SMTP error
 

Hello,

I am using Mozilla 1.2.1 on Mandrake 8.0 to connect to my ISP
(using kppp). I have no problem reading my email using IMAP.
But I am unable to send email to an SMTP server. Mozilla prints
the error message "Connecting to SMTP server failed".

I am able to ping the SMTP server with 0% packet loss.
When I try to telnet to port 25 of the machine, I get the
message "Network is unreachable".

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you
Rajeev

The log from ping is:

[rajeev@localhost rajeev]$ ping smtp.swissmail.org
PING smtp.fpw.ch (194.209.117.61) from 67.234.22.212 : 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from smtp.generalmail.com (194.209.117.61): icmp_seq=0 ttl=113 time=578.023 msec
64 bytes from smtp.generalmail.com (194.209.117.61): icmp_seq=1 ttl=113 time=278.439 msec
64 bytes from smtp.generalmail.com (194.209.117.61): icmp_seq=2 ttl=113 time=278.644 msec
64 bytes from smtp.generalmail.com (194.209.117.61): icmp_seq=3 ttl=113 time=268.667 msec
64 bytes from smtp.generalmail.com (194.209.117.61): icmp_seq=4 ttl=113 time=288.648 msec

--- smtp.fpw.ch ping statistics ---
6 packets transmitted, 6 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/mdev = 268.638/326.843/578.023/112.538 ms

The log from telnet is:

[rajeev@localhost rajeev]$ telnet smtp.swissmail.org
Trying 194.209.117.64...
telnet: connect to address 194.209.117.64: No route to host
Trying 194.209.117.61...
telnet: connect to address 194.209.117.61: No route to host
Trying 194.209.117.27...

telnet: connect to address 194.209.117.27: No route to host

maybe you got a space or something in there.
you can put the ip in the smtp space if you want
to get around the lookup

You forgot to specify a port number.

Try : "telnet smtp.swissmail.org 25", it might work better. :-)

I've just run into this problem and found a work around on the 'net. Mozilla 1 and Netscape 6 & 7 reportedly have this bug and obviously it still persists in Mozilla 5. just found it in bugzilla: http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=146488

Likewise I could ping and telnet (port 25) to the SMTP server but trying to send would result in an error: unable to contact SMTP server. Other accounts on the Linux box were able to send (with exactly the same SMTP configuration).

The solution (or rather work around): (untested) edit prefs.js file (see bugzilla report) and remove duplicate/invalid smtp server entries
or
keep adding duplicate SMTP servers. Edit:Mail & Newsgroup Account Settings:Outgoing Mail Server: Advanced make sure all have the "use name and password" box unchecked and select different copies as the default and eventually it resolves itself. I had to add 4 copies of the SMTP server and edit the "null" one which appeared on its own and voila I could send e-mail again. :-S

Hopefully you've solved this by now (given it's 2 months on) but maybe it will help someone else.

Try mail.swissmail.org
or 194.209.117.61
or 194.209.117.27