BT Mail Servers (default)

[Peter Andrews]

When setting up a friends new BT broadband service I could not get email to
receive mail, (although I could send mail) the laptop account worked
perfectly at other (BT) locations, but exhibited the same problem when using
a Virgin Media (Telewest cable) broadband service. After a couple of long
calls to the BT helpdesk they changed the servers to pop.mail.yahoo.ca and
smtp.mail.yahoo.ca from the default mail.btinternet.com and everything was
OK!

The helpdesk were unable / unwilling to explain why this should be the
case - merely said that sometimes there are problems. Can anyone explain
why email on one BT broadband connection works OK yet another a couple of
miles away fails to allow sending. My initial thought was that the server
was not recognising the IP address as a valid BT range(?) but thought that
unlikely.

Just interested,

Peter

[Dan]

"Peter Andrews" <p.an...@blueblueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:MF06i.55646$Ug.4...@fe1.news.blueyonder.co.uk...

It depends on what the error message was telling you. You probably typed in
the wrong port numbers or password, or even other settings to do with
security. The BT standard POP/SMTP servers use different ports and
authentication to Yahoo. So if it works for Yahoo and you have just put the
BT details in it will never work! You should be using ports 25 and 110.
You need to be connected through BT broadband in order to use the BT service
to send. The servers will allow you to log on from anywhere to pick up mail
providing the correct user name format and password are used.

Check your settings. The first place to look is on the BT help pages, or
tell your friend to. If he phoned BT they should have gone through those
settings with him if he allowed them to. That is one of the very basic
scripts they read out when people have mail trouble.

[jim]

Are you using Outlook or are you picking up your mail from a web based
server ?

jim