Outlook Can't Send Messages

[Marts]

This morning I fired up Outlook 2007 (running under Windows 7). It retrieved all
new emails.

I then tried to post a new email, (not a reply). However, the nano-second that I
clicked on "Send" I received a reply from "System Administrator".

It said this:

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject: The Train Meltdown
Sent: 27-Jul-10 1:18 PM

The following recipient(s) cannot be reached:

(e-mail address removed) on 27-Jul-10 1:18 PM
None of your e-mail accounts could send to this recipient.


I have 3 active email accounts. I tried sending it from each of them with the
same result. They all send via different SMTP servers, too.

I then tried sending emails to other people. Same result.

When I clicked on "Message Properties" to view the headers from this mythical
System Administrator, there were none. The field where you view them is blank.

I'm having to use webmail at the moment to send or to reply to emails.

Everything was fine last night when I turned the computer off.

I'd really appreciate any suggestions to troubleshoot this one as I've run out
of ideas.

Thanks.

 

[VanguardLH]

This morning I fired up Outlook 2007 (running under Windows 7). It retrieved all
new emails.

I then tried to post a new email, (not a reply). However, the nano-second that I
clicked on "Send" I received a reply from "System Administrator".

It said this:

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject: The Train Meltdown
Sent: 27-Jul-10 1:18 PM

The following recipient(s) cannot be reached:

(e-mail address removed) on 27-Jul-10 1:18 PM
None of your e-mail accounts could send to this recipient.

I have 3 active email accounts. I tried sending it from each of them with the
same result. They all send via different SMTP servers, too.

I then tried sending emails to other people. Same result.

When I clicked on "Message Properties" to view the headers from this mythical
System Administrator, there were none. The field where you view them is blank.

I'm having to use webmail at the moment to send or to reply to emails.

Everything was fine last night when I turned the computer off.

I'd really appreciate any suggestions to troubleshoot this one as I've run out
of ideas.

Thanks.

See replies to your same message posted half an hour later. However,
here you give some more info, like "send via different SMTP servers".
Is that supposed to mean that they are with different e-mail providers
on different domains, or different servers with the same e-mail
provider?

Did you spell the e-mail addresses correctly? Did you include any
leading or trailing spaces? Maybe they had an account there but not
now. Maybe your sending mail server has that domain blacklisted as a
spam source (your e-mail provider should be able to tell you).

What e-mail client do you use (so we know what "Message Properties" is
supposed to show)? Are you actually using SMTP mail servers to send
your outbound e-mails, or are you using Exchange as your mail server?
Are you sending from home or work?

 

[Marts]

VanguardLH wrote...

See replies to your same message posted half an hour later. However,
here you give some more info, like "send via different SMTP servers".
Is that supposed to mean that they are with different e-mail providers
on different domains, or different servers with the same e-mail
provider?

Did you spell the e-mail addresses correctly? Did you include any
leading or trailing spaces? Maybe they had an account there but not
now. Maybe your sending mail server has that domain blacklisted as a
spam source (your e-mail provider should be able to tell you).

What e-mail client do you use (so we know what "Message Properties" is
supposed to show)? Are you actually using SMTP mail servers to send
your outbound e-mails, or are you using Exchange as your mail server?
Are you sending from home or work?

I am using Outlook 2007 (thought I mentioned it in the original post. If not,
apologies).

I have 3 email accounts set up in Outlook.

Prior to the errors occuring, they all went through my ISP's SMTP server.

When trying to fix it I changed the SMTP servers to the ones linked to the email
accounts. ie.

1. from smtp.myisp.com.au to smtp.yahoo.com.au
2. from smtp.myisp.com.au to smtp.gmail.com
3. didn't change the ISP provided email account for obvious reasons.

Sending from home. Can't use private email at work (just check it via the
various webmail services.

I discovered that the problem only happened when I sent email to .au domains.
Basic dot com addresses went out OK, whether via my ISP's email server or via
the gmail or yahoo ones.

