my "outgoing Mail server is offline and I can't get it back online

I have discovered the same problem on my Quicksilver G4 (Mac OS X 10.5.8). I verified that I can recevied mail via my .mac account, but the outgoing smtp's are offline.

I can log into my iCould account via Safari and send/recevie mail, but not on the G4.

...would appreciate any help/suggestions on how to proceed.

Bill

Check first with Mail > Menu bar > Window > Connection doctor ... to see what the connection state is. There have been a number of similar reports of late. If you are not 100% au fait with mail, call your provider and ask them to walk you through your settings.

Mail reports that the certificate for "smtp.mac.com" is invalid -- Connection Doctor reports that the server is unavailable.

All of my other acounts in Mail are working properly.

The invalid certificate is why the server is off line. There are many ways this problem arises. I would repair permissions first, try again and if unsuccessful, I would talk to my provider and ask if they would walk me through my settings.

I recently had a similar problem; the provider helped sort it but I never found out the cause.

I have the same problem as Tammy. How do I repair permissions for Mail?

Unfortunately Tammy never came back to say whether it resolved her problem.

Go Disk utilities > Highlight your HD > repair permissions > and wait. Providing it says 'permissions repair complete' when it is finished, all is well. Try mail again.

If still a problem you must talk to your mail provider.

Thanks so much for the quick response.

I did repair permissions and tried Mail again, then decided to double check the Mail Prefs of my MB Pro (where Mail works fine) and the iMac (G5 I think?). And do I feel stupid: the outgoing mail server on the iMac was smtp.mac.com whereas the server on the MB Pro was smtp.me.com! So I changed that and now Mail can be sent from the iMac.

Thanks so much, I love these forums. Whenever I have a problem, I check the forums first!

Cheers,

Laurie

Happy to have helped, Laurie. What a lovely, cheerful response.