Problems changing smtp server

[makaiguy]

I've been stuck on dialup for many years, but they finally extended broadband cable to my area and I've taken the plunge.

I changed my Moz 1.1 outgoing server to the new smtp server address, but the emails don't go.

I tried switching back to my old server (account still is active there) but now that doesn't work either.

Sending of message failed.

An error occurred sending mail: Unable to connect to SMTP server %S. The server may be down or may be incorrectly configured. Please verify that your Mail/News account settings are correct and try again.

Note that "%S" as server name - it appears it is not reading the server name correctly from its configuration files, but it DOES show correctly in the Outgoing server page. I've edited it several times there, to be sure there weren't any extraneous spaces at the beginning or end.

Possilbly related: If I click on the Advanced button in the outgoing server configuration page, when I then click on the OK button to close the Advanced page it closes okay, but clicking OK on the outgoing server page will not close it. If I don't go into the Advanced page, the OK button closes the Outgoing Server page as it should.

Any suggestions?

[Paul]

You need to contact your cable internet provider and verify the settings.

Here are a few suggestions I have learned over the years, although I am not an expert.

1. Can you get on to the internet using a browser. If you cannot not get on to the internet and you configured your TCP/IP settings manually check with you internet provider if you can configure the TCP/IP settings using DHCP (dynamic host configuration protocol). Using DHCP your internet provider provides all if the TCP/IP settings and sets them automatically. This prevents problems such as typos. If DHCP is an option, use it.

2. Setting the Outgoing Server (SMPT)

Under Server Name: My cable company has to names that can be inserted here. There is a short name and a long name. The short name might be like this: cablemail and the long name: cablemail.cablecompany.com. Our cable company asks us to use the short name. There are times when the IT people at the cable company may have to change the long name. In order to not interupt our service, the short name will never change. (The short name references the long name in a similar way that a domain name references a web site.) Check with tech support to find out if there is a short name for the mail settings. If you are using the longer name for the settings and the IT people change it, your will loose your email connection. (BTW I do not know the correct terminology for the seetings: short/long name are my terms, not the standard terms.)

3. Phone tech support and get them to walk you through the settings. My cable company did this for me. They were helpful and got me up on Mozilla in late '99 when most tech support people had never heard of Mozilla and didn't know there was anyother browser besides IE.

Don't be afraid of tech support to make sure you have the corerect settings. Once they have helped you insert the settings, get them to PING your computer. This verifies the cable network recognizes you computer and you can connect to the internet. Next, before you hang up with tech support, ask them to send you an email to verify you can recieve it.

Hope this helps. You might familiarize yourself with Mozilla's email help notes before you phone the tech support.

[makaiguy]

Wow, thanks for the quick reply!

No problems with any browser accessing the internet, Moz 1.1, Netscape 4.79, and whatever IE came with my XP.

One thing I should have mentioned -- I was able to just change the Netscape 4.79 mail client to the exact same smtp server name as I have in Moz and am able to send email just fine. As far as I can tell, the settings on both are identical.

I can ping the smpt.[ispname].net and get a response.

I still think the problem, as indicated by the "%S" in the error message, indicates that somehow I've managed to screw up my Moz installation so it is not finding the saved server name in its configuration files. Otherwise it would have said it was unable to connect to SMTP sever smtp.[ispname].net.

[Gunnar]

OT - does this thread look "odd" to anyone else ? The page layout looks really messed up (Mozilla 1.0.1 / Win 2k SP3) ?

Gunnar

[nicubunu]

makaiguy, you can try to create a new profile to see if in the new profile the smtp settings is working.

Gunnar, yes the layout looks messed up for me too, in moz 1.3a (20021118). I noticed that today also in other threads, so is not my latest mozilla wrong...

[herman]

OT - does this thread look "odd" to anyone else ? The page layout looks really messed up (Mozilla 1.0.1 / Win 2k SP3) ?

Gunnar

Yes, it looks odd.
Just deleted yesterdays trunk-version 1.3a and unzipped latest 1.2 into a fresh folder, so I thought about a corrupted profile.

Mozilla 1.2

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.2) Gecko/20021118

herman

[kerz]

Problem with quoting code, I'm looking at it.

jason

[kwanbis]

i had the same problem ... i had recreate a new id .... and manually change the text from the prefs file.

[Neva]

As far as I can tell, Mozilla has had problems with setting up SMTP servers for some time. Periodically, I go through my prefs.js file... and discover that for some reason, I've actually got more SMTP servers set up than email addresses. Many times, it's a copy of the same one over and over again. It's very peculiar. Usually, I just edit out the extra ones and move on.

I'm still not sure why this is, though.

[makaiguy]

Kerz - looks like you must have fixed it. At least, the thread is now displaying properly for me.

Haven't yet tried creating a new profile, but it sounds like this may be inevitable -- kinda hate to throw in the towel, you know? In the time period between my two posts above, I did have a look at my prefs file, and nothing related to smtp seemed to be misformed.

[WillyWonka]

I know that I was having problems with mozilla sending email for the longest time with my ISP. It turns out that when moz1.0 came out, they flipped a switch on their servers at the same time. The reason it was failing wasn't mozilla, but actually my router. I don't know if you have a router, but in my case I enabled the mtu and set it to 1492. From that day on I've never had a problem with mozilla sending emails.

[makaiguy]

Well, gang, the new profile did the trick. Comparing the two prefs.js files, danged if I can spot the difference, but what the heck...

Took a while to figure out how to move my mail files over from the other profile, but pulled that off. Never did figure out how to copy my mail filters, so am rebuilding from scratch.

Thanks for everybody's help.

[makaiguy]

Ack! Just realized I failed to transfer my address book over! And have already killed off the old profile, and it doesn't show in my recycle bin.

Oh, well, I guess I can export my old Netscape 4.79 address book - it's only a month or so out of date.

Sigh -- so many things to keep track of ...

[farcus]

Are you using Moz 1.1?
I know there is a bug filed where if you try to change the smtp settings in 1.1 and then click ok absolutely nothing happens.
If you then click the X to close the window then your smtp settings become totally messed up.
I had this exact problem and nothing I could do in Moz 1.1 would work to get the smtp settings to stick. I had to uninstall Moz and then do an install of Moz 1.01 and then reset my smtp settings. I then removed 1.01 and reinstalled 1.1
Everything works fine again.
I also notice that many people have commented on this bug and have had the same problem, yet the bug still remains unconfirmed and unassigned. This is pretty slack for a showstopping bug that is over two months old.

[makaiguy]

Yep, 1.1 as mentioned in my initial post.

The bug you mention sounds like it describes my situation to a T. Oh, well, it forced me to learn where some of the files are located and how to move data from one profile to another.