Comments on: Mail Stop Working? Here’s a Fix.

By: Online Again

Online Again — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 03:32:20 +0000

[...] I had to reconfigure Mail to use a different port to send e-mail. (Read more about this solution here.) And third, because I’m sharing the connection with the golf course people, if they do some [...]

By: Maria Langer

Maria Langer — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 13:37:40 +0000

menneke said: “I donâ€™t think you fully grasp how mail works.”

You’re right! I don’t!

All I’m offering here is a problem solution that has worked for me and others. And I plead guilty to perpetuating my ISP’s bad habit of not fully explaining what’s going on.

But as I wrote to another person who made a similar comment via Contact Form, End Users don’t always need to know WHY something works. They just need to get the fix and get on with their work. The why is for the techies — folks like you.

While I’m sure I could have gotten an explanation from my ISP — they’re not bad about that if you push them a little and demonstrate that you have some understanding — the WHY had little use for me. Chances are, I’d forget it anyway or screw up a discussion of it here.

If you want to share some links to more thorough discussions of this, please do! I’m always interested in filling in the gaps of my explanations with documents written my more knowledgeable people.

By: menneke

menneke — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 07:01:08 +0000

I don’t think you fully grasp how mail works. All you had to do was change the SMTP server to your ISP’s as they suggested. That’s it. It has nothing to do with accounts. You don’t need to add an account. You keep the accounts that you have. When you send mail it will appear to the recipient as originating from your account just as you wanted it too. The only thing that changes is that your ISP’s server is responsible for dispatching your mail if you make the change they proposed. Your ISP is at fault of course for not explaining this to you in an easy to understand fashion.

To get even more independent you could even set up you Mac to act as your SMTP server. But that’s another discussion. You’ll find plenty of articles on the Intahrnet how to do that.

By: Neil Anderson

Neil Anderson — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 02:22:09 +0000

I’ve had mail sending problems on the road. Thanks for the easy to follow instructions!