Why can I receive email but not send any?

1. Authentication Failed You do need to authenticate before you can relay mail. This means you will need to use either SMTP Authentication (if your mail client supports it) or POP before SMTP (where you simply check your mail before sending). For guidelines on configuring your mail client to use SMTP-Auth, you may wish to refer to the following tutorial: Quick Guide for Setting Up SMTP-Auth.

You may also try checking your email prior to sending out email. If you are not using SMTP-Auth you must have checked your email within the 15 minutes prior to sending email so that the server can authenticate you as a valid user.

2. ISP is Blocking Port 25 If your ISP is blocking port 25, you may not be able to send email using your FutureQuest^® account. Some ISPs do this so that you are forced to use their email servers when sending email, as an attempt to prevent spam. Some ISPs that have been known to block port 25 are MindSpring, Earthlink, and AT&T.

In order to test that the SMTP (outgoing) mail server is functioning properly, you will need to use telnet. You may use any telnet client that will allow you to telnet to port 25 on your domain.

Note: This test will not work using the telnet applet within the CNC panel.

Directions for making a telnet connection to port 25 using the default Windows operating system telnet client are provided below. You may use a different telnet client if you wish. The important thing is to make sure that the port is set to 25 and the remote host is your domain or IP address. Once you have established a telnet connection on port 25, the rest of the directions should be the same on any platform.

To Connect Using the Default Win9x Telnet Client:

If you are using Windows95, 98, or ME, click on Start then Run. Type in "telnet" without the quotes and click 'OK'. The Windows telnet client should launch.

Next, click on 'Terminal' and then "Preferences". This will bring up a dialog box.

Make sure the following options are checked:

Local Echo
Block Cursor
VT-100/ANSI

Click on "OK".

Now click on "Connect" and then "Remote System" and fill in the following (where example.com is replaced with your actual domain):

Host Name: example.com
Port: 25
Term Type: vt100

Make sure not to leave the port set to "telnet", the default. For SMTP, it needs to be port 25. Click on "OK" and then refer to the section, below, entitled "Interpreting the Result of the Attempted Telnet Connection".

To Connect Using the Default Windows 2000 or XP Telnet Client:

Click on Start then Run. Type in "telnet" without the quotes and click the 'OK' button. Type the following commands, replacing "example.com" with your actual domain name.

Microsoft Telnet> set LOCAL_ECHO
Microsoft Telnet> set TERM ANSI
Microsoft Telnet> open example.com 25

Hit enter and then see the section below for directions on intrepreting your results.

Interpreting the Result of the Attempted Telnet Connection

If you have made a successful telnet connection to port 25, you should now see something similar to one of the following statements after hitting "enter" on the last line above:

220 xnn.futurequest.net mailfront ESMTP

220 example.com mailfront ESMTP

Depending on whether your site has a shared or dedicated IP address. If you do see one of the above statements, then port 25 is most likely NOT blocked by your ISP. At this point, you may optionally try to send a test email message. See the next section for instructions on sending a test email.

If you see any other prompt (such as login:), you are probably using the wrong port. Double-check your settings, to verify that you are using port 25.

If you cannot connect, your ISP is most likely blocking this port. Usually when this is the case you will get a timeout error after a while or your telnet program will simply appear to hang. Sometimes you may be told that the connection was refused. In either case, contact your ISP and see if they will unblock port 25 for you - some ISPs will do this upon request.

If you are not seeing either FutureQuest.net or your domain in the message, or if you see something like 13548.proxy.aol.com, your ISP may be intercepting connections on this port. This is similar to blocking the port, but instead of refusing the connection, your ISPs servers will jump in and act as your SMTP server.

Using this method, your ISP can monitor all of your outgoing mail, without you even knowing that this is happening. Their servers essentially pretend to be your SMTP server, transparently intercepting (and possibly logging) your mail connections. If this is the case, you might want to contact your ISP and see if they can remove this "feature", making sure to have this tutorial as well as your telnet session handy, for reference. You might instead simply want to find an ISP that does not interfere with your ability to use your own mail server.

