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Can anyone confirm this or offer any comments:
(I am not a fan of AOL either, so lets not go down that road).

Client is using AOL for travelogue Internet access to POP & SMTP hosted
email accounts.
Recently he complains that he can not send SMTP email while connected to AOL
(he used to be able to).

Is AOL blocking port 25?
He travels nationally & internationally and AOL has so many local numbers.

What are his options if AOL is now blocking port 25?
If he switches ISPs I think he will have a hard time finding another ISP
with as many access numbers.

Comments & suggestions welcome.

Thanks

Most ISP's do not allow SMTP traffic through their server unless you are connected via their servers.
The fix is to change the SMTP server to match the current connection.
If he/she is connected through AOL, then they'll need to use the AOL SMTP server.
They can still use the original e-mail address, but the outgoing mail server must match the current connection.


On Wed, 18 Feb 2004 08:18:29 -0500, "Jack B. Pollack" <> wrote:

>Can anyone confirm this or offer any comments:
>(I am not a fan of AOL either, so lets not go down that road).
>
>Client is using AOL for travelogue Internet access to POP & SMTP hosted
>email accounts.
>Recently he complains that he can not send SMTP email while connected to AOL
>(he used to be able to).
>
>Is AOL blocking port 25?
>He travels nationally & internationally and AOL has so many local numbers.
>
>What are his options if AOL is now blocking port 25?
>If he switches ISPs I think he will have a hard time finding another ISP
>with as many access numbers.
>
>Comments & suggestions welcome.
>
>Thanks
>

As far as I know AOL does not have a SMTP server, their email system is
proprietary. Am I not correct?

<Harrison> wrote in message
news:...
> Most ISP's do not allow SMTP traffic through their server unless you are
connected via their servers.
> The fix is to change the SMTP server to match the current connection.
> If he/she is connected through AOL, then they'll need to use the AOL SMTP
server.
> They can still use the original e-mail address, but the outgoing mail
server must match the current connection.
>
>
> On Wed, 18 Feb 2004 08:18:29 -0500, "Jack B. Pollack" <>
wrote:
>
> >Can anyone confirm this or offer any comments:
> >(I am not a fan of AOL either, so lets not go down that road).
> >
> >Client is using AOL for travelogue Internet access to POP & SMTP hosted
> >email accounts.
> >Recently he complains that he can not send SMTP email while connected to
AOL
> >(he used to be able to).
> >
> >Is AOL blocking port 25?
> >He travels nationally & internationally and AOL has so many local
numbers.
> >
> >What are his options if AOL is now blocking port 25?
> >If he switches ISPs I think he will have a hard time finding another ISP
> >with as many access numbers.
> >
> >Comments & suggestions welcome.
> >
> >Thanks
> >
>

On Wed, 18 Feb 2004 08:46:54 -0500, "Jack B. Pollack" <> wrote:

>As far as I know AOL does not have a SMTP server, their email system is
>proprietary. Am I not correct?
Probably. I'm not that familiar with AOL.
They could talk with their regular ISP and ask if there is a way to set up to send mail through and AOL connection.
Possibly, they would use the "SMTP server requires authentication" option.
Otherwise, their regular ISP should have a web-based email solution they could use while traveling.

>
><Harrison> wrote in message
>news:.. .
>> Most ISP's do not allow SMTP traffic through their server unless you are
>connected via their servers.
>> The fix is to change the SMTP server to match the current connection.
>> If he/she is connected through AOL, then they'll need to use the AOL SMTP
>server.
>> They can still use the original e-mail address, but the outgoing mail
>server must match the current connection.
>>
>>
>> On Wed, 18 Feb 2004 08:18:29 -0500, "Jack B. Pollack" <>
>wrote:
>>
>> >Can anyone confirm this or offer any comments:
>> >(I am not a fan of AOL either, so lets not go down that road).
>> >
>> >Client is using AOL for travelogue Internet access to POP & SMTP hosted
>> >email accounts.
>> >Recently he complains that he can not send SMTP email while connected to
>AOL
>> >(he used to be able to).
>> >
>> >Is AOL blocking port 25?
>> >He travels nationally & internationally and AOL has so many local
>numbers.
>> >
>> >What are his options if AOL is now blocking port 25?
>> >If he switches ISPs I think he will have a hard time finding another ISP
>> >with as many access numbers.
>> >
>> >Comments & suggestions welcome.
>> >
>> >Thanks
>> >
>>
>

