Trouble sending email

"W. E. Brooks" wrote:
>
> I had a similiar problem sending mail thru earthlink/mindstring/netcom.
> It's a long story but I will give you the short version.
>

> 1. I have email accounts with several ISP's. One of them is
> Earthlink. My main workstation (Mandrake Linux) has both a dial-up modem
> and a Cable Modem connection(LAN).
> 2. I can connect to internet using dial-up or thru Cable Modem.
>    I can receive email from all email accounts via dial-up or
>            Cable Modem.
> 3. To send email thru Earthlink, I must use their dial-up number. I
> cannot send thru Earthlink if I connect to internet thru
> Cable Modem or another ISP. This is a feature to prevent spam.

>
> 4. Normally, I use the dial-up connection only if the Cable Modem
> connection is down.If the Cable Modem conection goes down and I connect
> using the dial-up and then the Cable Modem connection comes back up.
> Which connection am I using? Well, it appears that if both connections
> are up then the Cable Modem(LAN) will be used. This is good. But what if
> I want to use the dial-up connection? To be sure the dial-up modem is
> used I must physically disconnect the Cable Modem(LAN) wire. This is not
> good but it works.
> --------------------
> I hope my story helps with your problem.
>
--------
Last time I checked - dialup on Earthlink blocked all access via port 25
to any mail servers not their own. There was some discussion about Cox
doing the same thing but I don't think that actually ever came to pass.

Some ISP's / domain hosting servers allow smtp connections via
connections foreign to their systems only via authentication and that is
where the ability to transact with telnet (telnet
smtpserver.yourhost.tld 25) is really quite instructive. It will
demonstrate whether the port access is blocked and the host on the other
end will report back the authentication methods (if any) that are
available to be used.

Craig