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FAQs
This is a Quick FAQ, to try to answer some of the common problems people are facing. It is still VERY incomplete. Please make suggestions and revisions so that it may become more complete as quickly as possible.
It is Windoze-orientated. Mac, LINUX and ARM users are extremely welcome to suggest material to correct this.
NOTE I have been told of a piece of software called Mercury/32 (from the same "stable" as Pegasus, http://www.pmail.com) that provides local mailing list functionality (Q1.15), but I have not had time to check it out thoroughly. Anyone who knows this software, please report back.
Contents
1 Outgoing SMTP E-mail
- Q1.1 What is the new outgoing E-mail server called?
- Q1.2 Can I use more than one outgoing mail server?
- Q1.3 Which name should I use?
- Q1.4 What protocols are used on the outgoing mail server?
- Q1.5 If the new server is ESMTP rather than SMTP, will this stop me sending E-mail?
- Q1.6 My mail client says it understands ESMTP, and sending mail works fine. Should I disable ESMTP?
- Q1.7 My mail client says it understands ESMTP, but sending mail has stopped working since the upgrade. Should I disable ESMTP?
- Q1.8 I've disabled ESMTP and sending mail still doesn't work. What now?
- Q1.9 Whenever I try to send E-mail, I get asked for a username and password. What should I do?
- Q1.10 Can I send mail using <smtp.blueyonder.co.uk> if I've dialled up using another ISP?
- Q1.11 I sent an E-mail, and it has been returned to me as "undeliverable". What should I do?
- Q1.12 Is there a limit on the size of E-mails I may send?
- Q1.13 How can I send a "large" E-mail (say, over a Megabyte)?
- Q1.14 Is there a limit on the number of recipients an E-mail may have?
- Q1.15 How can I send an E-mail to more than 100 people?
- Q1.16 How do I disable Server Authentication in xxx mail program?
- Q1.17 How do I disable ESMTP in xxxx mail program?
- Q1.18 Removed
2 Incoming POP3 E-mail
- Q2.1 What is the new incoming E-mail server called?
- Q2.2 Can I use both the cableinet and the blueyonder incoming mail servers at the same time?
- Q2.3 Which name should I use?
- Q2.4 What protocols are used on the incoming mail server?
- Q2.5 Whenever I try to retrieve E-mail, I get told something about my username or password being wrong. What should I do?
- Q2.6 I've disabled APOP, my passwords and usernames are correct, and retrieving mail still doesn't work. What now?
- Q2.7 I have five mailboxes. How do I retrieve mail from them?
- Q2.8 Is my password different for each of my five mailboxes?
- Q2.9 Can I retrieve E-mail from my Freeserve/Demon/Force9/Whatever account while logged into blueyonder?
- Q2.10 Is there a limit on the size of E-mails I may receive?
- Q2.11 Someone sent me an E-mail, and it was returned to them with a "Delivery Failure" message. Why?
- Q2.12 How do I disable Server Authentication (e.g. APOP) in xxx mail program?
- Q2.13 How can I get Eudora Pro to work properly?
- Q2.14 How can I tell if the POP3 Server is working?
1 Outgoing SMTP E-mail
- Q1.1 What is the new outgoing E-mail server called?
- It is now called "smtp.blueyonder.co.uk".
- To send SMTP E-mail through a firewall you must permit TCP and UDP traffic on Port 25 to and from this server.
- Q1.2 Can I use more than one outgoing mail server?
- Question is no longer relevant
- Q1.3 Which name should I use?
- Question is no longer relevant
- Q1.4 What protocols are used on the outgoing mail server?
- It uses ESMTP - Extended Simple Mail Transport Protocol
- Q1.5 If the new server is ESMTP rather than SMTP, will this stop me sending E-mail?
- The answer depends to a small extent on your mail client. In the main, the answer is no. Most mail clients understand only SMTP, and all ESMTP servers also understand SMTP, so the mechanism of sending mail should remain unchanged. (Of course, the old server also used ESMTP.)
- Q1.6 My mail client says it understands ESMTP, and sending mail works fine. Should I disable ESMTP?
- No need. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
- Q1.7 My mail client says it understands ESMTP, but sending mail has stopped working since the upgrade. Should I disable ESMTP?
