Anyone know why I can't send emails using my normal Mac Book Mail program in certain countries? I use a POP email server from the states and have to go to its webmail version to send, but I can receive just fine. This has been happening in Shanghai, Almaty, Taipei, Narita, and a host of other countries. In about half of the countries the email works fine both ways. Other friends have the same issues too with their mail.

Is there a preference setting that I need to be changing or am I SOL?

Thanks,

I think you're SOL...I'm no tech geek and have the same problems. I think the hotel's (or contracted service) out-going POP server limits or restricts outbound traffic...just like you can't send an e-mail to 100's of addresses...it limits spam and clogs bandwidth. When you use your webmail (on-line, internet based server), you go around the hotel server all together.

More likely is that your POP Server is blocking the request. I use Earthlink and can send from anywhere in the world - caveat - I had to set up my email account to allow access to the Earthlink server from an outside source (ie the hotel service). Most email servers have started this to reduce spamming and unauthorized access. Check with your POP service and see what settings you need to make it work.

max is right, it is your ISP. Since you aren't logged in via that ISP, to stop spammers it will not let you pass mail through it's accounts. The work around is to get a gmail account and if nothing else, use it as the outgoing pop server.

Agree...I've had the same problem sending mail from my Mississippi crash pad because the ISP on that network is different than my ISP back home.

Do the google thing. It works great all over the world!

It's not a pop thing, it's an smtp thing. Not only are some smtp servers not allowing certain connections, but many hotels and/or businesses won't allow connections over the standard smtp port. Go to your ISPs support website and see if they allow you to setup your outgoing mail through SSL, and it will tell you to change the port number in your settings along with selecting SSL. This works in most places for me and outgoing mail is sent via a secure connection. If your ISP doesn't provide that service, like others said you can setup a gmail account and use gmail's outgoing mail service to send from your other accounts. Good luck!

Try using your ISP's web-based email page.

I have a .mac account and have had good luck sending email using Mail with my @mac.com account when comcast or earthlink don't work.

For earthlink, somethimes you have to use the smtpauth.earthlink server. Check their web page for the exact setup.

I used to have trouble sending mail from some hotel networks and this is how I fixed it...it now works everywhere it used to and everywhere it didn't.
Go to mail preferences. Select accounts and and the account information tab. At the bottom is the Outgoing mail server list. If you hit the scroll arrow the last option is " edit server list"...select that. Then you will be at a box where you can select SSL and change port to 587.
Hope it works for you.

I used to have the same problem, and the port 587 trick didn't work all the time for me.

This is more than you probably wanted to know about what's going on.

I got tired of changing my SMTP settings every time I got to a new hotel, so I found this:

http://www.authsmtp.com/auth-smtp/overview.html

It costs a couple of bucks a month. Never had an issue since, anywhere in the world.