Access to relay.plus.net

[#1]

I have a Raspberry Pi that needs to send notification emails to me using my Plusnet connection.  I understand I should use smtp.plus.net as the SMTP server and because it is coming from my connection it will be authenticated by IP address so no need for username and password.

The emails aren't coming through (to a hotmail.co.uk email address) so I'm trying to test the connection to plusnet using Putty and a telnet command to relay.plus.net on either port 25 or 587.  Putty thinks for a minute then refuses the connection with:

421 avasout02 smtp ESMTP server temporarily not available (ET)

Any ideas?

[#2]

Is it possible that PuTTY is trying to establish an SSL connection which is currently not supported? Could you try from a terminal window?

This should work, and I posted an example of what to enter with responses here. Using a RCPT TO: hotmail address should work.

Regarding use of smtp.plus.net, I suggest using relay.plus.net instead. They are equivalent but the latter is the current recommendation and will continue to be supported with SSL/TLS certs when that comes along.

[#3]

Thanks for your reply.  Not sure creating an SSL connection to a telnet session in Putty is possible is it?  I can't see any settings relating to telnet for a proxy or SSL.

In most modern versions of Windows OS the telnet command is not installed, hence why I use Putty so really the relay.plus.net server should respond to it.

My mistake in mentioning smtp.plus.net, I meant relay.plus.net which is the target server I am trying to connect to.

I did check if the latest version of Putty (0.70) might work as I was using 0.67 but no luck.

Rather than install the telnet command on Windows, I installed it on the Pi and it works, connecting to relay.plus.net and accepting the email as required.

[#4]

Have you checked your spam folder on hotmail?  I have a wifi controller that sends me notifications and they where all getting marked as spam until I whitelisted the address.  That wasn't with hotmail, but the same could easily apply.

If not that, is there any logs that say if the notifications were sent or if the failed?.  If so that might give you some more info.

[#5]

Nothing in spam folder.  I have it working now but the issue was that Putty wouldn't connect to relay.plus.net in a telnet session to port 25 to allow me to check the smtp gateway was working.

I've bypassed Putty now as the telnet client, using the Pi telnet client instead and it works.  I have the monitoring software working with the email alerts too 

[#6]

I use PuTTY for SSH connections and that works OK. I've never tried it to do basic telnet.

Glad to hear you've now got the monitor working using telnet on the Pi.