Can't send emails unless I'm on home network

I have a similar error - I can send emails from my iphone as long as I'm in my house, using wifi on Virgin media internet connection.

However, as soon as I take my iphone away from my home and try to send email while on a 4G / 5G network or other wifi network, I get a password error and the email is never sent.

Miraculously, as soon as I go home again, the email is automatically sent.

Now I haven't made any changes to my iphone email settings, so the problem is obviously within Virgin's network and SMTP servers are not correctly responding to SMTP authentication unless the supplicant is within their network. That really is useless for people who need to use email when away from home, and can't use the webmail client on a small iphone.

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qwertyuiop2 wrote:

I can send emails from my iphone (blueyonder.co.uk email address) as long as I'm using my home wifi.

However, as soon as I leave the house, I get an SMTP server authentication problem (password incorrect error), using 4G/5G or other wifi.

Since I'm not changing my SMTP credentials on my iphone, it must be a problem with Virgin's authentication mechanisms when the connection is from outside the Virgin network. It's not a DNS issue, because I can resolve and ping smtp.blueyonder.co.uk successfully when out and about.

Any idea how this can be fixed?

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It would be helpful to see what error code is returned by the SMTP server in this situation. From a desktop or laptop device open a Command Prompt in Window or otherwise a Terminal. and enter the following where username:password is replaced with your email address and password, i.e. richard.branson@virginmedia.com:rotavator-racecar-tenet-repaper:

curl -v smtps://smtp.virginmedia.com -u username:password

Do not post the resulting output here but instead review it for possible reported causes, i.e. VM error code; choosing to ignore this advice and posting the unredacted or incorrectly redacted output here will likely reveal your email address, password and / or public IP Address.

FYI if there is no issue then you should see the following output from the curl command:

⋮
> AUTH PLAIN
< 334 
> [Redacted]
< 235 2.7.0 SMTP350 Authentication successful for user [Redacted]
> HELP
< 214-2.0.0 This is cmsmtp ESMTP service help
214-2.0.0 This is cmsmtp ESMTP service help
< 214-2.0.0 To contact postmaster send email to postmaster@virginmedia.com.
214-2.0.0 To contact postmaster send email to postmaster@virginmedia.com.
< 214-2.0.0 For local information send email to Postmaster at your site.
214-2.0.0 For local information send email to Postmaster at your site.
< 214 2.0.0 end of HELP info
214 2.0.0 end of HELP info
* Connection #0 to host smtp.virginmedia.com left intact

Otherwise an unsuccessful result will look similar to the following:

⋮
> AUTH PLAIN
< 334 
> [Redacted]
< 525 5.7.13 Authentication Denied (VM320)
* Closing connection 0
* TLSv1.2 (OUT), TLS alert, close notify (256):
curl: (67) Login denied

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I'm going to answer this in stages, and I'm going to be blunt.

I guess that is an iphone peculiarity.

I guess you just learn to dig into the settings a bit better - SMTP is SMTP - some servers have quirks due to the security settings on the account, but if you are using the correct settings it should work both at home and away from home.

Oh and before you criticise me - I used to be a Virgin Media customer and have a blueyonder.co.uk email address set up on different devices - including multiple iPhones and iPads across changing iOS versions.

With regard to the suggestion of deleting the account and setting it up again.  That's not necessary.  You can edit the account settings in situ provided you don't change the incoming account type.

1. Go into Settings->Mail->Accounts
2. Tap the name of the Account that's giving you trouble.
3. Tap Account settings
4. Under Outgoing Mail Server tap SMTP
5. Make sure there are no Other SMTP servers showing
6. Tap Primary
7. Ensure the settings are shown as below
   

8. Note: The password field MUST be populated and should be the same password as is used on the incoming side and the Authentication type is Password.

   The email address MUST be your full blueyonder email address - i.e. joebloggs@blueyonder.co.uk
9. Tap done when you've changed these settings and the phone will try verifying them.  If they are good they will all be ticked and you can tap Done again.

If this fails then I'd recommend visiting whatismyipaddress.com when on the mobile network to get your IPv4 address and checking to see if the IP is listed on Spamhaus's block lists - ignore any listing on the PBL though - that's normal.  HOWEVER being as your other account can send whilst being away from home - I think that providing the settings are correct this won't be necessary..

coenoby  To be frank, they really shouldn’t need to delete their account.  I’d delete and re enter the password and possibly check the username etc.  In the old days Apple didn’t delete the SMTP server details when you deleted the account.  I did create a post about it.  I think it’s been changed in the later iOS versions though.  I just don’t believe in removing everything if we can avoid it.