Bellsouth.net (AT&T) Email Settings

I recently upgraded to a Mac Pro. After three weeks of tech support ****, I finally found a Yahoo! tech that could help with the final piece of the puzzle. Here's the step by step I went through to get email settings for inbound and outbound email using @bellsouth.net email accounts and the Mail app (although at one point I got the same behavior with Microsoft Office 2011 Outlook).

Receiving Email

In order to receive email from the Yahoo! server, you need to change your email password on your Mac Mail client and also change it on AT&T's email support site. I found the best way to do this was to use the forgot password link, because the manage email link on the Your Account page actually sends you to view email not manage it (after notifying AT&T of this several times with no response, I finally gave up).

AT&T Forgot Password link: https://www.att.com/olam/unauth/fpwdEnterUserId.myworld

POP Email settings for Bellsouth.net should be:

1. inbound.att.net using port 995 with SSL checked and authentication set to password, or
2. pop.att.yahoo.com using port 995 with SSL checked and authentication set to password.
3. User ID should be formatted CustomerID@bellsouth.net

These email settings are subject to change with no notice. I recommend that you check this link, or search for bellsouth.net email settings.

http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB401570&cv=804&title=Email%20server %20settings%20(POP%20and%20SMTP)#fbid=UvF_IHcDpcG

Once you have reset your password on both AT&T webmail and the Mac Mail app, and checked that your account settings match the above, log in to your AT&T webmail, if you are not already logged in.

Create a new email in AT&T webmail addressed to your email address.

Send the email.

You should receive the email.

You may need to repeat this webmail send email procedure a few times, but it should work, sooner or later.

Although I got my email accounts to receive, I could never get the email account password to work for the SMTP server. I would always get a rejected password message, regardless how I tried to manipulate the settings. The following is what finally worked after finally getting connected to a tech at Yahoo! Who knew what she was doing.

Sending Email

The webpage above, which has the email settings for inbound email, also has the outbound settings. For some people, those settings will work. For me, they did not. Here they are just in case they do work for you:

1. outbound.att.net using port 465 with SSL checked and authentication set to password, or
2. smtp.att.yahoo.com using port 465 with SSL checked and authentication set to password.
3. User ID should be formatted CustomerID@bellsouth.net

Again, these email settings are subject to change with no notice. Check the webpage at the link above, or search for bellsouth.net email settings at Google.

The inbound.att.net/outbound.att.net servers were instituted relatively recently. The pop.att.yahoo.com/smtp.att.yahoo.com servers go back a ways, but they’re a change made when AT&T bought Bellsouth.net and contracted much of the residential internet support to Yahoo!

Prior to that complication, there was another set of email servers.

If you are having problems sending email try these email settings for your smtp server:

mail.bellsouth.net using the default ports, with no SSL, and authentication set to none.

This was one of the original email settings for bellsouth.net, back when it was a Southeastern regional company and still worth something.

I can’t guarantee that these settings will work for you. I hope that they will. If not, contact AT&T tech support, and keep asking to be elevated to the next tier of support.

Good Luck!

Rich