Entourage -sending emails

[chris4863]

Hi all

When I try to send emails they remain in the outbox and then over a period of many hours slowly get sent. I can't seem to find the necessary support/help to resove what must be a straught forward problem.

Any help appreciated

Thanks

C

 

[Ric]

Hi chris4863 and welcome,

What version of Entourage have you ?

What version of OS are you on ?

What type of Mac have you got ?

What type of Internet connection have you got ?

How large are the emails (attachments) ?

Sorry for all the questions but it helps us to help you...

regards

Ric

 

[chris4863]

Hi Ric

entourage version 10.0.0
OS version 10.4.5
internet connection is broadband and we use BTOpenworld (or whatever they are called now!)
the emails I'm sending are small text only. Although in the past never had any problems sending all sizes
I've got an eMac

Hope you can help, really appreciated

Chris

 

[Ric]

Hi Chris,

thanks for the info !

First I would go to the Microsoft website and download any updates that are available, apply those, then do a "Repair Permissions" in Disk Utility (Applications-->Utilities)

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx#OfficeX

Then a restart and give it another go...

regards

Ric

 

[chris4863]

Thanks Ric, I'll give it a go and let you know!

Regards

Chris

 

[lunarlee]

Hi Ric,

I have exactly the same problem. I'm on OS X 10.4.7 on an intel macbook pro.

I have several email accounts .mac using imap and pop3. both are taking forever to send both text emails, html emails and emails with attachments.

Several help forums have similar problems posted but to no avail.

I followed your instructions as above but to no avail. the emails still take forever to send!

best,

Lee

 

[lunarlee]

Incidentally i'm on BT business broadband and the problem started today. Just like CHris the original poster - hmmmm. is something up with BT are they choking outbound information via smtp - is that even possible?

 

[Ric]

Hi there lunarlee and welcome !

Are you using the same version of Entourage ?

I have BT at home and haven't noticed any specific slow downs...

hmmmm. is something up with BT are they choking outbound information via smtp - is that even possible?

Yes, it's possible. But I can't think that BT would be doing it. If they were, and they were found out, then they would lose a lot of customers !!

Have you been able to replicate the problem using a different email client ? Is it just Entourage ?

Try testing your Broadband speed to see if it is especially busy/slow:

This one is okay for the UK. http://www.adslguide.org.uk/tools/speedtest.asp

regards

Ric

 

[chris4863]

Hi Lee

I followed Ric's suggestions and didn't have any success so eventually called the Mac support at BT. Costs £25! but I intend to get it back from BT who have been hopeless trying to help. They offer free support to PC/outlook users but not Macs/entourage!!

Anyway think have got to the bottom of it, we discovered that some how we were incuded on a spam blacklist. No idea how or why? We turned of the router for 5-10 mins and it seems to have corrected things. I did also have to go to tools, accounts, advanced sending, and tick the smtp and re-enter id and password, then go through the process again and un tick it (don't know why, but as you can tell. I'm not the technical one!)

Give it a try!

Best

Chris
(ps am cosidering terminating my BT contract they are hopeless. Any suggestions who are the best/most reasonably priced/best support?)

 

[Ric]

Hi there Chris,

I'm not sure what BT are on about !

Recycling the power on your router is not going to get you unlisted from a spam blacklist !

Do you have your own IP address, or are you using dynamic ones ? Are you running a mail server ?

What services are you after ?

regards

Ric

 

[chris4863]

Hi Ric,

Unfortunately we currently use dynamic ones. I have been advised (not by BT) to try and get a fixed IP address if we seek a new supplier.

I don't think we have a mail server, but I'm a little ignorant about this.

Despite my earlier posting, we are still experiencing problems sending emails. Do you think it might be a fault with the router?

Regards

Chris

 

[Ric]

Hi there Chris,

Dynamic IP addresses are fine, but they are no good if you are running a Mail Server, most of the big boys add these to their spam blacklists.

It's hard to say what's up.

In your SMTP settings who are you sending the mail to ie

SMTP Server : smtp.bt.com

We need to know who is running the mail server, your company or BT ?

Doubt it will be anything to do with the Router, unless one of your Sys admins has been 'doing' something to it ?!

Do you get 'normal' speeds downloading mail, accessing websites etc ?

Also remember that the Broadband connection that you have is a 'shared one'...

Depending on the package that you have it will be 'shared between 10 to 50 different BT customers' !

So if they are all using at the same time, everyone slows down...

Did you try the Broadband speed test ? What were the results ?

Sending emails takes a lot longer than receiving them, on a 2MBS ADSL line when you are downloading from a website, or recieving emails you get a maximum speed of 2MBS...but when uploading (ie sending emails) a normal 2MBS line will upload at around 256K, that's 1/8th of the download speed.

To fault find further, we need to know who / where the mail server is...

Have you checked the Broadband speed...

Have you tried a different computer on the network...

Have you tried using a different "Mail" app...

regards

Ric

 

[Ric]

I presume you are at work at the minute...

If you are then you have no Mail server running.

So I presume that you are using BT's...

regards

Ric

 

[Ric]

Hi Chris,

I have set up an email account for you. You can use this to test, whether it is an Entourage problem or more likely an hosting problem. ie the people who are "Hosting" your website and email server...

...I know mine are very fast !

I'll leave the email account open till the end of the day for testing...

I have sent the login details via email.

regards

Ric

 

[Richard Broadbridge]

I have a similar problem. I use Entourage 2004 and have 2 e-mail accounts running on it (.mac and one from the ISP). Both worked quite happily until 2 days ago (no changes were made) and I now get the outbox filling up and the following error messages when I press send & receive:

-3253 failed or dropped connection to server.
-3269 can't connect to server.

This is using an iMac G5 and OSX 10.4.8.

Interestingly, new my Macbook (using the same wireless LAN and ISP) works fine on both send and receive. The version of Office is identical. I've re-installed Office on the iMac with no joy.

Any suggestions?

Richard

 

[Ric]

Hi there Richard and welcome,

have you tried running Disk Utility, Repair Disk or Repair Permissions on your Mac, sometimes these can help !

Do you have the latest updates for you version of Entourage ?

give them a go and let us know.

regards

Ric