E-mail Delays

[quietFinn]

Originally Posted by sharkey

What am I talking about? I have set up a webmail account in my HostGator domain. me@mydomain.com. The mails I send using it sometimes take 3 or 4 hours to be received. I am not an expert on email. How do I "send via my ISP"?

There is no such a thing as "webmail account", it is an email account for your domain. Webmail is just a user interface where you can access that account.

When you send to that email account what is the SMTP server you are using?

Originally Posted by quietFinn

There is no such a thing as "webmail account", it is an email account for your domain. Webmail is just a user interface where you can access that account.

When you send to that email account what is the SMTP server you are using?

mail.mysite.com

[slapshotw]

Your ISP likely has SMTP servers as well, that possibly need to be accessed on port 26 instead of 25. What happens if you switch to their SMTP servers?

Originally Posted by slapshotw

Your ISP likely has SMTP servers as well, that possibly need to be accessed on port 26 instead of 25. What happens if you switch to their SMTP servers?

I already tried switching to port 26 with no luck.

My ISP is Earthlink. When I switch the outgoing to smtp.earthlink.net it tells me that sending failed because that server failed, and that it's possibly refusing connections.

However, I purchase Earthlink cable through Time Warner Cable. I have never used any of Earthlink's services, I don't have an Earthlink email address or user name or password, so I can't enter any of this information into Thunderbird. And it is 100% impossible to get in contact with Earthlink to find out any information unless you have this info...I've tried many times before. Time Warner refuse to help, they just tell me to contact Earthlink.

While on the Earthlink website, a "live chat" window spontaneously popped up so I took the opportunity to pick a human's brains (if it really was a human - I'm never sure with these things). Here is a transcript of what was said..

Chat InformationWelcome to Earthlink LiveChat. Your chat session will begin shortly. Feel free to begin typing your question.
Chat Information'Sawyer M' says: Thank you for contacting EarthLink LiveChat, how may I help you today?

me@earthlink.net: I get Earthlink cable via Time Warner in NYC. When I had it connected I didn't sign up for any Earthlink services. But now, I want to set up Outlook and Thunderbird to access my web domain email using Earthlinks servers. I don't know what to put for a user name or password...can you help?

me@earthlink.net: I enter the outgoing as smtp.earthlink.net

Sawyer M: I understand that you want to configure your email account using Outlook and Mozila Thunderbird email programs. Am I right?

me@earthlink.net: Yes, but not an Earthlink account - it's a me@mysite.com account. I wish to use my ISP as an outgoing server.

Sawyer M: Thank you for the confirmation.
Sawyer M: I’ll be glad to assist you.

me@earthlink.net: thanks

Sawyer M: Let me not waste your valuable time. We do not have any information about mysite.com. In order to do this please contact your domain vendor. If you want to help with EarthLink email account, I can help you.

me@earthlink.net: mysite.com is a generic name, so I can refer to my website. It is not possible to use my ISP as an outgoing server to send email via any email address?

Sawyer M: Yes,please. It is not possible to use the ISP.

I just realized I said to him "access my mail" instead of "send mail". Maybe I should try again.

[slapshotw]

He's an idiot.

You don't need any login info. Just switch your smtp server to that and try it for port 26 on that server. I use road runner here in NYC and Time Warner very similarly.

When you tried port 26 was it with your HG smtp or Earthlink SMTP?

[skeetr]

All you need to do is to ask the representative what the earthlink POP3 and SMTP servers are. Dont get into all that "I want to send mail from 'mysite.com' " stuff because a lot of ISP's discourage that kind of activity. If you just ask them what their servers are, then they should be able to give that information to you. If you are their customer, then they should be happy to help you.

This is one case where you want to K.I.S.S. (Keep It Somewhat Simple) Of course I learned K.I.S.S. a little different in the Army, but Somewhat Simple sounds a little better and is a little less offensive

[plav]

I can confirm that port 26 works great for outbound smtp - that's what I do because my ISP blocks port 25.

On thing to be aware of, though. At least twice in as many weeks I've encountered send delays ranging from hours to the better part of a day. The messages are queued and they do make it out eventually. As far as I can tell there's been no loss, just delay. The last time this happened was 5 days ago.

Originally Posted by slapshotw

He's an idiot.

You don't need any login info. Just switch your smtp server to that and try it for port 26 on that server. I use road runner here in NYC and Time Warner very similarly.

When you tried port 26 was it with your HG smtp or Earthlink SMTP?

