I have cox mail and getting message unable to send try another server. SMTP shows offline

Ok, as mentioned, the telnet command may not work under Mojave, thus why I suggested using 'nc' which you did.

When you did using port 587 it was blocked. The command did not appear to have run with port 465 in your reply.

The 554 SMTP error code response is an odd one. Take a look at the following article to see what I mean:

• Understanding SMTP Error Codes - Lifewire

However, this code typically means that the Cox SMTP server thinks that your email is spam, or that your WAN-side IP address has been blacklisted.

Brand new iPad 6th gen, IOS 12.2 w/TLS 1.3 and have been fighting this dang Cox SMTP email issue for 2 friggen days.

IMAP settings:

• incoming is imap.cox.net, port 993, SSL on
• outgoing is smtp.cox.net, port 587, SSL on.

The email client can receive just find, but cannot send. Verified the email account works fine at Cox email webpage.

When first adding the email and after verification on my iPad, I got the following message:

”Cannot connect using SSL - Do you want to try setting up the account without SSL? Yes/No”

After finally getting the incoming to work, the verification for the outgoing got this message:

”The SMPT server ‘smpt.cox.net’ is not responding. Check your network connection and that you entered the correct

information in the ‘Outgoing Mail Server’ field.”

Needles to say, Cox tech support was useless. Gonna bite the bullet and call Cox Complete Care(less) tomorrow.

Any help from anyone on this forum would be most appreciated. I read all the posts in this thread before posting.

Thanks in advance.

Bob

Have you tried using the Mail Connection Doctor? If so, what were your results for your Cox email account? If it continues to fail at the login process, I suggest that you create a new user account on this Mac. Log out of your existing account, and login with the new one. Try adding your Cox email account into the Mail app again and see what happens.

Ref: Use Mail Connection Doctor - Apple Support

Do you use any type of software firewall or Anti-Virus apps on this Mac?

Try the following in Terminal:

• telnet smtp.cox.net 587 <enter> (NOTE: If telnet does not work, use either nc or ncat instead.)
• A successful response will start with something like: 220

I just tried doing this, with both ports 465 & 587, and I was being blocked by Cox. This may also be what's happening to you.

There are a number of reasons Cox may do this:

1. They are purposely blocking these ports.
2. Their destination SMTP server is unavailable.
3. Firewall restrictions on your end.
4. Incorrect FQDN or IP address for the destination SMTP server.
5. Incorrect port number.

I have gone through waves of that with cox. I think it is just there server is malfunctioning for that period of time. Eventually, it starts working again. I hate email, so it is not usually a big issue for me. I just use another account to send.

I go through the process of deleting all the keychain entries for the cox account. Sometimes that works, but sometimes it doesn't.

Ok, that’s a good clue. The iPad is for my father and I’ve setup everything except the email with the SMTP issue. My ISP is AT&T and, by your theory, may be the culprit logging into the Cox SMTP server. Maybe Cox is blocking some of AT&T’s IP addresses, it wouldn’t surprise me since Cox turned the key on their new email security on just the 24th. I think Cox was premature and should have tested the email security better prior to release.

I’m going to give the iPad to my Dad this Wednesday and his ISP is Cox. I’m gonna delete the email account from his iPad, login to his Cox network, then add the email account back into the iPad. I’m hoping that will get around the SMTP issue. I’ll let you know how it works out, but I like your idea!

Thanks, Bob

Make sure the configure automatically checkbox is not selected.