- Yes. It is not necessary to have ESMTP, and it may be interfering with your mail delivery.
- Q1.8 I've disabled ESMTP and sending mail still doesn't work. What now?
- Continue with this section of the FAQ. If it still doesn't work when you've tried everything, send a message to Support, the newsgroup blueyonder.users.self-help or the byUsers Forums and someone will try to assist.
- Q1.9 Whenever I try to send E-mail, I get asked for a username and password. What should I do?
- Your mail client is trying to authenticate (sign on) with the new server. This is unnecessary, and may cause errors when trying to send mail. Disable authentication and try again.
- Q1.10 Can I send mail using <smtp.blueyonder.co.uk> if I've dialled up using another ISP?
- Only to other blueyonder addresses. The server is configured to prevent "relaying". This means that any E-mail it handles must be either posted from, or destined for, a blueyonder account.
- Q1.11 I sent an E-mail, and it has been returned to me as "undeliverable". What should I do?
- Examine the headers of the "bounce" message (the mail that is sent explaining why the original message couldn't be delivered), and the bounce message itself. There is usually a logical reason for the bounce, and it does not follow automatically that a bounce means the mail system is broken. You may have misspelled the recipient's E-mail address, or tried to send when dialled up from another ISP by mistake.
- Q1.12 Is there a limit on the size of E-mails I may send?
- A limit of 30MB has been set on incoming and outgoing E-mail. This matches the maximum size of your inbox, and is a reasonable limit to impose. Remember that other ISPs might have other limits.
-
- HotMail, for instance, won't accept a message larger than 1MB.
- Many ISPs and web-based mail services have a maximum mailbox size of
5MB.
- Many businesses limit the size of incoming E-mails to 3MB or 5MB.
- HotMail, for instance, won't accept a message larger than 1MB.
- Q1.13 How can I send a "large" E-mail (say, over a Megabyte)?
- If you must send a large E-mail, it is better to split it into smaller fragments, called "MIME Partials", that can be joined up at by the recipient to recreate the original message.
- Q1.14 Is there a limit on the number of recipients an E-mail may have?
- A limit of 100 recipients has been set. This helps prevent "spamming" (the sending of the same E-mail, often containing advertising and/or other junk, to hundreds or even thousands of people).
- Q1.15 How can I send an E-mail to more than 100 people?
-
- Split the recipient list into groups of 100 people, and send to each
group separately
- If it's a commercial solution you are after, consider using Mailing
List Server software such as MajorDomo (runs under Linux/FreeBSD) http://www.greatcircle.com/majordomo/, or Mailtraq (runs under
Windows) http://www.mailtraq.com.
- If it's something you need to do frequently, consider using a piece
of software such as "Postie" from http://www.infradig.com to send the E-mail.
- Consider using a Public Mailing List server such as Yahoo Groups (now includes OneList and EGroups) http://groups.yahoo.com, but be aware that an advertisement will be included with every mail these services handle. Another option is http://www.topica.com.
- Split the recipient list into groups of 100 people, and send to each
group separately
- Q1.16 How do I disable Server Authentication in xxx mail program?
- Agent 1.8 "Options | User and System Profile | System | SMTP Authentication... | (o) No login is required"
- Turnpike: "Connect | Configure | Email Transfer | Password", Clear the tick box labelled "Log on using"
- Others: TBA
- A "workaround" for Outlook Express 5 and Netscape Communicator is at http://help.blueyonder.co.uk/html/email/cantsend.shtml.
- Q1.17 How do I disable ESMTP in xxxx mail program?
- Turnpike: When sending email, Turnpike now uses the ESMTP protocol rather than SMTP. If the smarthost you are using does not support ESMTP then this will result in the initial "EHLO" command being rejected. Turnpike will then use SMTP in the usual way. Turnpike is capable of using the PIPELINING extension, which should improve the speed of handling the red tape at the start of mail sending operations.
- [Readme file for Turnpike 5.01].
- Others: TBA
2 Incoming POP3 E-mail
- Q2.1 What is the new incoming E-mail server called?
- It is now called "pop3.blueyonder.co.uk".
