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tweedledee · Mar 29, 2010, 11:05 PM

Will someone kindly put me out of my misery, why must I suffer so much? I've seen 12 million articles about Mail.app that have enshrined that program's inability to send mail, but not a wretched word about that program's inability to RECEIVE mail. I've done everything my feeble brain has proposed, but to no avail. I just know there are users out there who hoard knowledge. C'mon, give me a break. I'll tell you all about Einstein's theory of relativity if you help me out. This would be a good time to mention that my evil machine is a g3 iBook with Mail 1.3.9 causing all the mischief.

Andy8 · Mar 29, 2010, 11:13 PM

Are you receiving your POP or IMAP via any other email client on your iBook in the past?

What version of OSX are you using?

gradient · Mar 29, 2010, 11:24 PM

I wish I could help, but I finally had to give up on trying to make Mail work and switched to Thunderbird a few months back.

tweedledee · Mar 30, 2010, 08:04 AM

Andy8

I'm running OSX 10.39. Maybe if I modernized, I'd better with off with Tiger, but I'd like to clean up my current problem first. Yes to your question: until a couple of years ago I used another service provider and even then I had my Mail issues. I then went with Google which has been flawless. The interface is not exactly beautiful, but the job always got done. Since last year, it's been WiFi which gets me online with no sweat. I've been using Mail.app since 2001 and I hate to leave the convenience of a familiar system defeated, but maybe it is time for Thunderbird. What burns me up is that in the past, all my Mail troubles were fixed with simple adjustments with settings. On many occasions, it seemed to that Mail was messing with my passwords because when I reentered them, viola!

I appreciate the effort guys, but you've failed to cheer me up — I can't help feeling that some puny setting somewhere is the key.

ibook_steve · Mar 30, 2010, 05:13 PM

You haven't exactly said what's wrong and you haven't indicated what type of mail you have: IMAP or POP?

When you say you can't receive mail, what happens? What errors do you get? What have you tried? We can't help you unless you provide concrete info about your problem, not offers to explain relativity.

Steve

Big Mac · Mar 30, 2010, 06:12 PM

To the original poster: If you're having trouble receiving mail, the server settings you've provided to Mail are almost guaranteed to be incorrect. Try a different client like Thunderbird to verify, but you'll probably get the same result. I would verify with your web server or ISP the incoming mail settings to use.

tweedledee · Apr 3, 2010, 05:01 PM

ibook_Steve

I type my message and hit SEND. There is along pause and a pop-up states: The connection to the server "smtp.gmail.com" on port 25 timed out. You can try using another server. All messages will use this server until you quit or change your net work settings.

Beneath this, I'm offered 3 choices as follows: Edit Messages — Use Selected Server — Try Again Later.

Frankly I don't know what most of that means. The oddity is that gmail digested that message and straightaway sent it on its way using the same port 25 with the same smtp.gmail.com that was rejected earlier!

The answer to your question IMAP or POP, is POP.

Not too computer literate, I did only basic things like dump everything in my congested mail box (saved mail). I cautiouslyy checked my settings one by one and retyped my password wherever it had to be entered. I checked to see if some humongous attachment had caused a bottleneck (this has happened several times in the past). I temporarily abandoned port 25 and use port 587. I was stunned when that worked for a few minute interval, time, but shortly reverted to failure. I didn't know what else to do. I test my email by sending myself a message, maybe that isn't too bright, When I do this using Mail lnot only doesn't it go out, of course, nothing comes back. When I repeat this on gmail (same settings) the message flies out, and comes back before I can take another breath. I dearly hope you divine some clue and can suggest an adjustment that will restore harmony in my life.

******************************************

Big Mac

I've, checked, rechecked, bechecked, dechecked, trichecked and even zorchecked the settings, and I'm comfortable saying the setting are were as peachy keen as they had been before my troubles began. Nevertheless, how can anyone dispute your premise that the setting provided Mail are almost certain guaranteed to be incorrect.

One problem is that Google does not provide configuring instructions for Mail below 3.0. My Panther circa Mail is the 1.3.9 version! I guessed good, but who knows whether I goofed or not. The only was would be to get the specific instructions for Mail 1.3.9.

besson3c · Apr 3, 2010, 05:23 PM

Have you tried the submission port for your SMTP server, which is port 587? Gmail does support using this port number:

$ telnet smtp.gmail.com 587
Trying 74.125.95.109...
Connected to gmail-smtp-msa.l.google.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 mx.google.com ESMTP 20sm2678699iwn.9

Several ISPs block outbound port 25 to SMTP servers other than their own. 587 is a port dedicated to authenticated SMTP requests to SMTP servers.

tweedledee · Apr 5, 2010, 08:31 AM

Tried 587 up front — no help. I'm sure it's some cockamie thing a year ago when I discovered that for Gmail, the simple entry: smtp.gmail.com wasn't good enough. To get your mail to work, you must use: smtp.gmail.com, AND YOUR FULL GMAIL ADDRES!. It's little twists like that wherein our computer experiences suffer greatly debased.

besson3c · Apr 5, 2010, 10:13 AM

Well, I would leave it set to use port 587 anyway...

I'm assuming tweedledee is referring to using your entire GMail email address as the username used to authenticate to the SMTP server?

Cold Warrior · Apr 5, 2010, 05:14 PM

For sending mail you need more than just the port, you also need TLS set. TLS and port 587, smtp.gmail.com, and secure authentication: no/off/not set.

The user@domain has been required since the beginning.

For receiving IMAP it is port 993, SSL/TLS, imap.gmail.com, again full user@domain, and no to secure authentication.

tweedledee · Apr 9, 2010, 01:11 PM

I wish I had left well enough alone. No sooner did I switch from port 25 to 587, when an avalanche of mail hit me like a ton of wet sand — I got 463 pieces of mail and they're still trickling in. I'm staggered by this, my count is up to over 500 messages — it's insane.

The mystery is why didn't this happen a few days ago when I switched to 587. Incidentally, I had two previous smtp's on my server list — I deleted them — that may have helped.

Thank you all.