Unable to send mail from Windows LiveMail

[Clive]

I've been using Livemail for the past 2 years without any problem.  My main email provider is BTInternet and I have to pay them for the privilege of keeping such an embarrassing e-mail address.  Two weeks ago I discovered I can no longer send mail but can still receive it and reply to it.  But I can't forward mail.  I've looked on the Internet and it says I should change my outgoing SMPT port from 25 to 465 and I've done this.  The error message is:

A time-out occurred while communicating with the server.

Subject '465'
Server: 'mail.btinternet.com'
Windows Live Mail Error ID: 0x800CCC19
Protocol: SMTP
Port: 465
Secure(SSL): No

I'm using the standard Netgear router provided by IDNet and the mail works fine if I use BTYahoo mail or Thunderbird.  Any suggestions would be very welcome!

[Steve]

465 is correct , try SSL on and username (BT email address?) and password for authorisation.

[Clive]

I did try SSL on but it came back with "This server does not accept SSL security" so I've turned it back off again. 

[Clive]

I have to say the port was set on 25 but changing it has made no difference. 

[Glenn]

http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/44917/~/bt-email%3A-what-are-the-settings-for-outgoing-and-incoming-mail-servers%3F

[Technical Ben]

If you find a solution let me know too... 

I've got 2 BT internet emails I've kept for incoming only, as everything I try send fails! 
With the exception of using the website email client direct with BT.

I gave up trying with BT a loooong time ago, and moved everything I can over to IDNet.

[Steve]

I did wonder whether the SMTP server was for BT broadband users only but since Clive is paying for the privilege I suspect that's not the case.

[Simon]

Can't IDNet's SMTP server be used from an IDNet connection?

[Clive]

That's an interesting scenario and one that would be readily solved on this forum.  The website you gave me Glenn is the one I've kept referring to and it's completely wrong unfortunately.  But what else would you expect from BT?   

[Simon]

I have several email accounts which are not IDNet, and I use IDNet's SMTP server as the default for all in my mail client.

[Clive]

I suspect I've messed up Livemail too much now to ever get it to work again!     I'm considering abandoning it and moving all my contacts back to BTYahoo.  I can't get anywhere with Thunderbird.  I need to make mailing lists and it won't let me add to them.   

[Technical Ben]

That's an interesting scenario and one that would be readily solved on this forum.  The website you gave me Glenn is the one I've kept referring to and it's completely wrong unfortunately.  But what else would you expect from BT?   

Yep. I found at least 3 sites within BT all claiming to be "customer setup details", some automated help forms, some depreciated help pages (but still up showing old info) etc etc.

[Clive]

I'd intended to abandon my BT address and use GMail instead.  But Mrs Clive gave me so much grief about 'losing' her contacts that I gave in for a quiet life.  I resent having to pay £1.50 a month to bolster the profits of such an undeserving company. 

[nowster]

Get yourself a real .me.uk, .co.uk or .org.uk domain for about £7.20 per two years (30p/month equivalent). It's then totally yours, and you can take it from one ISP or registrar to another. Many registrars will run a small number of mailboxes on the back of that for free. (Example price from Gandi.net.)

Avoid using an ISP's own email domain... as you can see, they can hold you hostage.

And if they decide to discontinue that domain or they go bust, you have no comeback at all.

[Clive]

Very good advice!   

[nowster]

Very good advice!   

From 1994 to 2009 I ran an ISP... and got stuck when the new owners completely banjaxed the email servers. Thankfully, I'd gradually moved over the previous years from using the ISP domain for email, to my own domain... but getting control of that domain transferred away from that ISP still took a couple of days (due to them being in admin chaos at the time).

[Simon]

From 1994 to 2009 I ran an ISP...

If that was dial up, I might have used you! 

[Clive]

My first ISP was Delphi and my e-mail address was clivexxxx@delphi.com  Not sure what became of them!

[Simon]

I started off with a Bush Internet set top box, so my first email address was simonxxxxx@bushinternet.com. Then I moved to Eurobell, then a number of others, including Plusnet, AlphaPhe, Pipex (where I moved to broadband), then IDNet. 

[Clive]

Remind me of the AlphaPhe saga as I've forgotten the sorry story.  After Delphi I had AOL (stop laughing!) Phones4U (they never charged me for the 6 months I used them before they went bust), BT Internet, Plusnet and IDNet.  I still have the last two.   

[Simon]

Remind me of the AlphaPhe saga as I've forgotten the sorry story.

So have I!     I think they were just another dial up ISP that was great at first, then got over-subscribed and became useless.

[Clive]

Wasn't it a hot topic on ISPReview for a seemingly endless length of time? 

[Simon]

Quite possibly.  But I can't recall the details now. 

[Clive]

You are not much good at bearing grudges!   

[Simon]