Intermittent send failure using GoDaddy POP account.

Well, here's my latest update. After exchanging e-mails with godaddy support several times, they attributed it to SPAM blocking at the ISP. Now I doubt that is true as I used to run my own mail server and never had a problem one.

Now, here's where it gets interesting. Cox Cable came out this morning and replaced the cable modem. This was their own doing as they said we needed a new one. Once this was done, it's been smooth sailing. Every e-mail we have sent out this morning from either machine has gone on the first try. THE ONLY change has been the modem, all other ISP settings remain the same. We went from a Motorola SurfModem to Scientific Atlanta 2100.

Don't know why this seems to have fixed the issue, but hope it helps out others.

I spoke too soon. Intermittent failures to send e-mail are back. However, they are less often. I also updated my router to the latest build of firmware in the process (DD-WRT v4.2 sp2 01/29/09), I'm not sure if this helps or not.

Yep. I spoke too soon here too... The problem seemed to be straightened out for the remainder of the day and then started up again.

I too have been having this problem, along with others in my family with the same configuration (Apple/Mail, Leopard, godaddy hosted pop email) - I'll spare you the details as it's the same as what others have been experiencing.
My current work-around is to take the accounts offline, pause, then back online - I've even changed the Mail tool bar to include the button for "All Offline" to expedite this.

Someone mentioned telnetting to godaddy's smtp server, so I've tried a series of these, and I come up with several different servers that respond:
$ telnet smtpout.secureserver.net 25
smtpout06.prod.mesa1.secureserver.net
smtpauth21.prod.mesa1.secureserver.net
smtpout05.prod.mesa1.secureserver.net
smtpout04-01.prod.mesa1.secureserver.net

I'm starting to wonder if the failure only happens when my system connects to a specific server. Any idea if there's a way to turn on more debugging in Mail that one could read on the console? Perhaps poring through such a debug log could provide clues on the failure.

Also, I note that on Tiger/Mail the timeout for waiting for the failed emails to send was much shorter than the about 2 minutes with Leopard/Mail - does anyone know the right magic plist to tweak to shorten that timeout? If it's going to fail, why wait so long?
Thanks!

I have the same problem. At least 50% of the time, my outgoing mail through Godaddy's smtp server either won't connect, or the attachment starts to send then hangs midway through. Second attempt usually goes out immediately. Same with my iPhone.

Can someone help me by following up with godaddy as well.. This problem needs to be fixed.. Here's my correspondence with them so far.. They are trying to blame this on settings.. Its a bunch of BS.. I can reproduce this by telnetting to the smtp server..

Tx..

Joe


We do apologize for any miscommunication. Unfortunately, the information provided indicates the issue being encountered is either due to incorrect settings of your e-mail client being used to send through our SMTP server, or with the local ISP not allowing connections to our server for sending messages. In the case (described through the provided Forum posting) of a network of systems were only a few are affected but others are not by this matter, this would be an issue with the sending application or system settings allowing connections to our server.

We have repeatedly tested our SMTP servers from both a Windows and Mac test environment and confirmed that there is no connection error that is being caused on our end.

At this time, we would recommend reviewing your client settings to be sure it is properly setup. Once the settings have been confirmed per the instructions below, we would advise contacting your local ISP in regards to this matter as they may require the use of their own SMTP relay services to resolve the sending issue. If you are also encountering this issue with portable mail devices such as an iPhone, you would need to contact the services provider for further resolution after confirming the same required settings.

To set up an email client to check your email account, please make sure that you are using the following settings:

Username: Your full email address (i.e. person@domain.com)
Password: (This is CASE SENSITIVE)
Incoming Mail Server Type: POP3
Incoming Mail Server: pop.secureserver.net
Outgoing Mail Server: smtpout.secureserver.net
Outgoing Mail Server: Requires Authentication (Use the same username and password as the incoming mail server).
Outgoing Mail Server Port: 25, 80, or 3535.

