Sending Error in Outlook 2003

[BarrySF]

Outlook receives email from my POP3 account at Comcast but will not send. It
generates an error message That one or more parameter values are not valid.
Messages in the outbox are in Italics. I have changed the settings for SMTP
Server for the account several times. Sometimes the change will be
successful for 1 Send operation.

I am able to Send mail from Mozilla Thunderbird without problem. I prefer
to use Outlook.

It seems that I can send to certain email addresses but not others. I had
no problems at all with any email addresses until I copied my PST from
Outlook 2003 at work and opened it in my home Outlook. I can access the PST
folder of emails and attachments a home with no problem. It appears that the
Sending error problem is wih Outlook and not Comcast. It appears that there
is some form of corruption.

Any suggestions of how I can clear the corruption? Is it likely to be in my
contacts or in the PST I recently opened in Outlook?

Thanks, BarrySF

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Are you using and antivirus scanner to scan outgoing email? if so, disable
it.

 

[Rich/rerat]

BarrySF,
On the PC that you are having problems with Comcast. Open Outlook and check
the settings for the Comcast acct.
1. In Outlook2003> TOOLS> Email Accts> View or Change existing Mail accts>
Select the Comcast acct> Change button>
Make sure that smtp.comcast.net is selected for Outgoing server>
2. Select More Settings button> On the Outgoing Server tab> Check My
outgoing server requires authentication> Select "Logon Using"> Type your
Comcast Mail UserID and password. I prefer this, then the option of using
the same setting as receiving mail.
3. Select now the Advance tab> For the PORT the SMTP use "465" or "587" (w/o
quotes), instead of the default "25"> Also check the box for just the
Outgoing (SMTP) server to use an encrypted connection (SSL). You should
leave the box under the Incoming server unchecked.

 

[BarrySF]

Diane, Thank you for your suggestion. I use Windows Live OneCare. I don't
know if it scans outgoing email but will find out and report results.

 

[BarrySF]

Rich/rerat, thanks for your reply. I had already set the settings you
suggest with the exception of (SMTP) server to use an encrypted connection
(SSL). I made this change and the Test Settings button was able to Send.
However trying to send email to a problem contact continues to fail.

When I made the setting you suggest in 2. below, I found that when I try to
send to a problem contact, I do not get the prompt to enter my password (I
left the pw field blank for this reason). So I conclude that my Send
failures never make it to the SMTP server.

 

[Rich/rerat]

BarrySF,
1. Are you having this problem when sending a message just to that "problem"
address?

If you are having problems sending a message that you address to just that
recipient, than the information for that Contact might have been corrupted.
You will need to try repairing the contact's info, or deleting that contact,
and recreating it. If that contact was also part of a distribution list, and
you had to delete and recreate the contact, you will need to add it back to
the list. Just repairing the contact, should not require you to manually add
it back to the list, but you may have to.

2. Are you having this problem when you are sending to the address, using a
distribution list, with that Contact as a member of that list? If you are
sending a message using a distribution list, or manually adding multiple
recipients to the TO:, CC:, or BCC: Line(s), the following might be your
problem:

The "invalid recipient" or any other sending error, may not be for a bad
address, but that you are
exceeded the number of recipients or bandwidth, that your ISP allows per
message. That might be the address that triggers the error, but nothing is
wrong with it. Also if you try sending the same message with the same
distribution list, the error might appear with a different "invalid
recipient" email address, or sending error. As long as you know that the
addresses are correct, then I would believe
that this error message, is not written correctly. Some ISP's are limiting
the amount of recipients
to about 10 or 25 per message for residential accounts. Or limited the
amount of bandwidth allowed when sending a message with attachments using a
distribution list, or manually adding multiple recipients. This is an
attempt to handle SPAM mail originating from their customers.

So you should try breaking up you distribution list, into smaller lists. Or
using the Mail
Merge feature from the Contact folder. In addition, check with your ISP and
find out what is there limit for recipients and bandwidth allowed per
message, for you service.

3. Since you mentioned that you use this PC both at work and home. Are your
home and work internet connection provided by Comcast?

If this is only happening when you are not connected to Comcast, then the
other ISP is blocking access to other ISP's outgoing mail servers. The
alternate PORT settings should have done the trick. If not, you may need to
delete the account from Outlook. And create it from scratch. If that hasn't
fixed your problem, you may need to use another method sending mail out,
while connected to the alternate ISP. Such as using the WebMail interface of
Comcast, or the Mail Merge feature.



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Rich/rerat
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Rich/rerat, thanks for your reply. I had already set the settings you
suggest with the exception of (SMTP) server to use an encrypted connection
(SSL). I made this change and the Test Settings button was able to Send.
However trying to send email to a problem contact continues to fail.

When I made the setting you suggest in 2. below, I found that when I try to
send to a problem contact, I do not get the prompt to enter my password (I
left the pw field blank for this reason). So I conclude that my Send
failures never make it to the SMTP server.