Port 587

[profkc]

I am curious about the change to port 587.

After upgrading to Vista SP1, using Windows Mail, I had the same problem as
a few on this board, but only with my roadrunner service. I could receive
mails. However, I could send e-mails that were very short (read one or two
lines), but anything of any length and I got the usual message of server
connection unexpectly closed...

I turned off my antivirus program completely and still got the message and
could not send e-mails of any basic length.

However, I did try the suggestion in a previous thread of changing the smtp
port to 587 (even though it appeared to be a comcast network) and, so far,
it appears to solve my problem with roadrunner (knock on wood).

So therefore I am curious about why port 587 and how anyone would know that?

Thanks for any answer.

kc

 

[Dave]

You can only use ports that your email provider uses on their server.
Port 587 is normally used on SMTP servers to send from an authenticated
account.
This allows you to send email, even if your computer is connected to another
ISP's network.

Roadrunner doesn't have an authenticated server, AFAIK, so they don't use
port 587. They just tell you to use the webmail site when you are away from
home.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

I don't know why that worked for you. It may have been a coincidence.
The problem is likely to return.

Incidentally, it is not clear what you mean by "turned off my antivirus
program." Problems caused by an antivirus are often not cured until
the antivirus program is uninstalled.

 

[profkc]

For what it is worth, after some tweaking and experimentation, I discovered
the problem was with Spy Sweeper monitoring the outgoing (smtp) port 25.
For those who have Spy Sweeper, you will need to either disable their e-mail
attachment shield or change the e-mail attachment shield options to monitor
port 10025 rather than port 25.

I was then able to return my roadrunner accounts back to port 25.

And, for what it is worth, the problem is between Spy Sweeper and Vista SP1,
since the problem I had occurred with both Windows Mail and Thunderbird.

profkc

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Thanks for reporting back. Windows Mail does not take kindly to
interference from third party security products.