Can't send email to more than 4 recipients

[Guest]

Very strange. Using outlook 2003 smtp protocol, I can send a message to up
to and including 4 recipients, but not to 5 or more. I even switched isp's
thinking that that was the problem, but it didn't go away.

I get no error message. The messages are in the sent folder as one would
expect. It's just that the message sent to 4 recipents get to all 4 and the
message sent to 5 doesn't get to any of them.

I have tried this with different recipients and get the same result.

I enabled logging, then sent the same msg to 4 and then to 5, and I can see
no diffrerence in the opmlog.log entries for the 2 msgs.

I tried outlook in safe mode (ran outlook /safe) got the same result.

I'm using windows xp pro. All windows and office updates have been applied.

Any thoughts?

Ken

 

[Vanguard]

Very strange. Using outlook 2003 smtp protocol, I can send a message to
up
to and including 4 recipients, but not to 5 or more. I even switched
isp's
thinking that that was the problem, but it didn't go away.

I get no error message. The messages are in the sent folder as one would
expect. It's just that the message sent to 4 recipents get to all 4 and
the
message sent to 5 doesn't get to any of them.

I have tried this with different recipients and get the same result.

I enabled logging, then sent the same msg to 4 and then to 5, and I can
see
no diffrerence in the opmlog.log entries for the 2 msgs.

I tried outlook in safe mode (ran outlook /safe) got the same result.

I'm using windows xp pro. All windows and office updates have been
applied.

Any error messages?

Is a copy of the e-mail in the Sent Items folder when you send to 5, or
more, recipients? Or is the e-mail stuck in the Outbox?

Have you enabled the troubleshooting log and then checked the SMTP commands
between Outlook and the mail server? If you see a RCPT-TO command for each
of the 5 recipients and a DATA command with the message body and the
statuses returned were okay then the mail server accepted the message and
you have no control at that point as to what the mail server will do.

Are you using an ISP's mail server or your own?

 

[Brian Tillman]

Very strange. Using outlook 2003 smtp protocol, I can send a message
to up to and including 4 recipients, but not to 5 or more. I even
switched isp's thinking that that was the problem, but it didn't go
away.

I get no error message. The messages are in the sent folder as one
would expect. It's just that the message sent to 4 recipents get to
all 4 and the message sent to 5 doesn't get to any of them.

I have tried this with different recipients and get the same result.

I enabled logging, then sent the same msg to 4 and then to 5, and I
can see no diffrerence in the opmlog.log entries for the 2 msgs.

Then it's a problem on your server and Outlook has nothing to do with it.

 

[Guest]

I agree that it seems unlikely that outlook is the problem, but I'm getting
exactly the same behavior on 3 different ISP's: fuse.net, cinci.rr.com
(roadrunner), and on my personal site at arvixe. And this has been happening
for several weeks now, and its repeatable. I've taked with fuse and
roadrunner support, and they say they can't be filtering my outgoing email
(at only 5 recipients anyway).

So this is a big mystery to me. Any thoughts on how to get a handle on
this one?

Ken

 

[Brian Tillman]

So this is a big mystery to me. Any thoughts on how to get a handle
on this one?

To start, I would choose one of the ISPs, get their support on the line,
have them begin logging the session from you, send the message, and have
then examine their log to see exactly what their server sees.

 

[Guest]

It appears like the culprit has been found, although I still don't understand
what's happening.
I'm using AOL's Safety and Security Center Virus Scan feature. (please,
throw no stones!)
When I uncheck the box that says "scan non-aol emails and attachments", lo &
behold, I can now send messages to 5 recipients!
When I check it again, the messages go into outer space.

As I said, the log file shows a normal dialogue with the isp in either case,
so I still can't figure out what's happening to those messages....

I'm also amazed to be (apparently) the first person to report this little
"feature." Apparently there aren't that may heavy outlook users who also use
AOL's safety & Security Center.

Ken

 

[Brian Tillman]

As I said, the log file shows a normal dialogue with the isp in
either case, so I still can't figure out what's happening to those
messages....

Since mail virus scanners insert themselves between the mail client and the
server, your mail client dialogue may, in fact, appear correct even if
there's no connection to the server at all. This is because the mail client
is actually talking to the mail scanner, not the real mail server.

I'm also amazed to be (apparently) the first person to report this
little "feature." Apparently there aren't that may heavy outlook
users who also use AOL's safety & Security Center.

In a way, you're not. There are many hundreds (if not thousands) of
messages in this newsgroup describing the problem people have when they scan
their mail with an antivirus scanner. It's never necessary and often leads
to communications issues between the mail client and server or other odd
side-effects.