit of kit.

In this case, the email account is in regular use, so I doubt it is because of inactivity.

quote:

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Originally posted by balidey
I'm not IT techy at all, but I think the problem is along the lines of this.....

When you open an account you use the one serive provider for incoming and outgoing e-mails. They use two completely different systems, SMTP and POP3. So lets say you are with BT, so both accounts will be BT.

If you then change to another ISP only the OUTGOING account changes to the new provider. (I think I've got this right, it may be other way round)

So, you are then with BT receiving e-mails and (lets say) AOL for sending e-mails.

If after a few months BT will see that you have not sent any e-mails (with them) so they shut your account down. Then you can't send or receive. So the way round this is to go onto their website and retrieve your account.

I've had to do this a number of times, as my old ISP shuts down the account it inactive for 3 months.

I hope that makes sense, and I hope it helps you sort out your problem.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Humbug
In this case, the email account is in regular use, so I doubt it is because of inactivity.

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I haven't changed ISP, though

Confused of Sevenoaks

well in that case, sorry I can't help. I know that problem has stumped lots of people (inc me) in the past.

It may well be worth trying to re-activate your account anyway?

Going back to the original post and looking at the error message it says "from address not verified". This may mean that you are using email addresses other than xxxx@btopenworld.com or whatever the standard is and somehow the address is not verified.

You may need to log onto your account and set up the alternate email addresses if you want to send from them.

Thanks for the various replies... I know my account is active as I access it regularly online. I have sent a message to BT tech support... but I won't hold my breath!

Make sure you have the the Authentication set correctly (SMTP server requires authentication) as BT mail requires it to send mail. I'm at work so not able to check the exact settings you need.

Dave.

quote:

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Originally posted by need4speed
Make sure you have the the Authentication set correctly (SMTP server requires authentication) as BT mail requires it to send mail. I'm at work so not able to check the exact settings you need.

Dave.

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BT=wunch of bankers (as per usual). Just got a reply which said (amongst other things):

"Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you"

"I am sorry to inform you that we are not authorized to support any email clients other than Outlook/ Outlook Express"

I though sod it and tried changing the SMTP server name again and, as if by magic, it now works... what the hell is that all about?

Glad it's fixed. TBH it sounds like a bug in either your client software or theirs to do with SMTP authentication. At least you know what to do if it happens again.