Actually I tried it port 26 with Earthlink and it didn't work.

I got back to the live help, sometimes it's a lucky dip whether you get someone who's helpful or not. This time I got a guy who set me up a new Earthlink user name and password, he told me to set the outgoing as smtpauth.earthlink.net, port number 587, and now everything seems to be working OK...

Originally Posted by skeetr

All you need to do is to ask the representative what the earthlink POP3 and SMTP servers are. Dont get into all that "I want to send mail from 'mysite.com' " stuff because a lot of ISP's discourage that kind of activity. If you just ask them what their servers are, then they should be able to give that information to you. If you are their customer, then they should be happy to help you.

This is one case where you want to K.I.S.S. (Keep It Somewhat Simple) Of course I learned K.I.S.S. a little different in the Army, but Somewhat Simple sounds a little better and is a little less offensive

Yeah, you're probably right. The complication in this case however was that the connection I have was set up 3 years ago by a friend who was a roommate at the time, and when he moved out I just kept the account going. He's now out of the country and so we had to go through some rigmarole to verify who I was, etc. Address, telephone number, Time Warner account number etc.

[We Think Solutions]

I have also had numerous problems with email delays recently on Explorer server. Every time I call host gator they tell me that Explorer is under a "heavy load" right now.

Seems to me that if a server is constantly under "heavy load" then something should be done about it.

In any event, I have come to the conclusion that I need a dedicated server.

Host Gator would be the logical choice for my dedicated server except for some serious SPAM problems that i have recently started to experience.

Due to these recent email difficulties, I have gone from 99% happy with Host Gator to "hanging by a thread" as a customer in the past 4 weeks.

Basically the Spam Assassin rules were somehow changed on my server without my knowledge and now my clients are getting tons of spam AND tons of non-spam is being marked as spam. Tests which were previously applied (such as the SPAMHAUS test called RCVD_IN_PBL) are no longer being applied on Explorer server since Monday afternoon about 1PM.

It is very embarassing to have to forward several "non-spams" to clients and try to explain why this is happening.

It is also very embarassing to have to explain why their emails are delayed frequently by several hours.

Host Gator is telling me that "Spam Assassin isn't our product" with the implication that it is not their problem.

I know one thing.... when I move to a new host (which I hope not to have to do), host gator's management of Spam Assassin will be the reason and ultimately it IS host gator's problem. If you are going to offer this service you need to have some level of understanding about it.

[slapshotw]

You'd get much more control over the Spam Assassin settings with a dedicated server, especially if you use MailScanner and have MailScanner Front-End installed:

http://www.configserver.com/cp/msfe.html

[M4E]

This thread was a big dissapointment to find, as i was contemplating making the switch to HostGator being that we are having identical email issues (hours of delay) with our current website and email host for the company. Which leads me to believe that these email delays are not just limited to iXwebhosting and HostGator, im going to do some more research into the issue...maybe the internet just has to many emails zipping around???

[Rockoids]

Originally Posted by M4E

This thread was a big dissapointment to find, as i was contemplating making the switch to HostGator being that we are having identical email issues (hours of delay) with our current website and email host for the company. Which leads me to believe that these email delays are not just limited to iXwebhosting and HostGator, im going to do some more research into the issue...maybe the internet just has to many emails zipping around???

My suggestion is that you just don't worry about it. I use Google Apps for all my company email. They have paid and free services, and first-rate spam filtering. That way you don't have to worry about host-related issues -- unless, of course, Google has a problem, and these days, they do pretty well.

[M4E]

Ok but does that allow the use of domain based email addresses (name@mydomain.com)? Or are your email addresses name@gmail.com
Also, can you still use programs such as Outlook Express and Outlook?
Some of our employeese need to use Outlook in conjunction with their Smart-phones.

[Rockoids]

Originally Posted by M4E

Ok but does that allow the use of domain based email addresses (name@mydomain.com)? Or are your email addresses name@gmail.com
Also, can you still use programs such as Outlook Express and Outlook?
Some of our employeese need to use Outlook in conjunction with their Smart-phones.

With Google Apps, they are designated your email provider via appropriate changes in your Mail Exchange (MX) settings in cPanel and/or WHM. So, yes, email will still go to your domain addresses, only it'll be handled by Google.

Yes, you can use all of your standard email clients on all computing platforms. I get mine (5 Google Apps accounts for 5 different domains) via Apple Mail on my Macs. And, of course, Google's own Webmail.