Then, suddenly as the problem arose, it fixed itself. I spoke to my ISP's
helpdesk who checked the system logs but couldn't figure out what may have
caused this problem.

During my troubleshooting I reset the ADSL modem just in case something was
happening there.

I rebooted the PC. I got my wife to send a couple of emails. She's using Eudora
on Windows Vista. She had no problems. But shortly after she sent her emails,
the problem fixed itself.

Anyway, the problem, whatever it was, has disappeared. But I'd still like to
know what was causing it. I was hoping that some of the gurus here may have seen
something like this with Outlook, particularly as the "System Administrator"
originated messages had no headers in the emails.

 

[VanguardLH]

VanguardLH wrote...


I am using Outlook 2007 (thought I mentioned it in the original post. If not,
apologies).

I have 3 email accounts set up in Outlook.

Prior to the errors occuring, they all went through my ISP's SMTP server.

When trying to fix it I changed the SMTP servers to the ones linked to the email
accounts. ie.

1. from smtp.myisp.com.au to smtp.yahoo.com.au
2. from smtp.myisp.com.au to smtp.gmail.com
3. didn't change the ISP provided email account for obvious reasons.

Sending from home. Can't use private email at work (just check it via the
various webmail services.

I discovered that the problem only happened when I sent email to .au domains.
Basic dot com addresses went out OK, whether via my ISP's email server or via
the gmail or yahoo ones.

Then, suddenly as the problem arose, it fixed itself. I spoke to my ISP's
helpdesk who checked the system logs but couldn't figure out what may have
caused this problem.

During my troubleshooting I reset the ADSL modem just in case something was
happening there.

I rebooted the PC. I got my wife to send a couple of emails. She's using Eudora
on Windows Vista. She had no problems. But shortly after she sent her emails,
the problem fixed itself.

Anyway, the problem, whatever it was, has disappeared. But I'd still like to
know what was causing it. I was hoping that some of the gurus here may have seen
something like this with Outlook, particularly as the "System Administrator"
originated messages had no headers in the emails.

The techs you get to call have no information from the admins regarding
their maintenance or even if they are making changes or repairs.
Sometimes you can get them to do a test using a setups similar to yours
but often not or they do an "internal" test which is not the same setup
as you as an outsider and their customer.

Sometimes ESPs (email service providers) end up blacklisting Hotmail as
a destination domain (to where they send e-mails). Sometimes they
blacklist e-mails coming from Hotmail. It wasn't their intent and
eventually they correct whatever caused it. Could've been their
anti-spam filter or a blacklist (which may discard messages before they
even arrive to users' mailboxes so the users won't find them in a
junk/spam folder). Could be the receiving mail server issued a
rejection but it was screwed up, not your sending mail server. Your ESP
can't send anything there until the other end fixes their problem.

It is very unlikely that you will ever know the cause for the outage.
Those that are working on the mail servers aren't communicating their
current work schedule or logfiles to those that answer the tech lines.
Poof, it happened. Poof, it went away. Best you have is that the
problem wasn't on your end.

Also, I've been hearing more and more about ESPs that do not want their
customers to use Outlook to compose and send e-mails. I'm not sure how
(perhaps by looking for Outlook-specific headers) but there are articles
showing up that claim some ESPs are now blocking use of Outlook by their
customers. I believe this has grown as an issue as Outlook users were
ever more selecting to use Word as their e-mail editor and now, as of
version 2007 and later, are forced to use Word as their e-mail editor.
The HTML produced by Word is very "noisy" and contains tons of
directives that only apply if both sender and recipient are using Word
to compose or render the e-mail. What is the cause for refusing to
allow customers to use Outlook is not yet clear to me and I need to find
more concrete examples than the claims that I've seen made by others.
This isn't some bogey story to scare Outlook users but authors that feel
they are reporting something valid. Personally I strongly dislike using
Word as the e-mail editor and one of the reasons why I've stayed back on
Outlook 2003.