If everything is normal and you are seeing FutureQuest.net or your domain within the response, you may proceed to the next step and send yourself a test email message.

For more suggestions on how to deal with this problem, see the section entitled "What Can I Do?" below, near the end of this tutorial.

Sending a Test Email Message

This is an optional step, which discusses how to send a test email through a port 25 telnet connection. You can only proceed with this section if you have established a successful telnet connection on port 25. Of course, if you have done that, then you know that it is possible to connect to port 25.

What we are going to do in the steps below is exactly what your email program does when you send an email.

At this point I should let you know that pressing the backspace key does not do what it appears to do on the screen - it will not send the backspace, and although the command you have typed may look correct to you, it will not be sent properly. Any typing errors can possibly invalidate the test message, so type carefully!

Also, make sure to press "Enter" after each command.

If at any step in this process you see this response:

502 Not implemented .

Type in "ehlo dude" without the quotes. You should receive response similar to the following:

250-xnn.futurequest.net
250-AUTH LOGIN PLAIN
250-PIPELINING
250 8BITMIME

Now type the following, where anyone@example.com is replaced with the email address you want to send FROM (it can be any email address). Please note, the email address has to enclosed in angled brackets:

mail <anyone@example.com>

You should get the following response:

250 Sender accepted.

Now type the following, replacing test@example.com with an email address on your domain. (Due to authentication measures used by the FutureQuest^® mail servers, it MUST be an email address at your domain, unless you have checked your POP mail account within the last 15 minutes). Please note, the email address has to enclosed in angled brackets:

rcpt <test@example.com>

You should get a "250 Recipient accepted" response. Now type:

data

Now you will see "354 End your message with a period". You can now type in a message to send - this will be the email sent to the address specified above. It is important to have a blank line after the "Subject" field and before the message body begins.

To: test@example.com
From: anyone@example.com
Subject: My test message

This is a test mailing.
If you are reading this, then
everything went ok :)
.

Make sure to end the mail with a period by itself on a line, pressing "Enter" afterwards.
You should now see:

250

You may type "quit" (without the quotes) and hit Enter, and you should see:

221 Good bye.

Now check your mail at the address you specified above. This is exactly how your email client program communicates with the mail server.

If you are able to send mail using this method, but are unable to send using your mail program, the problem is most likely with your mail client. Always double-check the following (where example.com is replaced with your actual domain):

For those accounts on a shared IP address, use your VMIP login (xdomain-username)
Make sure your password is correct
Make sure your email address is set to something@example.com
Be sure that your outgoing (SMTP) server is set to mail.example.com
Be sure that your incoming (POP) mail server is set to pop.example.com
Be sure incoming is set as POP3 and outgoing is set as SMTP

More details on email set up are provided in the following tutorial: What information do I need to configure my email program?

If you cannot login to telnet port 25, then your ISP may be blocking port 25. If this is the case, contact your ISP and ask them why.

What can I do?
All FutureQuest^® outgoing mail servers listen on port 25 as well as ports 1025 and 587. You may repeat the above tests using ports 1025 and 587 instead of port 25, to verify that you are able to connect to port 1025 or 587.

If your port 25 access is blocked, but you are able to connect on port 1025 or 587, you may wish to change the port setting for SMTP in your email program. Most email programs allow you to specify the SMTP, or Outgoing Server port. Changing this setting to 1025 or 587 instead of 25 will in most cases allow you to send email through the FutureQuest^® mail servers. Or, if your email software supports it, use the secure option of port 465 (SMTP over SSL/SMTPS).

FutureQuest^® cannot provide direct support for making configurations changes within your email client. If you need assistance configuring your email client, either contact the support staff for your email client, or you may ask other Site Owners in the Community Forums for assistance. There may be other Site Owners using the same email client who would be able to make suggestions.

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