Emails display as sent but aren't actually sending
I am trying to send Cox emails through Thunderbird, and they appear to be going through. Thunderbird tells me the mail is sent successfully, and the emails appear in my Sent folder, however, they never arrive in the intended inbox.
I travel and I have had the same problem on the last 5+ ISPs I've used.
Server name: smtp.cox.net Port: 465 (default 465) Connection Security: SSL/TLS Authentication Method: Normal password
Changing the security option or the port to 587/25 result in timing out during the "connecting to smtp.cox.net..." part of the process. Changing the server to smtp.west.cox.net results in the email appearing to be sent, but not actually being sent.
I restarted my computer in safe mode w/ networking. The emails appeared to be sent, but were not sent. Same thing when I tried turning my firewall off. I tried disabling all Thunderbirds extensions/addons, and again no help.
This problem has occurred for many months.
Downloading emails is working just fine.
Sending emails from Cox's online webmail without using Thunderbird works fine, but that process is extremely slow and annoying.
Any help is very appreciated!
All Replies (6)
Try: Port: 587 Connection Security: STARTTLS Authentication Method: Normal password
Toad-Hall said
re: smtp.west.cox.net Try: Port: 587 Connection Security: STARTTLS Authentication Method: Normal password
Same thing. Appears as sent, but never actually delivered.
I see nothing here indicating mail was not sent.
All I see are you appear to think mail was not sent. I assume due to lack of delivery. That does not indicate that mail was not sent.
What does cox have to say, are mails being sent by their SMTP server? That server is telling Thunderbird it has received the mail for transmission without error. My guess is cox are on a block list again because they have failed to manage spam properly, but only they can tell you if mail is being sent.
Matt said
I see nothing here indicating mail was not sent. All I see are you appear to think mail was not sent. I assume due to lack of delivery. That does not indicate that mail was not sent. What does cox have to say, are mails being sent by their SMTP server? That server is telling Thunderbird it has received the mail for transmission without error. My guess is cox are on a block list again because they have failed to manage spam properly, but only they can tell you if mail is being sent.
Cox has told me that every ISP I use has the port blocked, and every time I use a different ISP, I need to call them and figure out what ports are not blocked.
This seems unreasonable to me. Do other people have problems like this when using a new ISP?
one method you might consider as you travel alot. Create a gmail account. Forward messages from Cox account to the gmail email address; done via Cox webmail account.
Access gmail via https webmail.
you can access emails via Thunderbird. Create new existing mail account in Thunderbird for gmail. Then view emails via gmail account in Thunderbird.
Gmail has a two step verification method to assist with keeping stuff safe. You would need to set this up if access via a phone.
Thunderbird however, does not use two step verification, so if you set this up, then you would need an application specific pasword for Thunderbird.
If suspicious ativifity is detected - eg: logon from different IP address, you may have to jump throught some verification process, but it will get up access again.
Remember to logout whilst at home before travelling. If you are still logged in at home IP and you travel it will get flagged up as suspicious.
some useful links:
2 step verification:
application specific password to use in Thunderbird if 2 step is created.
Suspicious activity - password incorrect error
I have basically never heard of port 587 being blocked by an ISP outgoing. Gmail uses it and I do not see huge lists of complaints about ISPs blocking gmail.
However it would no surprise me at all if the truly paranoid people at cox block the ports incoming from users outside their ISP network. This is an organization that is still trying to use geographic SMTP servers after all. They apparently have not heard of load balancing.
I suggest you try their mobile server settings here http://www.cox.com/residential/support/tv/article.cox?articleId=a8fb24c0-6440-11df-ccef-000000000000 or get a roaming friendly mail provider.