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Sending emails from 3 Mobile broadband through plusnet server from an Ipod touch

sheepdip
Dabbler
Posts: 16
Registered: ‎14-05-2008

Sending emails from 3 Mobile broadband through plusnet server from an Ipod touch

Sorry if this goes on a bit but it should discribe the problem I have. I recently got an ipod touch (brilliant bit of kit) and when I am at home I can send emails no problem. However when I am at my work I connect the ipod via a laptop (windows 7) using connectify to make the laptop an access point which has a 3 dongle plugged into it. When I try send emails it just sits there saying sending and then it either comes back and says nothing or else there is a problem on relay.plus.net (I think from memory). From reading other posts I think that 3 blocks port 25 for sending e-mails.
My question is has anybody got this to work!!! I have messed about with authentication and I have entered my main details in the password authentication details but nothing seems to work.
Which user name and password do I use under authentication. Is it the mailbox you are trying to receive or is it the main username and password? Do I use IMAP or SMTP as some answers say one and some the other (none work with me) Cry
7 REPLIES 7
jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
Thanks: 971
Fixes: 10
Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Sending emails from 3 Mobile broadband through plusnet server from an Ipod touch

IMAP and POP3 are the two different options for accessing the mailboxes containing your incoming mail.
SMTP is used for outgoing mail (irrespective of the method used for incoming).
If I remember correctly you have to use their SMTP server, but the usual one stops you sending with the Plusnet address as the sender, instead you have to use a different server. I'm sure there's post in here somewhere about it, but I can't find it. Sad
STOP PRESS: http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,82242.msg675027.html#msg675027
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
   Why I have left Plusnet (warning: long post!)   
Broadband: Andrews & Arnold Home::1 (FTTC 80/20)
Line rental: Pulse 8 Home Line Rental (£14.40/month)
Mobile: iD mobile (£4/month)
sheepdip
Dabbler
Posts: 16
Registered: ‎14-05-2008

Re: Sending emails from 3 Mobile broadband through plusnet server from an Ipod touch

Thanks jelv.
I did read that post and try the mbb-three.co.uk server. However I could not get that one to work either. I did leave the relay.plus.com in as the main server and added the three one as an additional server. Acording to the screen you enter the details on, it should try them all untill if finds one that works. However there are so many combinations of server, user names and passwords flying about that I possibly missed the magic combination.
If I use the mbb-three.co.uk server would I have to give the mailbox name and password or the main user (ie without the +user) and that password to authenticate (I will try both tonight) to see if either of them work and report back tomorrow how I get on, unless anybody knows differently.
jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
Thanks: 971
Fixes: 10
Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Sending emails from 3 Mobile broadband through plusnet server from an Ipod touch

If using a three server it's going to require a three username and password, not a Plusnet one!
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
   Why I have left Plusnet (warning: long post!)   
Broadband: Andrews & Arnold Home::1 (FTTC 80/20)
Line rental: Pulse 8 Home Line Rental (£14.40/month)
Mobile: iD mobile (£4/month)
WebDude
Grafter
Posts: 115
Registered: ‎11-03-2010

Re: Sending emails from 3 Mobile broadband through plusnet server from an Ipod touch

IME only servers expecting access from outside the local network need username/ password.
I don't think they're included in the RFC (so adding user/pass is a modification of the server to require it).
When someone is using the ISP's connections, they have IP addresses from the pool of addresses and are therefore trusted without (usually) needing any user/pass for authentication.  Some ISPs in the past used 'read before send' when a POP request had the requestor's IP address logged, and then for a period of minutes/ perhaps an hour, that IP was trusted to use the SMTP server without any need for user/pass.  That's what one of my first ISPs offered, and I only dialled in to them a dozen times in 5 years (as they were based in the USA!!)
Commercial services like FastMail, Runbox, and so on don't have 'local' users as they are set up for remote access, so they do need user/pass each time.
sheepdip
Dabbler
Posts: 16
Registered: ‎14-05-2008

Re: Sending emails from 3 Mobile broadband through plusnet server from an Ipod touch

I tried all the combinations I could and changed port numbers and still nothing working. In the end I gave up and will just use Squirelmail instead!!  Cry
I am sure there is something that works but I can't find it.
Thanks for all the help however Smiley
WebDude
Grafter
Posts: 115
Registered: ‎11-03-2010

Re: Sending emails from 3 Mobile broadband through plusnet server from an Ipod touch


I used  smtp-mbb.three.co.uk  (found it with a quick search for SMTP and Three
  port  25
  User Name (not specified)
  Secure Authentication    no
Connection Security  none
Have not tried it until today, been using Three since October 2008, and hope it helps you....

