SMTP Server Port Number

  • Thread starter Thread starter Stephen Hartman
  • Start date Start date
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Stephen Hartman

Hi all,

I have a machine running Outlook 2K and with no user intervention the SMTP
Port Number will change within the Account Settings. When I change it back,
it will revert within about a 2 day period. Any help is greatly
appreciated.
 
What does it change to?

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Stephen Hartman asked:

| Hi all,
|
| I have a machine running Outlook 2K and with no user intervention the
| SMTP Port Number will change within the Account Settings. When I
| change it back, it will revert within about a 2 day period. Any help
| is greatly appreciated.
 
It changes to the old value that was entered. I believe 25, but I'm not in
front of that system at the moment.


"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
 
25 is the correct SMTP port. What did you have yours set for?

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Stephen Hartman asked:

| It changes to the old value that was entered. I believe 25, but I'm
| not in front of that system at the moment.
|
|
| "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
| || What does it change to?
||
|| --
|| Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
||
|| Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
|| unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
|| reading.
||
|| After furious head scratching, Stephen Hartman asked:
||
||| Hi all,
|||
||| I have a machine running Outlook 2K and with no user intervention
||| the SMTP Port Number will change within the Account Settings. When
||| I change it back, it will revert within about a 2 day period. Any
||| help is greatly appreciated.
 
Was told by the web host to set it to something in the 500's although I
don't remember the exact number. When the port number switches back to 25,
however all outgoing email ceases to work, and will only work again when the
number is changed back to 5xx.

"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
 
The Port is actually 587...

Stephen Hartman said:
Was told by the web host to set it to something in the 500's although I
don't remember the exact number. When the port number switches back to 25,
however all outgoing email ceases to work, and will only work again when the
number is changed back to 5xx.

"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
25 is the correct SMTP port. What did you have yours set for?

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Stephen Hartman asked:

| It changes to the old value that was entered. I believe 25, but I'm
| not in front of that system at the moment.
|
|
| "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
| || What does it change to?
||
|| --
|| Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
||
|| Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
|| unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
|| reading.
||
|| After furious head scratching, Stephen Hartman asked:
||
||| Hi all,
|||
||| I have a machine running Outlook 2K and with no user intervention
||| the SMTP Port Number will change within the Account Settings. When
||| I change it back, it will revert within about a 2 day period. Any
||| help is greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
25 is the correct SMTP port. What did you have yours set for?
Click to expand...

It may not be. Port 25 can't be accessed from certain networks, so port 587
is a common substitute. If the OP has been told to use a different port,
she should not be going to port 25.

--
Norman
~I'll be there, by your side
~in the land of Twilight.
~In your dream I will go
~'till we find the Sunlight.
 
Do you have any software (AV, Anti-Spam, Firewall) installed that needs to
check your incoming and outgoing mail? It could be one of them. Try
disabling them one by one until you find the culprit.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.


After furious head-scratching, Stephen Hartman asked this group:

| The Port is actually 587...
|
| || Was told by the web host to set it to something in the 500's
|| although I don't remember the exact number. When the port number
|| switches back to 25, however all outgoing email ceases to work, and
|| will only work again when the number is changed back to 5xx.
||
|| "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
|| ||| 25 is the correct SMTP port. What did you have yours set for?
|||
||| --
||| Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
|||
||| Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
||| unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
||| reading.
|||
||| After furious head scratching, Stephen Hartman asked:
|||
|||| It changes to the old value that was entered. I believe 25, but I'm
|||| not in front of that system at the moment.
||||
||||
|||| "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
|||| ||||| What does it change to?
|||||
||||| --
||||| Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
|||||
||||| Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
||||| unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted
||||| without reading.
|||||
||||| After furious head scratching, Stephen Hartman asked:
|||||
|||||| Hi all,
||||||
|||||| I have a machine running Outlook 2K and with no user intervention
|||||| the SMTP Port Number will change within the Account Settings.
|||||| When I change it back, it will revert within about a 2 day
|||||| period. Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
I know there are alternate ports but by definition, SMTP uses Port 25 by
default.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.


After furious head-scratching, N. Miller asked this group:

| On Fri, 12 Aug 2005 15:19:08 -0700, Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
| wrote:
|
|| 25 is the correct SMTP port. What did you have yours set for?
|
| It may not be. Port 25 can't be accessed from certain networks, so
| port 587 is a common substitute. If the OP has been told to use a
| different port, she should not be going to port 25.
 
I know there are alternate ports but by definition, SMTP uses Port 25 by
default.
Click to expand...

SMTP, by definition, is "Simple Message Transfer Protocol":

http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2821.html

Sending email from a client is no longer considered "message transfer"; and
has not been since, oh, 1998. Sending email from a client has been defined
as "message submission" since, oh, 1998:

http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2476.html

That last RFC defines the "message submission" port. Internet email is
currently in a state of transition to the those not-so-new definitions.

--
Norman
~I'll be there, by your side
~in the land of Twilight.
~In your dream I will go
~'till we find the Sunlight.
 
Until the "transition" is complete, what does the RFC say is the proper SMTP
port???

Per the RFC:

Port 587 is reserved for email message submission as specified in
this document. Messages received on this port are defined to be
submissions. The protocol used is ESMTP [SMTP-MTA, ESMTP], with
additional restrictions as specified here.

While most email clients and servers can be configured to use port
587 instead of 25, there are cases where this is not possible or
convenient. A site MAY choose to use port 25 for message submission,
by designating some hosts to be MSAs and others to be MTAs.

So, per the definition from the RFC, Port 587 is for ESMTP, not SMTP.

Really, is all this hair-splitting necessary?


--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, N. Miller asked:

| On Fri, 12 Aug 2005 22:43:34 -0700, Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
| wrote:
|
|| I know there are alternate ports but by definition, SMTP uses Port
|| 25 by default.
|
| SMTP, by definition, is "Simple Message Transfer Protocol":
|
| http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2821.html
|
| Sending email from a client is no longer considered "message
| transfer"; and has not been since, oh, 1998. Sending email from a
| client has been defined as "message submission" since, oh, 1998:
|
| http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2476.html
|
| That last RFC defines the "message submission" port. Internet email is
| currently in a state of transition to the those not-so-new
| definitions.
 
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