Unable to send email from abroad

[#1]

Once again I'm unable to send email when out of the country, this time from Japan and China, and I have to use Webmail.
Is there no way to use relay.force9.net? I've tried ports 25 and 587 but get 'the connection to SMTP server relay.force9.net timed out'.
Oddly enough, I could send from my Android phone, but not my Windows laptop, in Japan for a while.

[#2]

Quote from: digital

Is there no way to use relay.force9.net? I've tried ports 25 and 587 but get 'the connection to SMTP server relay.force9.net timed out'.

What happens if you try telnetting to the server from a command line?

~$ telnet relay.force9.net 25
Trying 212.159.8.104...
Connected to relay.force9.net.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 avasout02 smtp relay.force9.net

What happens if you try telnetting to a non-Plusnet server from a command line?

$ telnet smtp-relay.gmail.com 25
Trying 74.125.140.28...
Connected to gmail-smtp-relay.l.google.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 mx.google.com ESMTP a9sm143646wjy.2 - gsmtp

If both of those attempts time out then the problem is with your network connection and not the Plusnet relays. If the latter works, but not the former, then let me know and I'll do some digging.

[#3]

Hi Bob
Thanks for the quick response.
I tried both suggestions and got:
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600]
(c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\WINDOWS\system32>~ telnet relay.force9.net 25
'~' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
C:\WINDOWS\system32>telnet relay.force9.net 25
Connecting To relay.force9.net...Could not open connection to the host, on port
25: Connect failed
C:\WINDOWS\system32>telnet smtp-relay.gmail.com 25
Connecting To smtp-relay.gmail.com...Could not open connection to the host, on p
ort 25: Connect failed
C:\WINDOWS\system32>$ telnet smtp-relay.gmail.com 25
'$' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
C:\WINDOWS\system32>telnet relay.force9.net 587
Connecting To relay.force9.net...Could not open connection to the host, on port
587: Connect failed
C:\WINDOWS\system32>
It looks like the network connection then? Even though it's the same in different hotels in Japan and China (where,admittedly, there's a lot going on with what is accessible and what's not - Google, YouTube, Facebook etc) and I've had the same problem in South America and India.

[#4]

Quote from: digital

It looks like the network connection then?

Seems like it.

Quote from: digital

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600] (c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. C:\WINDOWS\system32>~ telnet relay.force9.net 25 '~' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

The '~' has caused this one to fail, you needn't type that character.

Quote from: digital

C:\WINDOWS\system32>telnet relay.force9.net 25 Connecting To relay.force9.net...Could not open connection to the host, on port 25: Connect failed

Something's blocking port 25.

Quote from: digital

C:\WINDOWS\system32>telnet smtp-relay.gmail.com 25 Connecting To smtp-relay.gmail.com...Could not open connection to the host, on p ort 25: Connect failed

Same here. Either Google and us are blocking your requests (unlikely), or something is blocking it locally (more likely).

Quote from: digital

C:\WINDOWS\system32>$ telnet smtp-relay.gmail.com 25 '$' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

This failed because of the '$' character, you don't need to type that.

Quote from: digital

C:\WINDOWS\system32>telnet relay.force9.net 587 Connecting To relay.force9.net...Could not open connection to the host, on port 587: Connect failed

Shows port 587 to be blocked as well.

[#5]

Thanks.
It's go to be Webmail then.