Constant SMTP timeouts

[Shayne]

Anyone else having issues sending email ?

I returned from holiday to find none of my email accounts are functioning through local email clients (Opera & Outlook Express). The last successful email I sent out via an email client was August 2nd. Sending mail works through both the Squirrelmail and Horde webmail interfaces. Script driven mail (php, etc.) appear to be functioning correctly via the box itself as well.
I can receive email on local clients without any problem.

Clients used : Opera, Outlook Express
Bluehost Box : 146

[areidmtm]

do you have SMTP authentication truned on?

[Shayne]

do you have SMTP authentication truned on?

Yes. All accounts worked correctly in early August.
I have been away so have no idea when this problem first began.

[Early Out]

Just a shot in the dark - do you have any incarnation of Norton Internet Security on your PC? These kinds of problems are usually the result of changes (automatic updates) to the anti-virus (occasionally) or firewall (usually the culprit) programs, and Norton is notorious for causing them.

If you do have NIS, the Symantec/Norton folks have an article about problems like this, - they have a troubleshooting routine you can run from that webpage. If that fails, they suggest removing and reinstalling Norton.

[areidmtm]

I've seen some ISP block the SMTP port. Why, I'm not sure. You could check with your ISP and see if they blocked it for some reason

[Shayne]

First thing I checked was that Kaspersky wasn't affecting the mail clients after a rogue update. The reason I posted the question here is that after I changed the SMTP port from 25 to 26 my BlueHost email accounts began to send email again - which is a little weird as my other (non-BlueHost) email accounts function perfectly using port 25 which would of course infer that my antivirus/firewall/ISP isn't blocking the default mail port. I was just wondering if anyone else had noticed a change on our box or if it was local to my account. I can live with a non-default mail port, I just need to remember to inform those who will have email addresses from the domain that they need to reconfigure the port for SMTP.

Thanks to everyone who has replied thus far.

[BigOkie]

I've seen some ISP block the SMTP port. Why, I'm not sure. You could check with your ISP and see if they blocked it for some reason

I know a lot of ISPs that do this (it cuts back on relays for spammers).

What to do if you are, and thankfully BH is the first hosting company I've used that offers this, is secure SMTP. Works like a champ for me sofar.

[Early Out]

...thankfully BH is the first hosting company I've used that offers this, is secure SMTP. Works like a champ for me sofar.

I didn't think BH supported SSL for POP email - what are the port numbers (in/out)?

[Reichling]

I've seen some ISP block the SMTP port. Why, I'm not sure. You could check with your ISP and see if they blocked it for some reason

Since Bluehost is aware of that they do not use the default SMTP port 25 but they use the port 26.

[Early Out]

Since Bluehost is aware of that they do not use the default SMTP port 25 but they use the port 26.

They use both. If your ISP doesn't block port 25, you can use it for BH SMTP. If your ISP does block port 25, you can use port 26 to get around it.