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Why Can’t My Guest Send Email Using My LAN?

Question: I have a guest at my house who normally uses dialup, but with a different ISP than myself. She has a Laptop with XP Pro and I set her up on my network, no problems. She can access the internet, use my printer and receive mail. When it comes time to send mail it wants to “dialup” using her normal ISP, which we don’t want it to do. Why? And how do we make it work?

There are, in fact, a couple of potential roadblocks to her being able to send email via your network. One’s a simple configuration issue, and the other might require a little support from her ISP.

But both should be easily solved.

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First is this insistence on dialing when you send. That’s typically a configuration setting in the mail program. You didn’t indicate which mailer she’s using, but I’ll use Outlook Express as my example. In Outlook Express, hit the Tools menu, click on Options and then
click on the Connection tab. Click on the Internet Connection Settings, Change button. Now make sure that Never Dial a Connection is selected. (Remember the previous setting, as she’ll want to restore it when she leaves your network.)

That was the easy part.

In order to prevent spam, most ISPs will require some kind of authentication in order to send mail if you’re coming in on a connection that does not belong to that ISP. For example if I were a verizon.net customer, if I dial in and connect using Verizon’s dial-up network, that’s enough – they know it’s me. But if I’m visiting a friend who’s using a different ISP, Verizon needs me to “prove” that I am who I say I am: a customer of theirs and not some spammer.

So, again using Outlook Express as my example: go to the Tools menu and click on Accounts. Click on your mail account, and click on the Properties button. Now click on the Server tab. Make sure that the My server requires authentication is checked underneath Outgoing Mail Server.

Now give that a try.

Unfortunately there are several possible ways that ISP’s can authenticate outgoing mail. If that approach doesn’t work, some mailers (like Outlook, but not Outlook Express) include an option to “check mail before sending” which is another approach.

If neither of those work, you should check with her ISP for their recommended solution for sending mail via a network other than their own.

If they don’t have one, then check to see if they have web access to her email. It’s inconvenient not to be able to use her regular email program, but at least she should be able to compose and send email.

And finally, if all else fails … well, that’s one reason to have a Hotmail, Yahoo, GMail or other free email account. If all else fails, those should work pretty much anywhere.

(And if it’s important, for example if your friend travels a lot and will be doing this often, let your ISP know that you need this functionality. Personally, it’s something I’d be willing to change ISPs to get.)

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12 comments on “Why Can’t My Guest Send Email Using My LAN?”

  1. If she sets the Internet Connection Setting to “Dial whenever a network connection is not present” she may not have to change it back when she returns home.

    Yet another option is to change the outgoing server name. On the Servers tab, write down the current Outgoing Server (mail.herisp.com) and change it to match her friend’s (mail.friends.com). When she returns home she’ll have to change the outgoing server name back to (mail.herisp.com).

    Need one more? I have registered domains at GoDaddy.com and they allow me to use their secure servers with outgoing mail authentication. This option allows me to travel and not worry about email settings. GoDaddy may or may not (depends on the weekly specials) charge a small fee for this option.

    Reply
  2. Changing the server name: maybe. The problem is that her friend’s server may also require authentication – in which case she would have to then include her friends username and password in outgoing SMTP authentication. I have also experienced ISPs that match the FROM address with the ISP’s concept of the account and rejected mismatches. (I left that ISP.) You’re correct that it can work, if the friend is willing, BUT it’s very confusing when it doesn’t. The best solution, by far in my opinion, is to use your regular ISP and authenticate with them.

    Reply
  3. Thanks Leo and all the other people for there inputs. We, or should I say she, can now send her emails no problems. She is wrapped, going from dialup to ADSL2+, where she can now send her photos and video, if need be, in a fraction of the time and I don’t have to pay for the call every time she had to dialup.

    Thanks, all again,

    Tony.

    Reply
  4. Sir

    Kindly let me know whether any software (freeware/trial) is available with Digit for the following mailing purpose.

    We have 10 computers inter-connected through a Switch under a workgroup named CALICUT. We are using Windows 98 in these computers. No Domain is used. The computers are named as PC1…PC2……to PC10

    We are using Internet-Broadband connection and sharing the same using winproxy with the remaining 9 computers.

    Now, I want an internal email software for sending/receiving mails with attachments among these 10 computers. This should work even without Net connection (Offline). I am sitting in PC1 and I want to send a file to PC10. They must see this as a NEW MAIL with attachment.

    I tried the same with Outlook and CMailServer Softare, but not successful.

    Please let me know about such a software available

    Thankyou
    Sincerely
    K.Salil

    Reply
  5. Even when i religiously follow the prescribed steps in configuring yahoomail using outlook 2007 i still fall into a dialogue box the require the entering of a password that i have already entered.it keeps reoccuring annoyingly. how can i get past this block?

    Reply
  6. pls sir,i desire to configure outlook express over LAN also.i will sincerly appreciate if this information is passed on to me via my email address.thanks

    Reply
  7. I have had the same problem when using Orange. It will not send from a connection other than its own and I cannot find a way round that one. It seems to be peculiar to them. However I can use my O2 account without any problem provided that I tick the “my server requires authentication” box. Hope this helps someone.

    Reply
  8. Sir

    Kindly let me know whether any software (freeware/trial) is available with Digit for the following mailing purpose.

    We have 10 computers inter-connected through a Switch under a workgroup named workgroup. We are using Windows xp in these computers. No Domain is used. The computers are named as PC1…PC2……to PC10

    We are using Internet-Broadband connection and sharing the same using winproxy with the remaining 9 computers.

    Now, I want an internal email software for sending/receiving mails with attachments among these 10 computers. This should work even without Net connection (Offline). I am sitting in PC1 and I want to send a file to PC10. They must see this as a NEW MAIL with attachment.

    I tried the same with Outlook , but not successful.

    Please let me know about such a software available

    Thankyou
    Sincerely

    velu

    Reply

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