Windows Update Caused Email Program to Break 1

[JohnBates]

hi everyone,

I use Outlook Express 6 on a Windows 2000 pc.

Well, I woke up this morning and Mr Microsoft had visited overnight - the lovely Windows update had ran. Now I cannot send or receive email. Once before when this happened, I was able to fix it by disabling email scanning in my Norton Antivirus 2006 program. But this time that doesn't resolve the problem. My ISP has confirmed that the problem is with my pc.

I get the following error whether sending or receiveing (different port number of course).

Does anyone know how to fix it?

Thanks, John

The connection to the server has failed. Account: 'mail.bellsouth.net', Server: 'mail.bellsouth.net', Protocol: SMTP, Port: 25, Secure(SSL): No, Socket Error: 10061, Error Number: 0x800CCC0E

 

[goombawaho]

It sounds like your setup properly per instructions:

http://help.bellsouth.net/bellsouth...sprt_cid=76be338e-5b29-4b65-bbc3-e36f443f1be5

First have to establish whether you have connectivity to the internet and then to the listed e-mail servers.

Drop to a command line (START, RUN, CMD - enter) and do a ping of

http://www.google.com

and then ping mail.bellsouth.net

I tried to telnet to that address (which is what your PC does when it's trying to send mail) and it failed, but you should try it on your PC too.

C:\Documents and Settings\JLD>telnet mail.bellsouth.net 25
Connecting To mail.bellsouth.net...Could not open connection to the host, on port 25: Connect failed

 

[goombawaho]

I should add that my telnet attempt likely failed for ME because I am connected to a different ISP and BellSouth probably won't allow connection from a non-bellsouth IP address. You need to test and see what your results are.

I don't think this has anything to do with a MS update, but do you know the patches that were installed by chance?? You can look in C:\windows\windowsupdate.log for info.

 

[JohnBates]

Thanks for the reply, goombawaho.

Yes, I can browse the Internet, no problems there.

Bellsouth tech support had me go to their web page - I was able to send, recv email - so the problem appears to be that something in my pc is blocking when I attempt to send/recv email.

Thanks, John

 

[JohnBates]

... when I telnet, I also get the same results you got:
telnet mail.bellsouth.net 25
Connecting To mail.bellsouth.net...Could not open connection to the host, on port 25: Connect failed

Does this mean port 25 on MY pc is blocked? How can I open it?

Thanks, John

 

[58sniper]

The error message says it's trying to connect via a secure connection. Are you sure that 25 is the correct port? Maybe it got set back to 25 somehow, but needs to be set to something else.


Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP

 

[JohnBates]

Thanks 58sniper,

But I interpret the message as saying it is NOT a secure connection "Secure(SSL): No"
and bellsouth says ports 25 and 110 are used for email.

John

 

[eyec]

change your outgoing port to 80. if your ISP allows relaying this might work

 

[goombawaho]

change your outgoing port to 80. if your ISP allows relaying this might work" is not a real solution (not picking on eyec) it's just a way to see if anything will work.

If you OE settings are correct, you should be able to telnet to port 25 and send messages directly from the command line (if you wanted to).

Do you have any newly installed firewall software or any software firewall??? If so, disable it and try again. It can't be Windows Firewall because you're on 2000.

 

[smah]

Confirm that your mail server names in the account settings. If they say 'localhost' or 127.0.0.1 or anything other than your ISP's mail servers, we need to look for other issues - these could be firewall, antivirus, antispam software or anything similar.