Strange email problem

Been using PopStar regularly and successfully for emails. Pluto as the email client.

About a month back, co-incidentally (or not?) moving and having to survive on 4G data whilst proper broadband installed, PopStar now can’t send emails. Timing out and reporting “unable to connect to SMTP server”

No incoming/outgoing settings changed with or by my domain/email provider, nor anything in PopStar or Pluto altered.

Fetching emails always works. Connecting to a hotspot with my phone worked to send emails two or three times but not now.

Anyone any idea what’s going on?

Chris.

Timing out and reporting “unable to connect to SMTP server”

Some mobile networks only allow connection to their SMTP server.

See if you can connect to the provider’s server.
If so, see if your preferred server has an alternative port available for use (which won’t appear as SMTP and therefore shouldn’t be blocked).

Some mobile networks only allow connection to their SMTP server.

That sounds very restrictive and rather strange!

@Chris: What version of POPStar are you using?
Does POPStar Syslog show any more details? You may need to increase logging (see Run).
The SMTP server may (should?) require a password if it not connected directly via their network.

You may also want to consider changing to AntiSpam – unlike POPStar it is supported, and can use secure SSL/TLS emails (which are becoming required by most email servers). The latest Pluto has detailed instructions how to set up with AntiSpam. But that may not resove your immediate problem!

That sounds very restrictive and rather strange!

I understand it’s quite common, in order to try to block their network being used for spamming, now that some outfits (Spamhaus etc) have a tendency to list entire IP ranges as “spam” in order to push the provider into doing something about it. The something is to simply disallow outgoing mail except for that using their own service.
[this is why we can’t have nice things]

The SMTP server may (should?) require a password if it not connected directly via their network.

Fixed that for you. I think you’ll find it’s quite rare to have an open MX these days.

I think you’ll find it’s quite rare to have an open MX these days

Most mail systems block mail originating from any known open MX

Would be worth checking certificates. Not sure how these are handled by popstar / pluto.

All of my internet use is via 4G Sims now (live in the country). I use thunderbird on linux and windows and K-9 Mail on my android phone.
Use 2 different email accounts (1 hosted by external provider and 1 hosted by my domain host). On the computer I download mail to store it locally on 1 account and leave it on the server on the other. On the phone I download a copy but leave the mail on the servers.

On occasion – approx every 3 months, my email server hosts update their security certificates. First email sending stops working then email receiving stops working (this is how i know it has been updated – no notification comes from anyone). Same issue and symptoms appear on both Thunderbird and K-9 Mail.

The solution is always to update the security certificates which usually requires going in to edit the SMTP server settings – when i do this both Thunderbird and K-9 Mail (which I believe has now been bought out by Mozilla /Thunderbird) put up a dialogue window asking if I want to accept the new certificate – i click yes (or OK – from memory) and away we go – email starts flowing again….

Not sure if applicable to your situation but might be worth a look as an easy fix.

Forgot to add that i didn’t have this issue years ago (7-8) when used a fixed wifi broadband solution. Also did not occur on the mobile 4G setups either (have been using them for approx 7 years) – only started to occur in the last 2 years so something the mobile operators must have implemented. Also note I am in Australia (but expect things work much the same in the UK, except maybe the frequency used for the connections)

2 of my mobile sims (1 in phone, 1 in 4G modem) use dynamic IP addresses and this is where the issue occurs. 1 Have 1 × 4G connection (another 4G modem) with a fixed IP address (used for remote access to a sprinkler system, solar system, etc at another physical address) and this connection never experiences the issue with certificates (do use email on this connection occasionally).

Thanks for the replies, I’ll have a look at this again later and report back.

Ok a bit more research and testing:

@Martin

@Chris: What version of POPStar are you using?

v2.05. That is the latest I can find out there but if there is a more recent version, or a newer Run32 file to copy over please point me in its direction.

(Aside: how DO you type what is shown at https://textile-lang.com? Typing “bq.” shows up literally has “bq.”. How do you folks get that coloured background for quoted text?)

Does POPStar Syslog show any more details? You may need to increase logging (see Run).

In Run amended the line

/<POPstar$RunImage> %*0

to

/<POPstar$RunImage> %*0 -debug

as directed in the !Run file and !SysLog.Logs.POPstar shows

30 Jan 20:35:11 020 Connection failed: Connection timed out (60)
30 Jan 20:35:11 020 Unable to connect to SMTP server smtpout.secureserver.net
30 Jan 20:36:58 020 Connection failed: Connection timed out (60)
30 Jan 20:36:58 020 Unable to connect to SMTP server smtp.123-reg.co.uk

(See later for why I have smtp.123-reg.co.uk and smtpout.secureserver.net.)

You may also want to consider changing to AntiSpam –

I have been experimenting with AntiSpam but think I need some dummies help. The “AntiSpam Progress” window shows something happening with the changing figures. I set up Pluto for AntiSpam transport, but I don’t know what happened to whatever AntiSpam fetched. Is there a dedicated mail list for help Martin, or perhaps I should start a new topic here?

@DownUnderROUser
I also use Thunderbird on my mobile phone. What’s puzzling is I can send from the exact same mailbox on my phone with no problem, yet on RISC OS it doesn’t work. I copied over the settings from the account settings to POPStar:

Thunderbird (on phone)

Outgoing server settings

Server: SMTP.123-reg.co.uk
Security: SSL/TLS
Port: 465
Authentication: Normal password
Username: mail@domain.co.uk
Password: ********
Client certificate: None

PopStar 2.05 (RISC OS) – in !Boot.Choices.popstar.Choices

.
.
.
# SMTP server
# This can be a system variables surrounded by <>'s, eg <SMTP$Server>
SMTP:smtp.123-reg.co.uk
## ^ have tried SMTP:123-reg.co.uk doesn't work
## My ISP provider notes say it should be smtpout.secureserver.net but that doesn't work either
# If you need to authenticate to your SMTP server, comment the next two
# lines and fill in your username/password.
# These make also be set to a system variable in the same way as 'SMTP:'
#SMTP.username:myusername
#SMTP.password:mypassword
## ^ Have uncommented these lines and entered SMTP.username:<a href="mailto:mail@domain.co.uk">mail@domain.co.uk</a>

NB my real email/domain is shown as “”mailto:mail@domain.co.uk">mail@domain.co.uk" for sharing purposes

Apologies for any malformed text. I’m still trying to decipher https://textile-lang.com/

What’s puzzling is I can send from the exact same mailbox on my phone with no problem, yet on RISC OS it doesn’t work.

No – they are not the same settings. Thunderbird you say is using Security: SSL/TLS but that is not set for POPStar … because it cannot cope with SSL/TLS security!

Please contact me on the address in the Pluto Help manual for help with AntiSpam and Pluto.

Chris: I’ve edited your post to what I think you meant. If you edit it yourself now, just to look at it (not to change anything), you’ll see what you have to do.

It appears that you also need a blank line before a “bq.”, and I don’t think the Textile docs make that clear.

It appears that you also need a blank line before a “bq.”

Well I never, tried all sorts of tricks and never thought to put a blank line above the bq. And it looks like a space after the fullstop. I shall know for the future. Thanks Dave!