Can't Send email from Mail or Entourage

Question

Level 1

8 points

Can't Send email from Mail or Entourage

I tried posting this last night, but it doesn't seem to be showing up anywhere. Just last week my computer stopped sending mail. I can receive fine, but not send. I have tried in Entourage and in Mail. I'm using a POP account and use a different server for incoming and outcoming.

It worked fine until last week and the same thing works fine at my work (using the outgoing server from my work and using my home ISP at work) I use my ISP outgoing server at home and have even tried using a trial for MSN, and my work ISP to see if another ISP would do it but it doesn't.

It comes back in Eudora with an error message: "Mail could not be sent using the account "Brian". A connection error occured. Error -3260. Mail says The message could not be appended to the Outbox.

I've tried changing from port 25 as well. I also tried setting up a new user account and starting Mail up new and fresh with the same results. My wife sent something at 9:00 and 1 hour later the problem started, so nothing was installed new at that time. Just upgraded to 10.4.4 today to see if it would help.

iMac Mac OS X (10.4.4)

iMac Mac OS X (10.4.4)

iMac, Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Posted on Jan 17, 2006 12:18 PM

Reply

Answer 1

brianburgess Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 19, 2006 11:56 AM in response to brianburgess

Any Ideas?

Reply

Answer 2

Jan 19, 2006 12:14 PM in response to brianburgess

To confirm.

This is a personal email account that you access at work and at home. When connected to the internet at work, you are using the SMTP server for your work email account to send mail with your personal account.

When connected to the internet at home with your personal ISP, you switch to using the SMTP server provided by your ISP to send mail with your personal email account and this is the part that no longer works?

To clarify some terms, ISP is short for internet service provider. I believe you are inter-changing ISP for incoming mail server and outgoing mail server or SMTP server and or for an email account provider.

Is this personal email account and SMTP server provided by your personal ISP used for connecting to the internet at home or is this email account and SMTP server provided by an email account provider only that is not used as your ISP for connecting to the internet?

Reply

Answer 3

Jan 19, 2006 12:48 PM in response to Allan Sampson

I had this problem today. Both my email apps would recieve but neither would send. All my account details were also correct. I'd installed the 10.4.4 update the day before and this may or may not have affected my mail apps. After digging around on a few message boards regarding 10.4.4, I came across a bit of info regarding repairing disc permissions in the Apple Disc Utility. I did this and my mail apps started send emails as suddenly as they had previously stopped. I don't know for certain if this was the cure, but it changed something! Hope this helps, I know how frustrating this situation was for me.

Matt

Reply

Answer 4

brianburgess Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 19, 2006 10:10 PM in response to Allan Sampson

By ISP I meant Internet Service Provider. I doubt that the outgoing mail server they provide is the problem in that if I use those settings (the settings which I have been using at home since June) at work, the mail can be sent successfully. I can also connect to the Internet and receive email There seems to be some problem with the computer. I have tried various email (including accounts provided by 2 separate ISPs) and various outgoing mail servers all to no avail.

Reply

Answer 5

Jan 19, 2006 10:43 PM in response to brianburgess

If you can send mail with your work email account and SMTP server and your ISP's email account and SMTP server when connected to the internet at work (which is unusual to be able to send with an SMTP server that is not provided by and is outside of the ISP's network used for connecting to the internet unless the SMTP server is authenticated) but you are unable to do the same when connected to the internet at home which was working previously, it is doubtful there is anything wrong with your computer or you wouldn't be able to send mail at work either.

More than likely, this has something to do with a change made by your ISP used for connecting to the internet when at home.

I have tried various email (including accounts provided
by 2 separate ISPs) and various outgoing mail servers
all to no avail.

You have more than one ISP used for connecting to the internet when at home?

Reply

Answer 6

brianburgess Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 21, 2006 12:17 PM in response to Allan Sampson

I don't think I understand, so if my computer at home wasn't working properly, I wouldn't be able to send the mail at work? If anything, that tells me that there is a problem with the computer and not the ISP. I can get it to work on my computer at work, but not at home.

