Mail help!

I had to teinstall OSX a few days ago and ever since then I could not send outgoing mail. It just says my server timed out on port 25 or something like that. I can receive mail fine, but i cant send it. any ideas? i havent messed with any settings at all either

You will need to check your out going mail setting. Should be along the line of: smtp.isp.com/net or mail.isp.com/net.

its set to smtp.mac.com:tboblp, the default setting, yet it still says timed out on port 25.

Are you using mac mail or bellsouth mail?

.mac mail service, through the mac mail client, bellsouth internet service.

I found this on the Apple site under the .mac tab.


Using the .Mac Mail SMTP server

If your email application supports authenticated SMTP, you can use
smtp.mac.com as your SMTP server. This allows you to send mail from locations where you cannot use your ISP's SMTP server.

Mac OS X Mail supports authenticated SMTP and is set up to use smtp.mac.com for .Mac Mail accounts by default.

Note: Some ISPs restrict access to the TCP port (25) used by SMTP. If your ISP is blocking port 25, you can use your email application to change the port to 587 and try again. If you continue to have trouble sending mail using smtp.mac.com, switch back to your ISP's SMTP server.

And also this.


I can't send mail

If you're having trouble sending mail from the mail application on your computer, there are a few things you can try.

If you can't send mail:

Make sure you're connected to the Internet. Open your web browser and see if you can view a page such as www.apple.com.

If you can connect to the Internet, go to www.mac.com, and then click Network Status (under Support) to check for any email system outages. If there are problems with the Apple web server, you will see an alert informing you of a temporary outage.

If you recently changed your member password, open your email application and change the password for your .Mac Mail account as well. Also, if you're using Mac OS X version 10.3 or later, open System Preferences, click .Mac, and type your new password; or, if you're using a version of Mac OS X earlier than version 10.3, open System Preferences, click Internet, and type your new password on the .Mac or iTools tab.

Check your email program settings and make sure you are using either your ISP's SMTP server or smtp.mac.com. To find out your ISP's SMTP server address, read the information you received when you signed up for your account, visit your ISP's website, call its support line, or look at the settings for another email account that uses your ISP's server.

If you use smtp.mac.com for your SMTP server, make sure you enable SMTP authentication in your email program using your .Mac member name and password, and make sure the email address in the From field of your email message matches your .Mac member name. If the trouble continues, switch your email program to use your ISP's SMTP server instead.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106683

read all of that. Make sure you have everything checked it says there for your SMTP .Mac account.

thanks alot guys, time to go eat but it looks like ill have enough info to get it fixed when i come back!

nothing seems to be working. is there a way to uninstall and reinstall 'mail' with the osx cd or some other way?

I had same problem as TBoblp. I changed to the isp smtp setting and all worked fine.

My advice would be to use your ISP's SMTP (outbound) mail server settings for ALL of your e-mail accounts, yes, even your dotmac mail, it works fine. Just enter your ISP's information in "Account Information - Outgoing Mail Server". I know for me (comcast customer, they block port 25) I had to switch ports to 587.