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SMTP sending email troubleshooting

Problems occurring when attempting to send email, are usually much more specific than when you can't receive your email.

Problems with sending emails are normally fixed by checking the following:

Your ISP is allowing email sent through external mail servers

Both in Australia, and around the world, many ISPs have brought in restrictions on the sending of email through mail servers outside their own networks.

This means that while you are still able to receive email as normal, you may not be able to send it out due to their blocks. Examples of ISPs blocking email sending are Telstra and OptusNet.

The best way to check is to contact your ISP directly to enquire about whether these restrictions are in place.

They may either remove the sending restriction from your account, or provide details of their internal mail servers for you to use for sending.

The outgoing mail server (SMTP) for Telstra is mail.bigpond.com, and OptusNet uses mail.optusnet.com.au.

Check you are not using secure authentication

When using Outlook Express this is done by going to the "tools" menu and selecting "Accounts". Click on the "mail" tab, and choose the account in question to highlight it.

Clicking the "properties" button, and then the "servers" tab, displays the options for using secure email authentication. The checkbox next to "My server requires authentication", should not be ticked.

Check you are not behind a proxy server, firewall, or ISP blocking access

Some computer networks have restrictions on sending email. This is normally an attempt to reduce the amount of SPAM being sent.

Check with your computer technician or ISP (Internet Service Provider) to see if they are blocking access. If they are, your company will normally provide details of their own outgoing email server that you can use for sending email.

See further email FAQs or our FAQ categories for more information.

Please contact us if you have a question that is not answered on our site.