Help - I can GET emails, but can't answer them!

[OhioGuy]

1 month or so back, I registered with inbox.com because I read that they
have sophisticated challenge-response systems in place to stop spam. 80% of
what I get each day is spam, and I'm sick of it, so this sounded like a
potential replacement for my Unix based pine shell, which I've been using on
dialup for 14 years. (it has no spam blocking whatsoever)

I recently read that they were setting up pop email access, so you could
use programs like Eudora to do email offline, then connect for a short time
to send and receive.

I followed the directions and set this up. I thought it was working when
I got a test email I sent from my other account in the Eudora inbox.

Later, I found that for some reason, I can receive, but not send emails.
I do fine on the inbox.com webmail - no problems there. However, I was
really looking forward to being able to compose email offline, since I am on
a limited time per day of dialup - 5 hours a day.

So, I wrote inbox and asked why this might happen. Here is what they
said:



SUPPORT ANSWER(10/24/2007 9:18:29 pm):
If you are unable to send/receive emails using Inbox.com account via Email
Client, then please try to do Telnet test first to check if there is a
connection with any of the SMTP Port 25, 465 or 587 and POP3 Port 110.


1/ click on the Start button,
2/ then click on the Run,
3/ type in the box the word "telnet" and press enter - new window will be
opened,
4/ type in "open my.inbox.com 25" OR "open my.inbox.com 587" OR "open
my.inbox.com 465" and press enter and wait until you will be displayed by
any response,
5/ also check the connection with port 110 - type in "open my.inbox.com 110"
and press enter, wait until you will displayed by any response.

If any error message comes back (connection failed), it is necessary to
contact your internet service provider (ISP) to ask for help.

I did all of the telnet tests, and all worked EXCEPT for the first one
"open my.inbox.com 25" - it would never connect.

My dialup ISP is VTISP.com - they don't provide pop email with the dialup
account, mostly because they don't want to deal with support questions.
It's ultra cheap - $3.25 a month for 150 hours. However, now I'm wondering
if I was wrong to think that I would be able to use Eudora.

Is there a chance that VTISP actually has something switched off that
won't let me use Eudora? I'm currently stuck with 1 way email - in only!
Kind of annoying when people can write to you, but you can't answer!

 

[John Weiss]

If you are unable to send/receive emails using Inbox.com account via Email
Client, then please try to do Telnet test first to check if there is a
connection with any of the SMTP Port 25, 465 or 587 and POP3 Port 110.


1/ click on the Start button,
2/ then click on the Run,
3/ type in the box the word "telnet" and press enter - new window will be
opened,
4/ type in "open my.inbox.com 25" OR "open my.inbox.com 587" OR "open
my.inbox.com 465" and press enter and wait until you will be displayed by any
response,
5/ also check the connection with port 110 - type in "open my.inbox.com 110"
and press enter, wait until you will displayed by any response.

If any error message comes back (connection failed), it is necessary to
contact your internet service provider (ISP) to ask for help.

I did all of the telnet tests, and all worked EXCEPT for the first one "open
my.inbox.com 25" - it would never connect.

Is there a chance that VTISP actually has something switched off that won't
let me use Eudora? I'm currently stuck with 1 way email - in only! Kind of
annoying when people can write to you, but you can't answer!

Do you have the port blocked in a firewall somewhere?

 

[Paul]

1 month or so back, I registered with inbox.com because I read that they
have sophisticated challenge-response systems in place to stop spam. 80% of
what I get each day is spam, and I'm sick of it, so this sounded like a
potential replacement for my Unix based pine shell, which I've been using on
dialup for 14 years. (it has no spam blocking whatsoever)

I recently read that they were setting up pop email access, so you could
use programs like Eudora to do email offline, then connect for a short time
to send and receive.

I followed the directions and set this up. I thought it was working when
I got a test email I sent from my other account in the Eudora inbox.

Later, I found that for some reason, I can receive, but not send emails.
I do fine on the inbox.com webmail - no problems there. However, I was
really looking forward to being able to compose email offline, since I am on
a limited time per day of dialup - 5 hours a day.

So, I wrote inbox and asked why this might happen. Here is what they
said:



SUPPORT ANSWER(10/24/2007 9:18:29 pm):
If you are unable to send/receive emails using Inbox.com account via Email
Client, then please try to do Telnet test first to check if there is a
connection with any of the SMTP Port 25, 465 or 587 and POP3 Port 110.


1/ click on the Start button,
2/ then click on the Run,
3/ type in the box the word "telnet" and press enter - new window will be
opened,
4/ type in "open my.inbox.com 25" OR "open my.inbox.com 587" OR "open
my.inbox.com 465" and press enter and wait until you will be displayed by
any response,
5/ also check the connection with port 110 - type in "open my.inbox.com 110"
and press enter, wait until you will displayed by any response.

If any error message comes back (connection failed), it is necessary to
contact your internet service provider (ISP) to ask for help.

I did all of the telnet tests, and all worked EXCEPT for the first one
"open my.inbox.com 25" - it would never connect.

My dialup ISP is VTISP.com - they don't provide pop email with the dialup
account, mostly because they don't want to deal with support questions.
It's ultra cheap - $3.25 a month for 150 hours. However, now I'm wondering
if I was wrong to think that I would be able to use Eudora.

Is there a chance that VTISP actually has something switched off that
won't let me use Eudora? I'm currently stuck with 1 way email - in only!
Kind of annoying when people can write to you, but you can't answer!

There is a port list here. Outgoing port 25 is SMTP. Port 110 is POP3.

http://www.iana.org/assignments/port-numbers

It appears ISPs block outgoing port 25, to prevent their networks from being
used for outgoing spam. You are likely allowed to connect to your own ISP's email
server's SMTP port 25, if you want to send mail. In other words, if it is
SMTP, either use your own ISP's email server for outgoing, or don't bother

http://groups.google.ca/groups/search?q=outgoing+port+25

Maybe try to send email via smtp.vtisp.com ? Ask VTISP whether they allow
that or not ? On the main vtisp.com page, it mentions $3.95/mo for internet
access, and $4.95/mo for internet access plus email.

http://www.vtisp.com/setup/email.html
http://www.vtisp.com/start/smtp_auth.shtml

Just a guess,
Paul

 

[OhioGuy]

I tried the "smtp.vtisp.com" for the SMTP server setting, and was able to
send an email for the first time! Yay!

However, now it gives me:
Error reading from network

Cause: connection aborted due to timeout or other failure (10053)


And I am no longer able to GET email. Why would changing the setting for
sending allow me to now send, but not receive? It is the opposite situation
from what I was having before! Agh!

 

[Paul]

I tried the "smtp.vtisp.com" for the SMTP server setting, and was able to
send an email for the first time! Yay!

However, now it gives me:
Error reading from network

Cause: connection aborted due to timeout or other failure (10053)


And I am no longer able to GET email. Why would changing the setting for
sending allow me to now send, but not receive? It is the opposite situation
from what I was having before! Agh!

There is a "Configuring Eudora 5" section on this page. There is a
separate place for incoming and outgoing mail. It almost sounds like
whatever version of Eudora you're using, has just one address, and
both incoming and outgoing are trying to use that one address ?

http://primaxstudio.com/hosting/smtpsetup.html

I'm no expert at this stuff, just more guesswork.

PDF page 71 has a reference to SMTP here. Page 126 has "Configure = POP"
for incoming mail.

http://www.eudora.com/download/eudora/windows/7.1/Eudora_71_User_Manual.zip

Paul