In reply to a post by trolleybus:

If we use BTs SMTP server we are frustrated to find that the email client's configuration is different depending whether the laptop is in the office or used at home.

Can you explain in what way it is different?

OP means that for a particular account, that of his hosted email addy, in his email client the Outgoing Server is set to BT's SMTP so that it works at work (on BT ISP). But at home it does not work cuz the employees are on a diff ISPs and so needs to be changed.

This is not unusual for many ISPs cuz they don't all provide non- port 25 authenticated SMTPs.

I think this was the whole point of OP's long diatribe.

EDIT: I misunderstood that BT was the ISP at work not home.

Edited by XRaySpeX (Fri 08-Jun-12 15:17:59)

Far TMI for the point raised!

In reply to a post by trolleybus:

If we use BTs SMTP server we are frustrated to find that the email client's configuration is different depending whether the laptop is in the office or used at home. I would stress this is BTs way of doing things and is not the same as other ISPs approach which is through authentication which works no matter where you are geographically located or the ISP used.

Not true! Not all ISPs provide non-port 25 authenticated SMTPs. O2 and Orange present the same dilemma.

In reply to a post by trolleybus:

Now I am pretty sure that other BT Infinity users must have been presented with this problem and I am interested to learn if they have found a solution.

Simples! Set up 2 almost identical accounts in your email client for your hosted email addy:

• My Domain @ Work with Outgoing Server = BT's SMTP
• My Domain @ Home with Outgoing Server = Home's SMTP

EDIT: I misunderstood that BT was the ISP at work not home.

Edited by XRaySpeX (Fri 08-Jun-12 15:45:34)

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

OP means that for a particular account, that of his hosted email addy, in his email client the Outgoing Server is set to BT's SMTP so that it works at home (on BT ISP). But at work it does not work cuz they are on a diff ISP and so needs to be changed.

This is not unusual for many ISPs cuz they don't all provide non- port 25 authenticated SMTPs.

I think this was the whole point of OP's long diatribe.

Can't be that. BT provide authenticated SMTP servers.
http://btbusiness.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_...

But the point is that if the authenticated SMTP is still on port 25 many other ISPs will still block it. That article says nowt about changing port #.

587 can be used

Good! Where's it say that?

If that's the case it gets over all OP's objections.

Edited by XRaySpeX (Fri 08-Jun-12 14:07:46)

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

In reply to a post by trolleybus:

If we use BTs SMTP server we are frustrated to find that the email client's configuration is different depending whether the laptop is in the office or used at home.

Can you explain in what way it is different?

Yes I can but first just an observation that I am buried with BTs logon accounts [all have the same password] which are:
Network username [Entered in router]: [email protected]
BT Business account: [email protected]
BT Openzone username: [email protected]
Authentication username: [email protected]

For the desktops we used the POP3 server name and password provided by the hosting supplier and for SMTP, mail.btconnect.com was used. That's it, job done for the desktops in the office and everything works fine

Turning to the laptops used at various homes, the ISP is not BT in every case. The POP3 and SMTP is set up as the office desktops but in addition authentication is required for SMTP. This information is provided by BT once you have established your credentials and made changes to the CNAME records. Carry out everything to the letter and everything works fine no matter where you go except in the office where you quickly discover you can't send out emails unless the authentication details are removed.

To me it's quite illogical and frustrating that the settings can't remain the same for the office and at home so my solution was to use the hosting provider's SMTP settings, but them we hit the poor reputation problem.

I emailed BT saying this was not a satisfactory arrangement especially for less technically confident end users to adjust their settings depending on geographical location.

The response I got back was: "Unfortunately there is no other way to use mail relay. When you are on-site you cant have authentication on and when you are off site you need authentication on if this option was to be removed then that could lead to abuse of our mail server this is the only way we can keep this secure."

O dear, so it's tough luck on us. I have yet to discover what the situation would be when connected to BT Openzone; not another setup surely?

BTW, to use BTs SMTP server at all [with our domain name], we had to furnish our whois information to prove we owned that domain name and our hosting provider had to make some CNAME changes, all in all it was four days before it was all sorted. Not the simple or quick task that has been suggested elsewhere.

In reply to a post by trolleybus:

Turning to the laptops used at various homes, the ISP is not BT in every case. The POP3 and SMTP is set up as the office desktops but in addition authentication is required for SMTP. This information is provided by BT once you have established your credentials and made changes to the CNAME records. Carry out everything to the letter and everything works fine no matter where you go except in the office where you quickly discover you can't send out emails unless the authentication details are removed.

Try sending mail using port 587 as discussed with my good friend in this thread. The is the Authenticated SMTP port instead of Port 25 which the SMTP server uses without authentication.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

In reply to a post by trolleybus:

Turning to the laptops used at various homes, the ISP is not BT in every case. The POP3 and SMTP is set up as the office desktops but in addition authentication is required for SMTP. This information is provided by BT once you have established your credentials and made changes to the CNAME records. Carry out everything to the letter and everything works fine no matter where you go except in the office where you quickly discover you can't send out emails unless the authentication details are removed.

Try sending mail using port 587 as discussed with my good friend in this thread. The is the Authenticated SMTP port instead of Port 25 which the SMTP server uses without authentication.

Very detailed instructions were given by the Customer Service Advisor of the
Technical Ownership Unit on setting up MS Outlook to use BTs SMTP server with our own domain email address. Nothing there to say the port number should be something different. Sadly I won't be in the office until Monday but will let you know if 587 is the answer to our prayers next week.