Intermittent send failure using GoDaddy POP account.

I too have had this problem with Godaddy. All the workarounds others describe work to get the mail out, but the problem recurs frequently - many times a day. I too tried this with Godaddy support and got nowhere (although they have been great with web hosting support).

My brand new router (Dlink) had an interesting message related to the godaddy connection:

"Blocked incoming TCP packet from 64.202.165.58:25 to xx.xx.xx.xx:50282 with unexpected acknowledgement 835125297 (expected 3840132077 to 3840197597)"

The "xx" is where my IP address was listed. This message implies that the TCP stack on the Godaddy side screwed up the packet window counting that TCP is supposed to do, acknowledging a packet that had not yet been sent, causing my router to decide this was bogus, a reasonable assumption.

My personal theory is that the load balancing in front of their smtp server farm is hiccuping and misconnecting people frequently, resulting in blown connections.

Ron Taylor wrote:
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.

Yes, that's right. Oops! (I have it configured correctly, just a typo in the post.) Thanks for correcting it!!!!!

[from Godaddy]
"Our support staff has responded to your request, details of which are described below:

Discussion Notes
Support Staff Response
Dear Jim,

I have reviewed this issue with the appropriate department. We are aware of the issue you've indicated but this is not an issue with our servers at this time. You would need to contact support for the client or the operating system. I apologize for any inconvenience in regards to this matter.

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

Regards,

Felicia B.
Online Support Team



Customer Inquiry [what I sent to GoDaddy]
I recently had a problem [Incident ID: 5485731] that we fundamentally
did not resolve. You might be interested to learn about this thread
on Apple's support board (anyone can read, but you have to login to
post).

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8946645#8946645

Basically dozens and dozens of people are saying that Godaddy's smtp
servers have an issue, exactly the issue I have been seeing. I think
this needs to be escalated beyond the normal, "this guy has a problem"
level. I only say this because I've had a great experience with
Godaddy support for web hosting but this is a technical, nagging
problem for a lot of people and the word is starting to get around....

cheers,

Jim

Ha, nice try Jim. Pretty much the same response that I got. It slays me that they will not investigate this. What I think they fail to understand, is that most of the people on this board are intelligent and know their way around with this stuff (i'm not one of 'em, but I know enough to be dangerous). So, if it was a problem within our control, we would've solved it by now! I too, referred them to this thread, they basically said they have tested with Windows & Mac and don't see any problems, must be the ISP.

I still think it's time for a grass roots effort. If enough people pepper them with requests and point to this thread, they have to eventually get tired of it and take notice. I too pay for their e-mail services, so it's quite frustrating.

After lots of back and forth, the final word I got from Godaddy is below.

The net is this: They will neither acknowledge an issue nor attempt to solve it.

I guess they are all too busy ogling women in tight t-shirts.

Here is what they say:

Support Staff Response
Dear Chris,

Thank you for contacting Online Support. Unfortunately there is no alternative port to use with SSL. If you are unable to send via a 3rd party client consistently you may need to use Webmail instead or your ISPs outgoing mailserver.

To access our Webmail service, use the following info:

1. Go to http://email.yourdomain.com (make sure to use your actual domain name in place of ‘yourdomain.com’).
2. Enter your email address as the username.
3. Enter your password.

Note:

Usernames must be in lowercase, and passwords must be exactly as you created them.

Please let us know if we can provide you with further assistance.

Sincerely,

Jensen P.
Online Support Technician

I have a paid email account and definitely have these problems.

I have been experiencing the same problems- going back about 6-8 months or so. It's really gotten bad lately- and, like everyone here- haven't been able to resolve w/ Godaddy. We have reset accounts, tried all the different SMTP setting, SSL/ no SSL, different ports, etc., tried different routers (only common thread is all the machines are on different model Belkin routers- so maybe that's part of problem?)- and still can't get the issue resolved. I'm at the point of finding a new email provider- which is a shame, because when Godaddy was working w/o these bugs- it was great.

For reference- I have two Godaddy hosted domains/multiple email accounts - and have experienced intermittent send failures from both Mac and PC's- various laptops/ desktops, MacOS 10.5 and WinXP Pro, various software- Thunderbird, Mail, Outlook and Entourage- and on various networks/ locations- ATT dsl, Mediacom Cable and Roadrunner. I haven't (too my knowledge) experienced any errors with my Sprint Blackberry- which seems to send w/o any errors.

So, I think it's a bigger/ more generic problem- than a particular OS/ setup/ ISP- and, I have referenced this thread to the Godaddy people (which is probably the most thorough of any internet thread I've found). No one I've spoken to has acknowledged the problem.

I guess the only thing is to keep our fingers crossed that there is a solution. My gut tells me this is probably server overload- related, as I do have better luck on the weekend/ non-prime time (or so it seems).

I finally have a response from Godaddy Support on the issue with SSL.
I sent them screen shots (actually jpg window grabs) of failed telnet sessions to port 465,
[$ telnet smtpout.secureserver.net 465]

... and the response was the following:
________________________
Support Staff Response
Dear bruce schlobohm,

Thank you for replying. The issue you have reported has been brought to the attention of our developers. We are currently working on resolving this issue as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience and understanding in this matter.

Please let us know if we can provide you with further assistance.

Sincerely,

Rita P.
Online Support Technician
___________________________

We'll see.

I've asked if they could inform me when they believe they have the problem resolved, but they don't understand that question - just reply saying they don't know when it will be. (sigh).
I too had referenced this thread.

(I didn't realize that enclosing that telnet command line in square brackets would cause it to get transformed to a hyperlink... please ignore the http:// part of that line, as I didn't type, nor intend for that to happen)

Thats good news, Bruce. I had given up with them, I guess I should have just kept pushing.

(Still happening this morning, though.)

I have a bunch of lost connections showing up in my mail log (in the Console.) They refer to losing connections with IP address 64.202.166.12 If I do a reverse look up, that IP resolves to smtp.secureserver.net. That might be an issue, since it should likely resolve to smtpout.secureserver.net. Perhaps that inconsistency is causing dropped connections. I will pass that along to godaddy tech support.

Godaddy support has informed me in no uncertain terms that the information given to Bruce is incorrect:
==================
Unfortunately there is no issue with the mail server that would cause it not to work via ssl. If it is intermittent issue as you state I would suggest calling us when it is happening. If there is no issue with the server there won't be anything further we will be able to assist you with on it.

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

Sincerely,
John P.
Online Support Team

Well, after following this topic for this long, it seems as though it is useless to try to deal with Godaddy. So perhaps it's time for me to look for another email host. Would anyone care to suggest some worthy alternatives--ones where you can actually send, as well as receive, email and ones who don't regard denial as their main form of support?

Still happening here- and, pretty frequently the last couple of days. If you figure out a good email service provider- please let us know.

You can use google mail with your domain for free. I use it for personal mail, andhave never had a problem with SMTP over SSL.

I had been sticking with godaddy for my business mail because I wanted to be sure support was available. Lotta good that's done. sigh