The sender address was rejected by the server relay.plus.net

[#1]

Hi Rob
After an 'internal' update on my ticket with some log details, someone called Kevin Mawson has updated my ticket to say: "This is something that we are currently aware of and we hope to have this resolved shortly."

Tim

[#2]

Thanks for the continued examples folks. I think the 452 and 550 errors are probably down to the same thing. We just need to work out exactly what that is now and ascertain the best way to go about fixing it!

[#3]

I don't suppose it will help, because there is nothing new to add, but my wife's computer has just reported (once again):
Could not connect to "mail.waitrose.com"  Cause: connection refused (10061)
-  Keith
P.S. It was just a routine send/receive operation. Retrying manually a few seconds later was successful.

[#4]

A time-out error occured while communicating with the server. Error number: 0x800CCC19.
This is happening all the time now. Is it the same problem, or a new problem?
Edit (2011/11/17 14:27): I am able to connect to the SMTP server again.

[#5]

Quote from: kdiment

I don't suppose it will help, because there is nothing new to add, but my wife's computer has just reported (once again): Could not connect to "mail.waitrose.com"  Cause: connection refused (10061)

Keith, do you know what SMTP server address you're wife's using for sending mail?

Quote from: Rob

This is happening all the time now. Is it the same problem, or a new problem? Edit (2011/11/17 14:27): I am able to connect to the SMTP server again.

Nothing I'm aware of that would have caused persistent failures

[#6]

Only persistent for about 5 minutes, so not too bad in the end.

[#7]

Quote from: Bob

Keith, do you know what SMTP server address you're wife's using for sending mail?

Sorry, Bob, but I do not know how to find that out. We both use Eudora and both have relay.plus.net set as the SMTP server. There is an option to "Use submission port (587)" but neither of us have that checked. As far as I know the only difference is that I collect emails from mail.plus.net while my wife collects hers from mail.waitrose.com
-  Keith

[#8]

Quote from: kdiment

Sorry, Bob, but I do not know how to find that out. We both use Eudora and both have relay.plus.net set as the SMTP server.

That's what I was asking - Thanks.

Quote from: kdiment

There is an option to "Use submission port (587)" but neither of us have that checked.

That won't work (yet!)

Quote

As far as I know the only difference is that I collect emails from mail.plus.net while my wife collects hers from mail.waitrose.com

Both of which point at the same mail collection servers which is why I'm struggling a bit.
The next time your wife has the problem it would be helpful if you could open a command prompt from her machine and try manually connecting to the mail server using telnet. To do this:

• Click 'Start' > 'Run' (or enter in the search box) > 'cmd' (minus the quotes) > Press 'Enter'
  
• In the command window that appears type 'telnet mail.waitrose.com 110' (minus the quotes) and press 'Enter'
  
• Make a note of what response is returned
  

Whilst that won't fix anything, it may help narrow down what's causing the problem as it rules out Eudora as a potential contributor to the issue.

[#9]

Bob,
I'm not sure if it helps, but I'm using Outlook Express.
Rob

[#10]

Quote from: Bob

The next time your wife has the problem it would be helpful if you could open a command prompt from her machine and try manually connecting to the mail server using telnet. To do this: Click 'Start' > 'Run' (or enter in the search box) > 'cmd' (minus the quotes) > Press 'Enter' In the command window that appears type 'telnet mail.waitrose.com 110' (minus the quotes) and press 'Enter' Make a note of what response is returned

Just tried that (even though there is no email problem ar present), only to find that telnet is not recognised as a command, program or batch file. Same on both our computers. Do I need to download it from somewhere and install it?
P.S. It was good to see the old DOS command line again. Life was so much simpler in those days.

[#11]

Telnet comes with MS Windows but is not enabled by default in Vista or 7. The way to enable it is described in the first paragraphs of this Customer Support Library article.
Once enabled there is no need to disable it again.

[#12]

Telnet now enabled, thanks to spraxyt.
-  Keith

[#13]

Quote from: kdiment

Just tried that (even though there is no email problem ar present), only to find that telnet is not recognised as a command, program or batch file. Same on both our computers. Do I need to download it from somewhere and install it?

I should have pre-empted that!

[#14]

Bob, just 2 or 3 minutes ago I heard a warning "ding" from my wife's computer. Sure enough, Eudora had failed in a check for emails because of "Connection refused". I did what you asked and received the message "+OK Hello there." On doing another "send/receive" (manually) there was no problem at all. There happened to be nothing to send or to receive at that time anyway.
The occasional problem does not matter much if on the next atempt all is well again. It is just one of those annoying little things showing that something isn't quite right.
-  Keith

[#15]

Thanks Keith,
The +OK response suggests that the connection isn't being refused but that seems to be the case anyway when you try again using Eudora. It's not going to be easy to track down
As there aren't any other customers reporting problems, I'm inclined to think it's something local to your wife's computer/set-up. I'm guessing it's connected wirelessly? If it is then it might be an idea to open a command prompt in the background on your wife's machine and run a continuous ping to your router.

ping -t 192.168.1.254

That's assuming the IP address for your router it 192.168.1.254 of course. You can leave this running in the background. Before doing so right-click the title bar of the command window, click Properties and set the 'Buffer Size' higher (250 or so should be sufficient).
The next time there's a failure you can look at this window, scroll back a bit and determine whether or not there was a communication problem with the router around the time the mail collection failure occurred.
Regarding the original post and the intermittent problems sending email (550/452 errors). Are people still seeing these because there's been a number of configuration changes since and things seem to have gone very quiet?