Please note that the use of our outgoing mail server (SMTP) requires that you 'Activate' the 'SMTP Relay' option of the email account. Please use the following directions to do this:

1. Login to your customer account and then select 'My Account.'
2. Select ‘Email Accounts’ from the ‘Hosting & Email’ menu.
3. Select 'Manage Account'.
4. If the relays are active it should show how many are available. If they are not active select the email account.
5. In the section 'SMTP Relaying' select 250 from the drop down.
6. Select 'Ok' to activate the relays (please note that it may take up to 15 minutes for the relays to become active).

You can use the following links to view walkthroughs on setting up your email account with different email clients:

Related Material

Setting up email in Outlook

Setting up email in Outlook Express

Setting up email in Mozilla Thunderbird

Setting up email in Microsoft Entourage

Video Tutorials:

Setting up email in Outlook

Setting up email in Mozilla Thunderbird

Please let us know if we can help you in any other way.

Sincerely,

Christopher P.
Online Technical Support
Customer Inquiry







How much more detailed to I need to be..



You smtp server consistantly times out.?? it will connect but not
respond.?? this is a known issue for tons of people. The only workaround
is to cancel the send. and resend.?? Uusally then 2nd connection will
work.?? It will continue to connect for a matter of hours usually.?? At
some point it will again fail. and then require a second attempt to
work.?? Your servers ALWAYS connect but do not respond when this problem
occurs.



1) Dont send an email for about 4+ hours.

2) Try to send an email.?? Your server connects but does not respond

3) must cancel send or let send fail

4) attempt to send again and your server again connects, but this time
it resonds and send works

5) I can now send properly if I continue to send emails within a few
minutes or maybe an hour or so..

6) dont send an email for 4+ hours (im not sure of the exact time frame)

7) goto step 2



I am using OSX.. I have same same problem on 10.4 and 10.5.. I have the
same problem on my iphone.. I have the same problem with Mac Mail, and
Thunderbird.. You can test this issue by Telnetting to the server..
This is NOT SOFTWARE dependent..?? Have someone test with telnet, and
you will get the same results..?? This is just plain annoying.



I've direct you to the thread at apple to show you that MANY people are
having this problem.



Please call me if you need further details, but make sure you have an
experience tech call.. I've spent pleanty of time trying to trace this
issue and I want to deal with someone that knows what they're talking
about.. I am an Computer Engineer..?? I have been dealing with this
issue for over a year now, as have MANY others.

??

p.s. I just had the problem sending this email.. Had to cancel.. now Im
sure it will send here on the 2nd attempt.. If you dont see more then
it worked..



Thanks.

I recently tried something and it may have helped. I went into my Apple Keychain and deleted all my passwords for my Apple Mail accounts. Then, next mail check, it prompted me to enter the passwords, which I did. And, now things seem to be sending smoothly. Not sure if this is a permanent fix, but so far, so good.

I have witnessed this problem for nearly a year now. I have several Macs, two on 10.5.x and one on 10.3.9, using both Mail and Thunderbird. All show the same issues.

I also have several clients with various Macs and operating systems reporting these same problems with GoDaddy's outgoing email servers. I have switched most to other SMTP servers.

The most common issue is not connecting to the SMTP server on the first try; a dialog box pops up asking you to retry or select another SMTP server. Usually, clicking retry will work with plain messages.

On the other hand, sending an attachment of 1 mb or so will almost always stall before finished and lock up the connection to the server for some 5- 15 minutes or so.

These issues with GoDaddy's SMTP servers persist on various models, various operating system versions, and on various ISPs including cable, DSL, and DS3. I do not see this issue with any other host's SMTP server. There are too many occurrences of this issue to be anything other than a compatibility between the Mac OS and GoDaddy. Since this issue only exists with GoDaddy, it is hard to point a finger at the Mac OS.

I have had no success convincing GoDaddy that this is a problem they need to investigate. Perhaps this discussion will help in that endeavor.

I am feeling better about the possible fix that I mentioned earlier today, (e.g. cleaning out all my Mail passwords from my keychain,) since I have gone almost a full day with no smtp sending issues!

I have a feeling that having some left-over old passwords in the keychain may cause Mail to mess up. So, try cleaning up the keychain and see if that helps.

