Not able to use earthlink.net accounts

Please provide all account settings you are using for the incoming and outgoing mail server. Do not include your complete email address - substitute XXXX for the portion in front of the @ sign as an example.

Earthlink is not my primary ISP but I've kept an old Earthlink dial-up account for use when traveling in case a high speed wired or wireless internet connection isn't available which is no longer as common.

I have no problems sending messages with my Earthlink account when connected to my ISP used at Home.

My Earthlink SMTP server settings are as follows:

Outgoing Mail Server: smtpauth.earthlink.net

Server Port: 587. If you are using Earthlink as your ISP, using 25 for the SMTP server port should work.

Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL): Off or not selected.

Authentication: MD5 Challenge-Response.

User Name: My entire Earthlink email address.

Password: The account's password - the same password used to check the incoming mail server for new messages.

This is what I meant by requesting that you provide all account settings.

I am having the same problem with my outgoing mail, and judging from a few posts of people with different ISP's, I am not alone.

I have Mac OS 10.4.8
I receive both my .mac mail and my earthlink mail through the Mail program.
When I try to send an email from either my earthlink account or my .mac account, I get the same error message that others have received:
"Cannot send message using the server smtpauth.earthlink.net Use the pop-up menu below to try a different outgoing mail server. All messages will use this server until you quit Mail or change your network settings."

My outgoing server settings are, as directed by three tiers of earthlink support personnel, are:
outgoing mail server: smtpauth.earthlink.net
port: 587 (they say 25 or 587 will work)
ssl is not checked
authentication is for password
username is my email address@earthlink.net
password is the password i use to log in and check email on that ISP.
I have reviewed all of this with several earthlink support staff and they say that all my settings are correct.

Earthlink had a previous outgoing server, smtp.earthlink.net, but they are gradually phasing that out. Unfortunately that's the only one that works for me right now! This surprised them, since they say the smtpauth.earhtlink.net should work, and that eventually the first one, smtp.earthlink.net will not work. I also have to use the earthlink outgoing server for my .mac mail, as smtp.mac.com will NOT work.

I am not sure what to do next, but realize that I am not the only one having this problem. I thought about backing up my mail file off my library (which will hopefully maintain all my emails and those in my folders), and then export/reimport the mail program, but I not only don't know how to do that, I don't think it will help.

any suggestions, consensus, whatever would be greatly appreciated.
is there a bug in the system that needs to be fixed?



15" Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8) 1 GHz, 1 GB SDRAM, 60 GB HD

I just upgraded to Tiger 10.4.8 from Panther the other day, and have had problems since then sending e-mail from my Earthlink account. No problem receiving them. All of my settings are correct. I've triple-checked everything. I'm able to send e-mail from my Earthlink account when I access the account via Webmail.

Must be a conflict between Tiger and Earthlink?

It's a bit of a relief to know at least that I am not the only one with this problem.

G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

There is no bug in the system - at least not with my system.

You are using Earthlink as your ISP at home?

If so, using Port 25 should work and if not, use Port 587.

Definitely use Port 587 for the .Mac SMTP server.

My outgoing server settings are, as directed by three tiers of
earthlink support personnel, are:

Regardless what three tiers of Earthlink support personnel directed, use the SMTP server settings that I provided in my previous post.

The only change you need to make is using MD5 Challenge-Response for the authentication type instead of Password.

I've been using these settings for years without any problems - regardless if connected to the internet with my ISP at Home which isn't Earthlink or when using my Earthlink dial-up account when traveling.

I just successfully sent a test email with my Earthlink account using the SMTP server settings provided.

The ability to send messages with an account via webmail access and sending messages with an email client such as the Mail.app are not related. An email client uses an SMTP server to send messages and webmail does not.

Try the settings I'm using for Earthlink's authenticated SMTP server provided in my earlier post in this thread.

well I mentioned that I went up to Level 3 with earthlink support to indicate that I tried over and over again with them, checking for any system changes from their end.

I tried your suggestion with using MD5 Challenge-Response, saved those settings, quit Mail and then started it up again, sent a test email to myself and after a while as that circle was swirling next to the "sent" folder, got the SAME error message. Never sent, obviously.

I read in one of the other post threads on either the Tiger forum or the Mail forum that someone had noticed this problem starting when she downloaded a security update on December 20th, 2006. I can't verify the exact date, but that is about the time that this problem started for me.

Like you I have been able to send my earthlink emails without a hitch for years, (and my .mac emails) but this is a relatively new problem, and a big one, and one that obviously a LOT of people are having from different ISP's.

15" Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8) 1 GHz, 1 GB SDRAM, 60 GB HD

Did you delete your .Mac account from the Mail.app?

Is the .Mac SMTP server or any other SMTP server that you are no longer using still available?

Mail keeps information about outgoing (SMTP) servers in a separate list independently of any specific mail account. The account settings just associate one of the available outgoing servers with each account. Deleting an account doesn’t remove from the list the outgoing server that was associated with it. Orphaned or dangling outgoing server entries (i.e. not associated with any account) sometimes cause weird sending problems.

Go to Preferences > Accounts > Account Information > Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP), choose Edit Server List from the popup menu, and delete any servers that shouldn’t be there. The Edit Server List panel shows the account each outgoing server is associated with.

In a strange twist of events as baffling as the inability to use my outgoing earthlink server, I suddenly CAN - for the first time in about a month.

In Mail I went to Window -> Connection Doctor and checked to see about my connections, and indeed they all went through.

None of the other settings have changed:
outgoing server is smtpauth.earthlink.net
port is 587
ssl is not selected
authentication is set to password
username is my earthlink email address and my earthlink pasword

I haven't the faintest idea why my problems suddenly changed, but I thought I'd post that they did! The only thing I changed or did was checking that connection doctor.

Also, apparently it's important to quit mail and restart it after every preference change, but I had been doing that for a few weeks, just good for people to know about.

Hopefully the outgoing server will continue to allow my mail to go out on it!

good luck -