Apple mail and my hotmail account do not work properly anymore! won't send any mails but I still receive all of them! what can I do?

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frisbo1312 Author

Level 1

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Apple mail and my hotmail account do not work properly anymore! won't send any mails but I still receive all of them! what can I do?

My Apple Mail used to work fine until two weeks ago when all of a sudden it refused to send out emails!

I am still able to receive all of my emails, just cannot answer them without logging in over the hotmail website.

Following message shows up when I try to send an email:

Connections to the server “smtp.live.com” on the default ports timed out.

Select a different outgoing mail server from the list below or click Try Later to leave the message in your Outbox until it can be sent

now I looked up alternative servers and tried it with them but appears that none of those work...

I hope you guys have any idea?

Thanks for your help

Apple Mail-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Mar 29, 2013 8:25 AM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Mar 29, 2013 6:27 PM in response to frisbo1312

Mail: Troubleshooting sending & receiving email messages

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Answer 2

Apr 1, 2013 3:29 AM in response to frisbo1312

Hi frisbo1312

I am in the UK and eventually found the problem was due to my BT Home Hub Router. Not sure where you live, but of you are in the UK, this might work for you.

I found this fix below on https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4604180?start=15&tstart=0

It worked for me. If you can't link to the URL, here is the body of the text

There's an issue related to the BT homehub that is providing a hostname that is "syntactically incorrect" for several smtp server.

Here's how you can fix it.

Using your internet browser, go to the address "192.168.1.254

- Follow instructions to reset your password if asked.

- Then go to "Settings", then "Advanced Settings" and "home network"

You will see there all the devices that are connected or that has been connected before. It's gonna be easyer if yout computer is the only one connected.

Your computer should have a name like "unknown-xx:xx:xx:xx:xx ...

Click on this name, chose another name without any special characters, like "macbook" for exemple.

And then click on "apply"

- restart your computer.

That should fix the issue.

Credit goes to vincentfromcork for providing me with the solution.

Spread the word 😉

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