General question about ISP's and email

[9iron]

Please forgive me for posting this here. I didn't know which forum would be most appropriate for this question.

My understanding of email client settings is that you set the POP3 server name to the name of your ISP's server (pop.east.cox.net for example), and the outgoing server name needs to be the server name of the provider to which you're currently connected. If you take your laptop on the road, you need to then adjust your outgoing server to, say, the smtp server of the hotel's ISP where you're staying.

This has become a big point of debate here at my corporate office. Their old ISP allowed them to set both their incoming and outgoing server names to mail.***.net. They never needed to change the outgoing when they traveled. It worked from anywhere in the country. Well, corporate recently tried to switch ISP's last week, and now I'm getting calls that nobody was able to send mail from home over the weekend with the new mail host. My boss insists that it's stupid to have to keep changing the outgoing name whenever you travel someplace.

This is a long post, sorry. Can someone please steer me toward the light, so I can get educated here? Thanks,

 

[58sniper]

Most POP3 email providers give you both POP3 and SMTP servers to use, and it works regardless of where you are. Only really small shops don't maintain their own SMTP servers. And when I come across those, I generally tell the client to change providers.

I can't recall how long ago I've had to have anyone change a setting like that.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[9iron]

What about the dreaded "Relaying Not Allowed" message I get? The only way I can get around this is to change the server name. Are you saying that a more robust ISP would allow relaying?

 

[58sniper]

Many providers allow you to use their SMTP servers, but may require you to authenticate. No big deal.

Now, if your account is bob@mydomain.com, and you're trying to send mail via your ISPs SMTP server as bob@someotherdomain.com, and the ISP doesn't handle that domain, I can see that happening.

But more importantly, why are you using POP3 with Exchange?

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[9iron]

I'm not using Exchange. As I mentioned originally, I apologize for posting this question here. I didn't know what other forum would've been most appropriate for it, and to be honest I picked one that had the most recent posts and replies. I figured I stood a better chance at getting a quick reply, and you were Johnny on the spot. Thanks for that.

If you don't mind my belaboring the subject, one of the things I did notice on some of the clients was that their smtp port was set to 443 instead of 25. I know 443 is the SSL port, but has 443 sorta nudged 25 out of the way for smtp?

 

[58sniper]

No. 25 is the default port for SMTP.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/