Authenticating SMTP servers abroad

[#1]

I am in a pickle again.
In addition to my broadband Plusnet service in England, I also have a broadband connection in France, where I have no choice but to use France Telecom / Orange.  Service does not exist, and all you get is the famous Gallic shrug.
Orange France is renowned for spam, and many UK ISPs automatically filter out mails from orange.fr for that reason.  As a a consequence, I am forced to send emails using Plusnet Webmail - absolutely excellent, no complaints except of course that you cannot use it offline.  I use Outlook as my email client which is fine to receive emails in France, but risky to send, because I have to set it to smtp.orange.fr.
Now I thought that I could continue to use the Plusnet smtp server, providing I set it to require authentification.  Try as I may, that just simply does not work.  It always generates an errror message saying that the Plusnet smtp server cannot be found, and I have to resort either to the orange.fr smtp server or use Webmail again.
Can anyone explain what I am doing wrong ?
Thanks.

[#2]

Can you post the full error message?
what does nslookup relay.plus.net give you when run in a dos box?

Have you tried using the IP address for relay.plus.net (212.159.11.46) in outlook settings?
Have you tried testing the connection to plusnets SMTP server using telnet - tutorial linky.
Some ISPs block port 25 and only allow connections to their own SMTP servers. This may be happening with Orange France but the above tests should prove that.

[#3]

When you set up the authenticated SMTP did you have to enter your default account name and password in the outgoing server settings. You have to do that for each account you want to use in Outlook.

[#4]

Thanks, Guys, for the replies.  I realise also that (in a drunken stupour ?) I have used the wrong forum - I meant to use Broadband not Broadband Phone, but never mind !
Anyway, the answers to the questions are :
1. The full error message is :
"The SMTP server name you specified cannot be found.  Please check the name and try again : relay.plus.net"
2. Using nslookup for relay.plus.net, I get :
"Non-authoritative answer
Name:  relay.plus.net
Address: 212.159.11.46"
3. Trying to Telnet Plusnet's smtp server, I get :
"Could not open connection to host on Port 25.  Connection failed"
4.  I have tried to both enter my account name and password separately, and also to check the box that says to use the pop3 user name and password.  Both of them fail
It looks as if the problem may be therefore that Orange do not allow me to use Port 25.  Is there any way round this ?
Again thanks for any advice.

[#5]

mod:note
moved to community support 

[#6]

Quote from: shermans

It looks as if the problem may be therefore that Orange do not allow me to use Port 25.  Is there any way round this ?

I concur, it looks like Orange are blocking port 25.

[#7]

You can use any smtp server on which you have an account.  Try googlemail which does not use port 25

[#8]

Just did a google and Orange started blocking port 25 around Oct/Nov 2007 in all countries.
Don't know of an alternative port you can use for PlusNet SMTP connections so you may be forced to use Oranges own SMTP.

[#9]

Well, thanks for trying.  For really important things, I will continue to do what I have been doing - copying it to myself, then going into Plusnet Webmail and forwarding it to the real recipient as a back-up !  Plusnet Webmail is presumably not recognised as originating from an Orange server and I hope is therefore not subject to the same spam filters.

[#10]

Try what teldanet suggested. Open a google mail account and then in Outlook change the relay.plus.net to the google smtp server and change the port to 465. i.e google do not use port 25.

[#11]

If you still have problems:
AUTHSMTP allow you to use alternative ports (typically 2525).
http://www.authsmtp.com/faqs/faq-4.html
I have used them for over two years now both at home and when travelling on various wireless connections. When port 25 has been blocked 2525 has always worked for me.
Costs £14 p.a. - not a lot for the convenience.

[#12]

Is there a way to use the plusnet smtp server to send mail when hooked up via mobile internet?
I can pick email up no problem (relay.plus.net also imap.plus.net) but sending fails.

[#13]

As long as your mobile operator does not block port 25 then yes, but you need to authenticate the SMTP connection with your portal username & password when using relay.plus.net.
Note: I think you meant mail.plus.net for receive as relay.plus.net is for SMTP (outgoing) connections.

[#14]

Or try a  yahoo: a/c; they too use 465

[#15]

Whoops. Yes I meant that I can receive using mail.plus.com but can't send using relay.plus.com. Yahoo is no good because they refuse the connection too even on 465.  If the ISP (Vodafone) was blocking port 25, I wouldn't be able to receive so it can't be that.