A mind-boggling problem in MS Outlook

[Olafurbj]

First of all; I'm from Iceland so you have to excuse my english.

I have an extremely interesting problem.

I have a laptop and I use Microsoft Outlook 2007 for email (pop3). I use this computer in three different locations, at my office, at school and at my home. All of these locations have, as you may expect, different outgoing mail servers.

So the problem is sending e-mail from my home. When I'm at work or school I have no problem sending and receiving mail, but when I'm at home I receive mail but the problem is sending.

At first, you would think that I typed in the wrong mail server but that's not the case. And everything looks right. I send the mail, it goes into the "Sent mail items" folder and I get no feedback about any errors. But the mail never reaches the recepient.

The strange thing is, that this only happens at my home.

I can't imagine anything being wrong with the e-mail account, because it works everywhere else.

Here's what I've tried:

I have set my account up on another computer at my home and it works like a charm.

I have checked with my email provider and he says there's nothing wrong with the account (given that it works everywhere else and also through the web interface)

I have put a new router in my home - nothing

I have re-installed MS Office on my computer - nothing

I set up another account up on my MS Office - mail doesn't reach the recepient through that account either.

And I've tried various other things that I don't bother to mention here....

I've also talked to many computer specialists here in Iceland and they have no answer.

That's why I'm looking "over seas" for an answer.

What could be the problem?
Is it the setup of Office on my computer?
Is it my computer (Lenovo ThinkPad R61)
Is it the internet provider at my home (I doubt it because it is the biggest provider in Iceland)
Is it my account?

Hoping for a reply

Olafur Bjornsson

 

[kimsland]

I had a scenario once similar to this where I tried everything!
So I went back (for the 50th time) but this time instead of copying and pasting in, things such as my outgoing server, I just manually typed it in
And all of a sudden everything worked. In my guess it must have been some text corruption that was not showing - who knows!

In your case I would suggest turn off, or un-install any\all live protecting software.
Including un-installing AntiVirus or any other Malware protecting program, then try again

Actually you could also create a new User account (in Windows) then logoff, and log on to the new account, then set up your email with just that one email account.
That would be a good test too.

 

[Tedster]

the problem is with your outgoing server. I have run across this issue before myself. Your home service is a different network than your office. You will need to get a generic network pathway from your office if possible or use a free email client to relay to work - like gmail.

btw- try thunderbird - it's free! www.mozilla.com

 

[DelJo63]

Email Open Relay issue

So the problem is sending e-mail from my home. When I'm at work or school I have no problem sending and receiving mail, but when I'm at home I receive mail but the problem is sending.

This is a configuration issue with almost ALL email Postoffice servers.
Your Outlook (or Outlook Experes, or ANY POP3 Email Client) is configured for your
primary PrimaryEmailServer -- in your case Work or School (hum; this is an issue; see[1] below).

At home, you're attempting to send via the path

yourSystem-->yourISP-->yourPrimaryEmailServer​

If this were to be allowed, then yourISP would have what is known as an Open Relay Server.
[1] see this article

Most reputable ISPs block port 25 going anywhere but their OWN postoffice server.

Solution?
1) Hopefully, your yourPrimaryEmailServer has a browser interface (also A.K.A. Webbased Email).
If so, you connect to it with any browser (at a special url), login with your email user/passwd and away you go!

2) You might be able to VPN into the Work or School systems and run Outlook as is

 

[adweston]

Turn off email scanning in your antivirus software, change the outgoing port to 587 and try with and without SSL.

 

[kimsland]

un-install any\all live protecting software.
Including un-installing AntiVirus or any other Malware protecting program, then try again

Already stated

change the outgoing port to 587 and try with and without SSL

Not tried

 

[adweston]

Uninstalling an antivirus program in response is like throwing out the baby with the bath water.

I merely suggested disabling the email scanner portion.

Two different things. I read your initial post at the time.

 

[kimsland]

It has been proven time and time again that just disabling the Antivirus, is not the same as Uninstalling it

ie a disabled corrupted Antivirus (and firewall) can still cause major issues, including network inactivity (proven)

 

[adweston]

That's true.. When the client can't send or receive emails. There may be a communication issue at work here though. I don't suggest disabling the antivirus, or uninstalling it. Merely disabling the email scanning portion of it.

There's a reason for that. Some mail servers require SSL. Mail scanners can interfere with that, preventing authentication. The email software will presume it was sent, when it actuality it wasn't. I've actually dealt with the exact scenario posted in the OP, and disabling the mail scanning resolved the issue, while leaving the remainder of the package intact.

The other reason is that it's been demonstrated repeatedly that email scanning can actually corrupt the email database. Email scanning is also redundant. Therefore, logic would seem to dictate that disabling the email scanner would be the next viable step, before trashing the entire thing which can be reserved as a last option.

 

[DelJo63]

Turning off ALL email scanning is unwise

Tuning off Outbound email is frequently all that is necessary

 

[adweston]

Read through the first few links:

http://www.google.com/search?q=emai...-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

 

[kimsland]

I have made my point (through others debate)
Pretty sure that everyone reading this, for now on will try uninstalling their AntiVirus software and personal firewall (absolutely completely removed) to test a network issue if all other initial tests have failed.

Thankfully this test, has been 100% proven as an excellent option, after all other common diagnosis and tests has been completed

In pure irony, I have noticed AVG and Norton as being the most common corrupted Antiviruses, that can cause this network issue. Lets just say I know , and none of you presently do Not disable outbound email scanning. Uninstall

Please note: this was stated in Post#2 to do !
.

 

[adweston]

After you deleted mine..

Nothing is "proven" until the OP posts the final outcome. It's not corruption either. I've seen it happen on fresh installs. In fact, I just ended up dealing with the exact issue not long ago with a client.. Disabling the email scanner resolved the issue, leaving the rest of their AV intact.

 

[DelJo63]

It's called empirical evidence; ie: it works for me.
Extrapolating to the whole population may not be 100% valid :0

My experience with the issue was as noted, halting outbound scanning was all that was necessary and I retained the benefit of protecting all received email.

It's my personal opinion that if an AV product can't scan email (at least received email), then it's not worth squat and I need another product.

It would appear that this horse (ie thread) has been beaten to death.

 

[Tedster]

This is a configuration issue with almost ALL email Postoffice servers.
Your Outlook (or Outlook Experes, or ANY POP3 Email Client) is configured for your
primary PrimaryEmailServer -- in your case Work or School (hum; this is an issue; see[1] below).

At home, you're attempting to send via the path

yourSystem-->yourISP-->yourPrimaryEmailServer​

If this were to be allowed, then yourISP would have what is known as an Open Relay Server.
[1] see this article

Most reputable ISPs block port 25 going anywhere but their OWN postoffice server.

Solution?
1) Hopefully, your yourPrimaryEmailServer has a browser interface (also A.K.A. Webbased Email).
If so, you connect to it with any browser (at a special url), login with your email user/passwd and away you go!

2) You might be able to VPN into the Work or School systems and run Outlook as is

my solution is to use a generic web based email like gmail with IMAP configuration. You can use it anywhere then.