Change of SMTP servers -- so difficult?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lenard Gunda
  • Start date Start date
L

Lenard Gunda

Hello!

I have about 10 accounts set up in Outlook, and of course, for each one,
there is an SMTP server set. If I move my notebook to a different location,
and want to send mail, I have to manually change the SMTP server for every
account I wish to send mail from (or all of them), and when moving to
another place (or back home), change them again and again. The process is
slow, or course.

Is there another way, to setup SMTP servers for Outlook accounts? I tried
looking up where the settings would be stored (Outlook 2003), but didn't
find them. This would have allowed me to write a simple program I can use to
switch between account settings. I also looked if the account settings are
accessible from macros, but my guess is, that they are not.

Is there any other - simpler! - way to change account settings? Even that
would help a lot, if I could change the SMTP server for all accounts in one
single place.

Thanks for any help

-Lenard
 
I guess the reason it's "so hard" is that it's not normal for one to
have to reset the SMTP address so often. If you really must do this,
get someone to write some code for you to do it.

If you must change them (and I'm not sure why you must), then you don't
have 10 accounts, you actually have 2x10 accounts. Setup the new SMTP
addresses as separate accounts.

Why don't you just use one SMTP server? I accept you may have 10
incoming accounts, each attached to a separate POP or IMAP server, but
why have all this complexity associated with outbound mail via SMTP?

See more conventionals to set this up. The direction you have headed
doesn't feel right.

Hope this is useful to you. Let us know.

rms
 
Uhm, maybe I didn't seem to configure things ok, at least judging from what
you write.

For all the accounts, the SMTP server is the same. When I change my
location, the SMTP server changes. But the setting has to be done for every
single account, separately. I didn't find an option, where I can set that
all my accounts to use the same SMTP server (and every one uses their own
IMAP or POP3 server, but I don't need to change that at all).

My problem is, that changing the SMTP server setting for all 10 accounts
every time is not really comfortable for me. But for all accounts, always
the same server is set.


Rob Schneider said:
I guess the reason it's "so hard" is that it's not normal for one to have
to reset the SMTP address so often. If you really must do this, get
someone to write some code for you to do it.
Click to expand...

If I knew what to write, I could write it myself ... the problem is I have
no information.
If you must change them (and I'm not sure why you must), then you don't
have 10 accounts, you actually have 2x10 accounts. Setup the new SMTP
addresses as separate accounts.

Why don't you just use one SMTP server? I accept you may have 10
incoming accounts, each attached to a separate POP or IMAP server, but why
have all this complexity associated with outbound mail via SMTP?
Click to expand...

As I described above, this would be the solution I am looking for, but I
didn't find how to set all the accounts to one common SMTP server, that only
needs to be changed in one place.

-Lenard
 
I'm really puzzed about your statement "when I change my location, the
SMTP server changes". Please elaborate?

What is a "location"? Home vs. office? What do you mean? I can't
understand what you mean? I can't think what "location" (as I
understand it) has to do with changing SMTP adddresses for 10 accounts.

What are the 10 accounts? Be specific? What service provider?
Commercial or private? What are the URL's for the configuration
instruction they provide you? Do these instructions tell you to change
the SMTP address based on "location"? If yes, please give me the URL.
I want to read this.

Who is giving you instructions to change servers? The mail service?
Computer support people in office? Your decision? If so, based on what
"problem" is this the proposed solution? Be specific. What is the
exact error message.

What is *causing* you to change? This makes no sense. Maybe I am
missing something.

Yes ... Outlook assumes that each account will have their own POP/IMAP
(for receiving mail) and SMTP (for sending). There is no way provided
to just change part of the configuration for an account because this is
just not a thing that is ever necessary.

Step back. Stop thinking "how" and instead think about "what". what
are you trying to do? and "why"?

Hope this is useful to you. Let us know.

rms
 
Hi!
Step back. Stop thinking "how" and instead think about "what". what are
you trying to do? and "why"?
Click to expand...

Ok, let me be more specific. The 10 accounts are spread on different
servers. Some are also available via webmail, and I don't even really send
mail from them, just gather them in via POP3, but others are more important,
and I do send mail from them.

Location means in this case going from Hungary to Finland and back.
Occasionaly I also take my notebook and attach it to the WLAN of my school,
where I also need to specify a different SMTP server.

At each place, I have to use a different SMTP server, because none of these
support authentication, and only allow relaying for their local networks. At
one place I use the university's SMTP service, at the other, the SMTP server
of my ISP. That's why I need to change it.

-Lenard
 
I was thinking that with XP Pro, you could use the SMTP server that it
has available (install from CD) to be the assigned single SMPT that you
send via for all accounts. That way you keep it the same all the time,
no matter where you go. ... I know it works, but for the life of me I
can't make this work on my laptop right now. Maybe this a red herring,
but maybe you want to experiment with that approach.

I've noticed from my looking at Outlook account setups that Outlook
expects a SMTP address for all accounts. I was hoping that it could be
left blank for read-only email addresses (via POP). that didn't seem
possible. That's what got me to think that by using one
always-available SMTP server for all accounts would fix the problem.
That caused me to think of using XP's ... but then ran into a wall to
test the idea.

Kids calling for going on a bike ride ... gotta go, but I thought I
would leave you with that idea for an experiment.
 
Took one last shot at making SMPT work. Now it does. I configured the
new Outlook account to read one of my commerical POP mail servers, but
send via the local host. Works.

So ... you setup the accounts to read from the relevant POP address, but
use the your own SMPT server to send.

This won't work all the time, though. Some email service providers
don't accept mail from SMTP servers that aren't on DNS (and other
security rules). Try and see if it works for you.

I send mail via my own SMTP server that runs on a Linux box in our
network. That can be configured to send all mail to a specific SMTP
server for onward forwarding. We set it to forward to the ISP's SMTP
server hance it will be accepted by anyone. (Sometimes the ISP's SMTP
server is down and we send ourselves ... their server down more than ours).

Hope this is useful to you. Let us know.

rms
 
Just changed locations (again), and it is awfully late here ... but I will
try the XP Pro's SMTP service in the coming days.

Thanks for the idea!

-Lenard
 
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