Problem sending email

[footloose99]

I did and got the same IP address when I tried. I then tried another website adddress and got another IP address.

What I am not understanding is what is being blocked and by whom? I am trying to send mail using my hosts smtp server. Spamhaus is blocking it. They say this is perfectly normal but it is damned frustrating.

I would reason that if I attempt to send mail from my smtp server and they don't recognise my IP they would block it. Why does Spanhaus get involved?

[footloose99]

What is bothering me is that there do not appear to answers to what should be a simple problem.

I believe that it has everything to do with BT and what I find difficult to understand is that despite all the expertise no one can identify what the issue is.

It appears to me as if BT can only facilitate clients using a BT mail address. But that is crazy. It can't be. There is no ways I am the only BT user trying to send mail from a third party host. Furthermore I doubt I am the only client hosting with Jolt who uses BT as an ISP.

How far does the process get before it is flagged as spam? Being a little simple, I assume the instruction to Send is being interogated at source (on BTs servers) and is being blocked before it gets out into the wild.

But this is denied.

BT are pointing to the Jolt smtp server, claiming the fact that Spamhaus refers to a BT Retail IP address as perfectly normal. It is my public IP address but when does Spanhaus intercept it? How does Spamhaus get involved before the mail is even sent? Again being simple minded I assume that when a BT user presses Send the instruction should get routed to the smtp server and authenticated. If as I have been instructed, it is routed to a third party, I assume Spahaus blocks it because it is coming from an IP address that BT have listed and it never gets out of the starting gates.

This makes sense to me. But BT deny it and there does not appear to be anyone at Jolt who is prepared to confirm or deny. Why is it so complicated?

[licquorice]

It is not complicated, thousands of customers, myself included, send mail via third party SMTP servers.

You have said that your public IP address didn't change when you disconnected your hub from line, how long did you disconnect for? If you leave your hub disconnected from line for half an hour or so it should be long enough for you to get a different public IP address.

How are you checking what your public IP address is?

Without revealing any personal details, can you post edited screenshots of your settings.

[footloose99]

@licquorice  I accept that I have a BT public IP address which is being blocked by Spanhaus. But I question at what stage and what triggers the block?

There should be a simple answer to this.

I assume you have a BT mail address. Do you use it? Do you use Outlook as a reader?

[licquorice]

I have multiple email addresses, btinternet ones, Gmail, hotmail and own domain. I use outlook 2010 to deal with them all. I have various test accounts where I send own domain mail using both BT and hosts SMTP server. 

Have you actually tried to obtain a different public IP address?

[licquorice]

It won't be Spamhaus per se checking your IP address, it will be the SMTP server you are using checking that the sending address (i.e your public IP address) isn't on a block list.

[footloose99]

The penny is beginning to drop.

My send mail request is being sent to my hosts smtp server. It is interrogating Spamhaus which records that the request is coming from a BT user account. So the solution lies with the hosting service provider who should white list/authenticate the request? 

[licquorice]

Not entirely sure why your host is rejecting your mail though, virtually all ISP dynamic IP addresses are listed simply because they are dynamic and have previously been used by spammers.

My public IP address gives the same warning when checked at Spamhaus but my host doesn't prevent me sending mail.

Are you sure you have ticked the 'server requires authentication' box in Outlook?

[licquorice]

Are you sure you are not making 2+2=5?

Are you presuming the reason your mail isnt sending because of when checking your IP address with Spamhaus you get the message that the address is on block list rather than because of misconfiguration of Outlook.

As I said at the start of this thread, there should have been no need to change any settings in outlook just because you changed ISPs if you were using your host's SMTP server. The ISP is just providing a pipe.

As previously requested, if you it screenshots of your config with personal information munged, we can check if it is correct.

[footloose99]

I am making it up as I go, guessing at every turn. Just wish I could get to five. When contacting either Help Desk it should be "This is the way it works", "This is where it is going wrong", "This is the solution". Instead what I am getting from Jolt in particular is the 'not our problem' response.

When I try to send, Outlook gives me error message pointing to Spamhaus and the BT IP address. This is why I assume that the Jolt smtp server checks Spamhaus before processing the request. Am using the standard server setting mail.mydomain.xx without authentication.

I did try  changing ports, opting for ssl/tls and mangling everything to the point where I could no longer collect mail either. So it is back to beginning.