- To collect POP3 E-mail through a firewall you must permit TCP and UDP traffic on Port 110 to and from this server.
- Q2.2 Can I use both the cableinet and the blueyonder incoming mail servers at the same time?
- Question is no longer relevant
- Q2.3 Which name should I use?
- Question is no longer relevant
- Q2.4 What protocols are used on the incoming mail server?
- It uses POP3 - Post Office Protocol version 3.
- Q2.5 Whenever I try to retrieve E-mail, I get told something about my password being wrong. What should I do?
- There are four possible reasons for an error like this.
-
- Incorrect Username.
- The old POP3 Server was happy to use an alias name, such as "thudwunder", to collect mail from the mail account with that alias. The new server, unfortunately, only works with the Username, such as "zbrr12345", that you were assigned when you first were assigned your mail account.
- The reason this gives an "invalid password" error is part of POP3 Security. If a hacker doesn't have a valid username to use the system, don't give any clues to what *is* a valid username.
- Incorrect Password.
- A password is needed for POP3 collection, and is case- sensitive
- Did you change your password on the Self-Care pages, and forget to change it in your mail program? Did you change it to a password containing all Upper, all Lower, or mixed Upper and Lower case password? Have you used the same case exactly when entering the changed password into your mail program?
- Incorrect Authentication Mechanism
- The POP3 Server accepts standard (unencrypted) authentication and MBS_BASIC authentication only. Are you trying to use a different mechanism such as APOP? It won't work.
- Incorrect Protocol
- Only POP3 will work. Don't try to use IMAP or SMTP to collect your mail from the POP3 Server.
- Q2.6 I've disabled APOP, my passwords and usernames are correct, and retrieving mail still doesn't work. What now?
- Continue with this section of the FAQ. If it still doesn't work when you've tried everything, send a message to Support, the newsgroup blueyonder.users.self-help or the byUsers Forums and someone will try to assist.
- Q2.7 I have five mailboxes. How do I retrieve mail from them?
- Each mailbox is reached using a variation of your Username. For example, if your username were "zbrr12345" your five mailboxes would be:
-
- zbrr12345
- zbrr12345_2
- zbrr12345_3
- zbrr12345_4
- zbrr12345_5
- Configuring your mail program to retrieve using whichever of those five "usernames" you wish will retrieve mail from that account.
- Q2.8 Is my password different for each of my five mailboxes?
- Formerly the same password was used for all five mailboxes.
- Under the new blueyonder platform, this has changed. It is now possible to set a different password for each mailbox. This may be done whenever a mailbox is set up, or a new "alias" is added to a mailbox, at http://selfcare.blueyonder.co.uk.
- NOTE: Take great care. Setting a different password for any mailbox means more passwords to remember (obviously). Forgetting to update your E-mail software with the new password, or even forgetting the new password you have set, will result in your not receiving mail.
- A secure password is:
-
- 6 or more characters long
- Not a real word
- Not an obvious choice (such as birthdays, maiden names, your Username,
etc.)
- A mixture of lowercase and uppercase letters and numbers
- Does not have too many repeated or double letters/numbers
- 6 or more characters long
- Choosing something like "8i11Gates5ux", is perfect. It is memorable, mixes letters and numbers, and is pretty much unguessable. If you can get punctuation characters in there as well ("Micro$oft1s5tinky"), so much the better.
- OK, the examples above are perhaps extreme, but choosing "password" or "letmein" or "mail" as your password makes your mailbox, and thus your E-mail, insecure. Don't do it.
- Q2.9 Can I retrieve E-mail from my Freeserve/Demon/Force9/Whatever account while logged into blueyonder?
- Depending on your ISP, the answer is usually "yes". Because POP3 collection requires authentication (unlike SMTP -- see Part 1 of this FAQ), most ISPs allow you to collect mail even if you haven't dialled in to them.
- Q2.10 Is there a limit on the size of E-mails I may receive?
- A limit of 30MB has been set on the size of your inbox. The total size of all E-mails in your inbox must therefore not exceed this figure.
- Q2.11 Someone sent me an E-mail, and it was returned to them with a "Delivery Failure" message. Why?
- This may be for a number of reasons, and will usually be explained to a greater or lesser extent on the "bounce" or failure message received by the sender.
