New customer and SMTP

[MrChris99]

Hi,

New VM broadband customer moved from Plusnet. I have my own domain and previously I sent emails via the Plusnet SMTP relay.

As a new VM customer I don't appear to get an email address, so I don't think I can used the VM SMTP relay (is this correct?).

Can anyone please offer help on how to configure my email client (ideally that also works when not connected to the VM wifi)?

Thanks 

Chris 

[Graham_A]

@MrChris99 You are correct that new VM broadband customers don't get a VM email address.

Your best option is to use the IMAP/SMTP server settings provided by the company that host your domain.

[MrChris99]

Hi Graham, 

Thanks for replying. I tried that using the 123-reg SMTP relay but have had no success so far. I wanted to check that VM didn't prevent this in any way before I get in touch with 123-reg support. 

Seems odd VM doesn't provide an email address and they don't state this upfront. It means new customers can't use the email settings on the VM support pages. 

Chris 

[Graham_A]

@MrChris99  I regularly use a domain hosted by 123 reg via my VM broadband connection using the 123reg servers without issue.  There is a help file here: https://www.123-reg.co.uk/support/email/how-do-i-set-up-an-email-client-with-123-mail/

Along with some other ISPs VM appear to be withdrawing from providing an email service to there broadband customers.  In VM's case this happened in May 2022 for new customers.  At the same time they stopped existing customers from creating new email addresses. I believe that BT have done the same.

[MrChris99]

Hello again Graham,

Thanks for your help so far. As a further test this morning I tried sending an email from Thunderbird with no authentication as I figured that was one less thing to go wrong. I got the following error message

Sending of the message failed.
An error occurred while sending mail. The mail server responded: Mailcore(2503): 82.X.YYY.ZZZ is blacklisted and not authenticated. Please
request delisting via the following link:
https://www.spamhaus.org/query/ip/82.X.YYY.ZZZ.. Please verify that your email address is correct in your account settings and try again.

I checked and Spamhaus says the IP has a PBL entry. Is this normal and put in place by VM? If so will I, as Spamhaus seems to suggest, have to ask for it to be removed every year?

Thanks again,

Chris

[Graham_A]

Being on a PBL is normal for a residential dynamic IP address and is nothing that VM has put in place.

Policy Block Lists

These are IP addresses that should not be connecting directly to mail exchangers.

Most residential customers of ISP's will find themselves on at least one of these. Two of the most well known are Spamhaus PBL and SORBS DUHL.

It's important to note that being on a PBL DOES NOT mean that your IP has been sending spam.

These zones in theory should list all public addresses assigned to customers via DHCP, (Spamhaus has also suggested it would also like to see all static IP's which do not host mail servers in this list as well). Therefore if you are on a PBL you should note that this is nothing to be worried about, it won't affect you sending mail.

Note also that if you are listed on on either PBL then your address may also appear in the master zones Spamhaus zen and dnsbl.sorbs.net, again provided you are sending through a legitimate mail service, this won't affect your mails as it's the Mail Transfer Agent's address that is being checked against the block list and not your own address.

Source: Ravenstar's Email FAQ's (virginmedia.com)

[MrChris99]

Thanks @Graham_A

I did have a quick read of the email help by @ravenstar68 but got a bit confused in the detail. I'm still not understanding the response I got from Thunderbird, so I looked and 123-reg's help at https://www.123-reg.co.uk/support/email/errors-when-sending-and-receiving-email/ at it says

• Try switching the outgoing mail server to your Internet Service Provider’s SMTP server address as some ISP’s policies may restrict the use of a third-party SMTP server

Which is exactly what I am unable to do 🤔

It also suggests

You can also contact your Internet Service Provider who should be able to run further tests to identify/resolve email issues.

So I might raise a ticket with VM parallel to trying anything you or anyone else may suggest. This feels like one of those problems where one small change will make it all magically work.

Thanks again for your assistance

Chris

[MrChris99]

As an update I finally found a way to open a chat with VM on Whatsapp, and it promptly told me they were too busy to chat. So I rang the number provided and got through to front line support who seemed surprised that I hadn't been given a VM email address. I was put on hold and then transferred to the UK where after explaining my problem again was told that no email account for new customers is correct, and then advised that the only possible resolution was "to get another email address" 🤣

I'm sure there must be a simple resolution to this. I have contacted 123-reg who asked me to try port 25 without authentication, and again I got the "IP is blacklisted and not authenticated" response.

Fingers crossed...

Chris

[MrChris99]

Bit more progress in that 123-reg suggested setting up another email client, so I tried my phone and again the email failed to send (although I don't get any clue as to why). So then I disabled the wifi on my phone and tried sending an email over mobile data and it failed again. 

So this takes then VM IP out of the equation which is one less thing (unless the mobile data IP also has a PBL entry).

Anyway 123-reg have escalated my ticket and will look to see if there is an issue at their end. Hopefully they have second-level support that can work out what is going on.

Still keeping my fingers crossed.

Chris

[David_Bn]

Thanks for your post on our Community Forums @MrChris99.

Do feel free to keep the thread updated with the outcome of the ticket being raised and we will be on hand to assist where possible.

Kindest regards,

David_Bn