[Fusion]

I am having difficulty believing that we are in the year 2005 and using email is still this frustrating.

I have a .Mac account for my main email address and I like using Apple's mail.app program to receive and send mail. This is on a 15" powerbook with OS X 10.3.7.

Awhile back ago, when I would be at home, my email stopped sending, reporting an error of "cannot connect to .Mac server." I soon learned that my ISP (telus in BC) had changed their policies and was no longer allowing the outgoing connection to other email servers than their own. Their reasoning had something to do with spam, but regardless, they gave me the address of their outgoing server, and even though I am using my .Mac account, it still send through my ISP's outgoing server.

Luckily, at my University where I work and attend school, they use Telus as well, so my outgoing server at work and school still works. My University however does not block other outgoing mail servers, mainly because the university mail is handled by a different server itself.

However, I am on the road a lot. I visit parents, fiancé's family, road trips, stop in to WiFI cafes, etc... Every-time I am on some other internet connection, I cannot send mail. Usually it just pops up with a notice telling me that it cannot send the message with a drop-down box to select the old .Mac server and send it via the .Mac server.

This is extremely annoying. I have to wait a good 2 to 3 minutes for the program to try to send my mail, report back to me that it cannot, and then send it using the appropriate server depending on where I am. I know I can just switch it before-hand, but again, this is 2005.

Is there any solution that will allow me to set one outgoing server and use it no matter where I am. I would like to stay away from web-mail as I appreciate the organization of my mail program on my hard drive. Does .Mac allow to use port 27 instead of 25 and I could just try using that and bypassing my ISP's block? Is there a way to get an ISP to allow a certain server?

[cpac]

Originally posted by Fusion:
Is there a way to get an ISP to allow a certain server?

bitch at them

[Fusion]

Is that really about my only hope?

Do I have any rights here or is it pretty much just up to them and how they feel about it?

When I first signed up with them, other email servers were just fine. Since then, it had been blocked. When I spoke to the customer service representative on the phone, he informed me that all personal accounts had had this block placed on them to prevent spam. If I wanted to use my own email server, I would need to upgrade to their corporate account which was well over $100 a month for the cheapest plan.

The strange thing is, my fiancé is on a Telus personal account as well, and she can use any outgoing server still, almost as if the server she is on just hasn't got the block 'upgrade' mine has.

[midwinter]

You can use your ISP's SMTP server. That's what I do. smtp.comcast.net

[Fusion]

Originally posted by midwinter:
You can use your ISP's SMTP server. That's what I do. smtp.comcast.net

Try reading my original post again...

[midwinter]

Originally posted by Fusion:
Try reading my original post again...

Doh! That's what I get for responding at 2:00 am...

[Fusion]

Originally posted by midwinter:
Doh! That's what I get for responding at 2:00 am...

Lol, no worries. So I am guessing everyone else either has an ISP that lets them use outgoing servers or just puts up with the same thing as I do?

[Randman]

Sounds as if your service provider is shafting you.

I travel pretty frequently and also use Mail.app as my main e-mail addy. I found it simple enough to use Mail.app with my PB but also using the Mail features on the .Mac website when on the road, or on a different machine, even a PC. And it's easy enough to set up so both are synced so your Inbox, et al, are the same everywhere.

[buffalolee]

I have not found a way to disable the notification, but here is what I do.

================================================== ===========
Entourage: (time required: 1 minute)
TYPE and RETYPE the SMTP server address. Bad thing about this is that I have this step requires memorizing the SMTP server address. For what I do, I have to memorize 3 SMTP address (work, home, and mac). The one at home is quicker, so I like to use that even though I can use .Mac (at work I can't use .Mac).

Mail.app: (time requied: 5 seconds)
Preference --> Accounts --> Change [smtp server]

If the address book and calendaring system were Exchange compatible, I would be going switch to Apple iCal and Mail.app instantly.

================================================== ===========
Software Solution:

Mail Scripts 2.5.1
http://homepage.mac.com/aamann/Mail_Scripts.html

There is a link somewhere in there for a paypal donation, I suggest you donate some $$ if you find it useful. Enough to buy a Mocha Latte at Starbucks.

I hope this helps you out.