On Wed, 18 Feb 2004 08:18:29 -0500, "Jack B. Pollack" <>
wrote:

>Can anyone confirm this or offer any comments:
>(I am not a fan of AOL either, so lets not go down that road).
>
>Client is using AOL for travelogue Internet access to POP & SMTP hosted
>email accounts.
>Recently he complains that he can not send SMTP email while connected to AOL
>(he used to be able to).
>
>Is AOL blocking port 25?

As Harrison said, more likely, his ISP won't accept SMTP mail from
users on other networks. Try asking them.

>He travels nationally & internationally and AOL has so many local numbers.
>
>What are his options if AOL is now blocking port 25?
>If he switches ISPs I think he will have a hard time finding another ISP
>with as many access numbers.

There are many other national and international ISPs, including
prepaid ones. But if it's his home ISP that's not accepting external
SMTP traffic, none of those will work to send e-mail either.

Cheers,
dan

On Wed, 18 Feb 2004 08:18:29 -0500, "Jack B. Pollack" <>
wrote:

>What are his options if AOL is now blocking port 25?
>If he switches ISPs I think he will have a hard time finding another ISP
>with as many access numbers.

Here's a couple ideas...

Sign your client up for one of the many "promiscuous" mail services
that don't care where you send your mail from and will let you use
their SMTP servers from anywhere.

Or install a little SMTP server directly on the laptop.
http://www.softstack.com/freesmtp.html is a good one. If you go that
route, though, you may run in to problems with AOL not forwarding the
mail...

Cheers,
dan

Jack B. Pollack spilled my beer when they jumped on the table and proclaimed
in <>

> Can anyone confirm this or offer any comments:
> (I am not a fan of AOL either, so lets not go down that road).
>
> Client is using AOL for travelogue Internet access to POP & SMTP hosted
> email accounts.
> Recently he complains that he can not send SMTP email while connected to
> AOL (he used to be able to).
>
> Is AOL blocking port 25?
> He travels nationally & internationally and AOL has so many local numbers.
>
> What are his options if AOL is now blocking port 25?
> If he switches ISPs I think he will have a hard time finding another ISP
> with as many access numbers.

Due to the many mass-mailing viruses, a lot of ISPs are blocking outgoing
port 25, in an attempt to slow the spread...

Only suggestion I have is to either mail from AOL, use some sort of
webmail, or find an ISP that doesn't plan to do this...

NOI

In article <>,
"Jack B. Pollack" <> wrote:

> Client is using AOL for travelogue Internet access to POP & SMTP hosted
> email accounts.
> Recently he complains that he can not send SMTP email while connected to AOL
> (he used to be able to).
>
> Is AOL blocking port 25?

AOL will do one of two things with port 25 connections. Which depends
on a variety of factors, including the current phase of the moon and
the amount of pollen in the air.

1) AOL does nothing to port 25 connections. You can connect to any
non-local SMTP server that will let you in. Many will refuse non-local
connections, and many will drop mail from AOL sent in this manner.

2) AOL will redirect the connection to a local SMTP proxy that
features heavy rate limiting and will identify the sender's AOL screen
name in an X- header.

--
Adam Bailey | Chicago, Illinois
| Finger/Web for PGP & S/MIME
| http://www.lull.org/adam/

Howdy!

"Jack B. Pollack" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Can anyone confirm this or offer any comments:
> (I am not a fan of AOL either, so lets not go down that road).
>
> Client is using AOL for travelogue Internet access to POP & SMTP hosted
> email accounts.
> Recently he complains that he can not send SMTP email while connected to
AOL
> (he used to be able to).
>
> Is AOL blocking port 25?

Yes.

> He travels nationally & internationally and AOL has so many local numbers.
>
> What are his options if AOL is now blocking port 25?

Err - use his AOL mail account?

Use a web based email server?

> If he switches ISPs I think he will have a hard time finding another ISP
> with as many access numbers.

RwP