This problem is not limited to Apple mail. I have intermittent problems when sending mail from both from Outlook 2003 on Windows and from my iPhone -- when using SSL with SMTP.SECURESERVER.NET on port 465.

The problem goes away if I turn off SSL and use ports 80, 25 or 3535. But, obviously, this is not a good solution.

I do not have this problem with SSL connections to SMTP servers from GMail.

Clearly something to do with Godaddy, though they may be right in trying to blame our ISP's. Some ISP's like mine (Cox) are wary of people using their connections to send spam, and try to filter connections to SMTP servers that they do not control. Cox may be targetting Godaddy specifically because they are a favorite of spammers (as well as legitimate users.)

But note that to use the Godaddy SMTP server in SSL mode, your mail program must supply a username/password. So it is not an open relay. So I don't know why Cox would mess with it. I also don't know why the problem would be intermittent if cox was filtering.

One thing that has not been mentioned on this thread, but is probably not a factor: With a Godaddy mail account, the administrator must allocate a number of daily SMTP relays to the mail account for it to work. In my case, I have more than enough allocated, but still have the intermittent problems. And, as I mentioned, they go away if I turn off SSL and switch to one of the other ports.

Anyway, just my 2 cents. Take it from this windows and iphone user, it is NOT apple mail!

PS: I want to clear up one piece of confusion in this thread: With the Godaddy SMTP server, if you are using SSL, you must use port 465. The other ports mentioned (80, 25, 3535) only work if SSL is turned off.

Message was edited by: caa100

Just a correction to the prior post by caa100 - I believe the server mentioned should be SMTPOUT.SECURESERVER.NET on port 465.

Also, since cleaning up my keychain, I am not having the problems any more. It has been a couple days and working fine.

I haven't cleaned up my keychain, and I've noticed in the past few days that every message sent goes out smoothly. I've seen a couple of cases starting today, where it quickly fails with an SSL error, then the immediate retry works. And yes, the failures I've been seeing are related to SSL connections.
Something is working better suddenly.
Godaddy supports wants screenshots of telnet sessions, but with the connections working so consistently right now, I was actually hoping for a more consistent failure pattern to send them.

It's good to know from folks like caa100 that this is not isolated to Mac OSX Mail, but has also been seen on Windows with Outlook. My guess is that Godaddy will pay more attention to a more widespread issue.

Hey Y'all!

Yes, I too in the same crappy GoDaddy boat. I have tracked this "server timing out problem" over the last several years on multiple machines (Mac and PC) using various email programs (Mac and PC) on various different ISP's. There has never seemed to be any rhyme or reason to it except that GoDaddy has crappy servers that are over loaded and like to randomly block people out for no apparent reason.

Of course, this is provable on my part only my summation through observation.

I recently (Feb 2009) have been in contact with GoDaddy and like others who have posted here and on forums across the internet, we get the same old crap from the tech support of "it must be your program" or "it must be your ISP" or the most popular solution by them is to "use webmail"

What I am curious about is if anyone who actually has a paying GoDaddy email account has the same problem. I am betting NOT. It feels to me like one of the many evil greedy ploys in the world where a company like GoDaddy lures in millions and millions of customers with a cheap price on a domain and then makes it so a simple service of having that inexpensive domain name like using their free email account becomes so filled with hassle that you want to upgrade to a paying account.

Anyhow, I have tried many fixes on this problem (which happens with more frequency on my iMac using MacMail) and nothing has worked. I have gotten to a point where I simply send an email go to activity viewer stop it from sending and then re-send again to actually have the mail go.

I recently tried removing / resetting the keychains as previously posted as that was something I never tried but it did not work for me.

If someone figures out the magic fix on this, please do let me know!

Good idea, but alas... I pay for a bunch of godaddy email accounts, not just the free ones that come with a domain name. That's actually the only accounts that I use for email with godaddy, and I too have posted here of having the same SSL server problem. I'm still working with godaddy support, hoping it will lead to something.

Well, my keychain cleanup apparently coincided with the better behavior of the godaddy servers, as noted by Bruce, since the problem is now back. I have a feeling it is simply overloaded servers on godaddy's part.