-
- Is your mailbox full?
- Unless you delete old E-mails regularly, your 30MB limit may soon be used up. When this happens, further attempts at mail delivery will fail, and the sender will be alerted with a failure message.
- Did the sender misspell your E-mail address?
- With the change from "cableinet.co.uk" to "blueyonder.co.uk", there is a good chance that someone has tried to change your E-mail address in their own "address book", and made a mistake.
- Q2.12 How do I disable Server Authentication (e.g. APOP) in xxx mail program?
- Agent: "Options | Inbound Email System | [ ] Use APOP if supported by the server"
- (Shouldn't normally be necessary to clear this tick box, since Agent will fall back on standard authentication if APOP fails. Unfortunately the "Welcome" message from the new POP3 platform fools Agent into thinking that APOP is supported, and in the ensuing argument between software and server, the user becomes the luser.)
- Pegasus 3.12: If you are using "Identities" assume the appropriate one otherwise go straight to:
-
- "Tools | Internet options ... | Receiving POP3 (tag)"
- Ensure the "APOP shared secret (optional):" window is clear.
- Turnpike: "Connect | Configure | Email Transfer"
-
- Highlight the server name you want to configure
- "Edit"
- Clear the tick box labelled "Use 'APOP' authentication"
- Others: TBA
- Q2.13 How can I get Eudora Pro to work properly?
- Late releases of Eudora Pro attempt to use an obsolete POP3 command, "LAST", to retrieve mail. This is not supported by newer POP3 servers, including the new blueyonder server.
- To disable this feature, and others that might cause problems, shut down Eudora, then make sure that the following lines are in EUDORA.INI.
-
- FirstUnreadNormal=1
- FirstUnreadStatus=0
- UsePOPLast=0
- Q2.14 How can I tell if the POP3 Server is working?
- A simple test is to try looking at your mail through the Web-Mail interface at http://webmail.blueyonder.co.uk. If you can retrieve mail here, the POP3 Server is almost certainly working, and your client may be at fault.
- A second way is to use a program such as POP3 Scan Mailbox from http://www.kempston.demon.co.uk/smb. This free product allows you to view the contents of your five mailboxes, delete mails that may be causing problems in retrieving mail (large E-mails can often cause clients to stall), or download individual messages without having to download the whole mailbox.
- The definitive test is to use Telnet, as described below and at http://help.blueyonder.co.uk/html/software/email/telnet.shtml.
- For this example, I will use a Username of "zbrr12345". You should user your own username...
-
- Go online, then Start telnet with:
"Start | Run | telnet pop3.blueyonder.co.uk 110"
- You'll be greeted by a text-based window. This is normal. It will say
:
"+OK Microsoft POP3 Server Version: 5.5.1877.117.11 ready <somethingorother@blueyonder.co.uk>"
- In "Terminal Preferences", make sure that "Local Echo" is selected,
or the next bit will be hard!
- Type "user zbrr12345" and press enter.
- You'll see "+OK Waiting for password"
- Type "pass" followed by your password, then press return.
- If your password is not accepted, or you typed the wrong username, you'll
see "-ERR Permission denied".
The reason an incorrect username is not flagged when first entered is to make it more difficult to "break in".
- Otherwise you'll see "+OK Mailbox for zbrr12345 has 0 messages."
if the mailbox is empty, or a list of numbers if it's not. Typing "stat"
or "list" will give more information. That information is not
very informative, but it does let you know that mail is waiting.
- Type "quit".
- Exit Telnet, then repeat for "zbrr12345_2", "jzbrr2345_3", "zbrr12345_4"
and "zbrr12345_5" (your other four mailboxes).
In each case you'll see how many messages are in each box.
- If you get "Permission Denied" on any box(es), and you are
absolutely sure you typed your username and password correctly,
try again. If it happens three times in a row, the mailbox(es) concerned
is/are broken, and should be reported to Support. Including all the details
of the username (but not the password) you used, and explain that you
used Telnet to test.
If Support then point out that you really did use the wrong username or password... <g>
- Go online, then Start telnet with:
Last Amended : 2003-03-31 by elfin
Original Author : Jellyroll
This page was last updated at