Newest KB Articles in Troubleshooting email problems and errors

If you have have deleted email messages but your email account/domain quota is still full

Sat, 12 Mar 2011 00:19:58 GMT

This information applies to SmarterMail and the SmarterMail web-based email interface.

When you delete a message from anywhere other than the Deleted Items folder, it will first move the message to the Deleted Items folder. The Deleted Items folder is a special folder that acts like the Recycle Bin on a Windows/Mac desktop. It's there to prevent you from accidentally deleting an email message and allows you to restore the message(s) if needed.

To permanently delete the message(s) and free up email disk space, select the Deleted Items folder and perform the delete operation again on the messages stored here. This will remove the email from the servers.

You will not be able to undo this operation.

If you received a bounce message for an email that you did not send, or received a complaint from someone saying you sent a virus, but you didn't send the email

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 01:10:46 GMT

Email messages can be forged. An email sender can simply change the "From:" field in their email program, or in more advanced cases, forge addresses through the SMTP protocol, inserting any email address in the "MAIL FROM:" section of the message.

Spammers often harvest email addresses by spidering web sites or forums, or through viruses which can harvest an infected computer's contact lists. They use these harvested address in the "From" and "Reply-to" fields of their outgoing messages to avoid dealing with the complaints generated by the spam.

Due to these shortcomings in SMTP and email message sender authentication, there is little that can be done to prevent this type of abuse. While we seek to incorporate technology that will help prevent these types of abuse, there are currently no 100% effective solutions.

If complaint messages are being directed to your inbox via email addresses that do not exist, you are receiving them due to the catchall email address being enabled. We recommend that you disable the catchall configuration so that these email messages do not make it to your inbox. The messages will then bounce, letting other mail servers know these are not valid email addresses.

If the messages are coming directly to your inbox through a valid email address, unfortunately all we can recommend is that you consider changing your email address, if that is feasible. Usually this is a temporary problem, but if it continues over an extended period of time you may consider adding an SPF record to your DNS. There can be negative side-effects to an incorrectly formed SPF record however, so we only recommend using SPF if you are comfortable with its configuration and implementation.

See this Knowledge Base article for additional information on SPF records.

If you can receive email but cannot send outgoing mail

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:17:27 GMT

In some cases when you attempt to send mail you can experience an error similar to the following:

The connection to the server has failed. Account: 'you@HostingAccountDomain.com',Server:'mail.HostingAccountDomain.com', Protocol:SMTP, Port: 25,Secure(SSL): NO Socket error: 10061, Error Number: 0x800ccc0e

This error usually indicates the failure of your email program to connect to port 25, the SMTP (outgoing mail) port. One of the following is the likely cause of this problem:

Your firewall blocks SMTP connections to an internet mail server. Consult your firewall documentation or network administrator for details.
Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) does not allow SMTP connections to an internet mail server. Most large ISPs now block port 25 in an effort to prevent spam. If you believe that this is the cause of your error, you will have to configure your email program to use your ISP's SMTP server. Consult your ISP's technical support or FAQ regarding SMTP usage.

If you use one of the ISPs listed below, try the corresponding SMTP setting to see if it remedies the problem. If it does not, contact your ISP for SMTP settings.

If you cannot find the SMTP server for your ISP, or do not have access to it, you can use [mail.HostingAccountDomain.com] through port 587. Consult your email program's help files for information on changing the outgoing mail port.

Error when trying to send mail: "553 sorry, relaying denied from your location [000.000.000.000] (#5.7.1)"

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:09:31 GMT

This error indicates that your email client is not configured to use SMTP Authentication. To protect against unauthorized access to our SMTP servers, users are required to authenticate with a valid email account.

See the following articles for information on how to configure your email client to use SMTP Authentication

Outlook Express
Outlook XP/2002/2003
Outlook 2007
Mozilla Thunderbird V.1
Mac Mail
Mac Entourage