I cut out most of the headers, and still a little puzzled as to what happened to mail sent to my 
live.com mail account (still not arrived, over 30 minutes later). 
I used Thunderbird (too clever by far when it is left in auto mode, had to switch to manual
to stop the darn software!) and set the default mail server to the one for Three.

Delivered-To: XXXXXXX@gmail.com
Received: by 10.204.55.144 with SMTP id u16cs78712bkg;
        Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:33:50 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from 92.41.184.1.sub.mbb.three.co.uk by ukmrpl004 (envelope-from <x@x.x>, uid 5186) with qmail-scanner-2.05
(spamassassin: 3.1.8. 
Received: from 92.41.184.1.sub.mbb.three.co.uk (HELO ?92.41.184.1?) (92.41.184.1)
  by smtp-mbb.three.co.uk with SMTP; 18 Mar 2010 22:33:32 -0000
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:34:11 +0000
From: xxxxxxxxxxxx <xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx>

Quickly checking whether this is working....
WebDude
Grafter
Posts: 115
Registered: ‎11-03-2010

Re: Sending emails from 3 Mobile broadband through plusnet server from an Ipod touch

The following error message came back (it went off to a different mail account, which is why I didn't spot it - I had set up Thunderbird to get incoming mail for postmaster@<my domain> and send it as <something>@<my domain> so the error message went to <something> and ended up not in Thunderbird.
Hi. This is the qmail-send program at ukmrpl004.it.hutchison3g.net.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.
<xxxxxxxxx@live.com>: 
Connected to 65.55.92.136 but sender was rejected.
Remote host said: 550 SC-001 Mail rejected by Windows Live Hotmail for policy reasons. Reasons for rejection may be related to content with spam-like characteristics or IP/domain reputation problems. If you are not an email/network admin please contact your E-mail/Internet Service Provider for help. Email/network admins, please visit http://postmaster.live.com for email delivery information and support

Anyway, as you can see, the mail I sent was rejected when it went to live.com (so I cannot use this method to reach my sister).  Looking back at the earlier header list, my guess is that the "culprit" which caused live.com to reject the mail was the IP source for the e-mail...
92.41.184.1.sub.mbb.three.co.uk (HELO ?92.41.184.1?) (92.41.184.1)
The fact an IP address from the Three mobile broadband pool will never match any domain "A" address for any of my domains means that some mail services, just like MS Windows Live, will reject this as potential spam, without even caring about the content of the message
I have other methods for sending (such as using FastMail.net, which will work on port 80 if you are behind some company firewall, or service like Orange {previously Freeserve} which 'grabs' port 25 traffic and puts it into their own mail service).  FastMail's proxy servers will accept connections on any port number (can be handy) .
FastMail has 3 levels of paid-for accounts and a guest level.  The "guest" account allows incoming mail to be accessed by IMAP but you'd have to use their webmail interface.  The first of their paid-for accounts offers IMAP and SMTP but not POP mail, and costs only $5 a year.  I've been using them for quite a number of years (5 or 6) during which time the costs have come down (apart from this $5/year, because I paid a one-off $15 for my account). 
I could still use <something>@<my domain> via FastMail's service, but to be frank, it's still likely (as <my domain> does not have any match for FastMail servers) some destinations like MS Live Mail will still reject the message.  It should have no problem if I used my FastMail address, but I rarely want that to be used, on outgoing mail. It gets used for tests, and mail forwarding for some  domains I have registered, so incoming mail for those domains goes into just one mailbox for collection/ viewing.