I acutally just signed up for a new home ISP hoping that that would solve the problem, but it didn't. That's why I have 2 home ISPs.

Reply

Answer 7

Jan 21, 2006 12:38 PM in response to brianburgess

Brian,

We still don't have enough info to be sure of much, but some ISP, such as Comcast, provide one SMTP to use when you are at home, and another when traveling -- Work would be the same as travel. Their SMTP for home use (the venue where connected by them) requires that Authentication be set to None on the Outgoing Server.

More info, please.

Reply

Answer 8

DJ Sailor

Level 2

309 points

Jan 21, 2006 1:15 PM in response to brianburgess

Well, add one more person to those who can't send any mail via Apple 10.4 Mail app. It worked yesterday but not today when I woke my PB up from sleep. Tried opening closing app, running Disk Utility and the Periodic Scrips via Terminal (sudo periodic daily; weekly; and monthly). "Connection Doctor" (under Window in the Mail app) says all my server connections are working fine. This has happened in the past and when I forced MS Word to quit, the problem solved itself but back then I was using 10.3 and Safari and Netscape also did not work (Safari is working fine).

Sigh, it is just supose to "Work"...

Reply

Answer 9

Jan 21, 2006 2:48 PM in response to brianburgess

I don't think I understand, so if my computer at home
wasn't working properly, I wouldn't be able to send
the mail at work? If anything, that tells me that
there is a problem with the computer and not the ISP.
I can get it to work on my computer at work, but not
at home.

I'm not sure how you come to this conclusion. If you can send mail with any email account and SMTP server when connected to the internet at work but not when connected to one of two personal ISPs when connected to the internet at home, how can this be a computer or Mail.app problem?

If this is a computer or Mail.app problem, don't you think you would also have problems sending mail when connected to the internet at work?

This is likely a settings problem when connected to the internet at home.

I acutally just signed up for a new home ISP hoping
that that would solve the problem, but it didn't.
That's why I have 2 home ISPs.

Do you have dial-up internet access at home for both ISPs?

Reply

Answer 10

brianburgess Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 23, 2006 1:22 PM in response to Allan Sampson

I'm not sure how you come to this conclusion. If you
can send mail with any email account and SMTP server
when connected to the internet at work but not when
connected to one of two personal ISPs when connected
to the internet at home, how can this be a computer
or Mail.app problem?

Because I have a different computer at home than the one I have at work. Were you thinking it was the same computer?

If this is a computer or Mail.app problem, don't you
think you would also have problems sending mail when
connected to the internet at work?

Not if the computer at work isn't broken like I assume the computer at home is.

Do you have dial-up internet access at home for both
ISPs?

Both ISPs are dial-up. One is All2Easy (This is the ISP I used first) and one is MSN. A new development is that I can no longer dial up using All2Easy. I get online using MSN. I can still send mail from work using the outgoing mail server of email.all2easy.net though.

Reply

Answer 11

Jan 23, 2006 6:39 PM in response to brianburgess

Because I have a different computer at home than the one
I have at work. Were you thinking it was the same computer?

I assumed incorrectly this was the same computer.

The following was copied from your original post.

Mail says The message could not be appended to the Outbox.

If this is the only error message you get with the Mail.app, the Outbox mailbox may have some corruption. If there is a problem with the SMTP server or an SMTP settings problem, the message will be moved to the Outbox mailbox and remain there with an error message indicating a problem with the SMTP server being used.

Quit the Mail.app and using the Finder, go to Home > Library > Mail > Mailboxes > Outbox.mbox.

Delete the Outbox.mbox folder and empty the Trash.

When re-launching Mail, a new Outbox.mbox folder will be created automatically by Mail within the Mailboxes folder.

Test if this resolves the problem.

Reply

Answer 12

brianburgess Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 28, 2006 9:02 PM in response to brianburgess

Well, I just switched my service to fastermac.net and everything seems to be working fine. Apparently my ISP had some sort of problem, but I never figured out what.

Thanks anyone who spent time on this.

Reply