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Can't send Emails as the server times out

  • 4 replies
  • 4 have this problem
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  • Last reply by PJW2018

PJW2018
PJW2018
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I have 4 computers all running Thunderbird 60.4.0 (32 bit). I have two Email accounts. One is a @btinternet.com account. The other is hosted by 123-reg.co.uk. All 4 computers send and receive Email to the bt account. Three of them will not send Emails using the 123-reg.co.uk server. The fourth one works fine on everything. All receive Emails from the 123-reg.co.uk server.

Initially when Send is clicked the message "Connected to smpt.123-reg.co.uk" is shown After a delay of around 30 seconds the following appears;-

"Sending of the message failed. The message could not be sent because the connection to Outgoing server (SMTP) smpt.123-reg.co.uk timed out. Try again."

The computer which does work is a Windows 7 Pro 32 bit machine. Those that don't send are all 64 bit machines. Two run Win 7 Pro and the third runs Win 10 Home.

Comparing the settings on all 4 machines, they appear to be the same - so I don't know what the problem is. There are various articles relating to this problem on the web but they all relate to earlier versions on Thunderbird and the locations for changing "time out" settings remain a mystery. I'm not even sure that it is as simple as changing a "time out" setting.

Any help would be much appreciated.

PJW

I have 4 computers all running Thunderbird 60.4.0 (32 bit). I have two Email accounts. One is a @btinternet.com account. The other is hosted by 123-reg.co.uk. All 4 computers send and receive Email to the bt account. Three of them will not send Emails using the 123-reg.co.uk server. The fourth one works fine on everything. All receive Emails from the 123-reg.co.uk server. Initially when Send is clicked the message "Connected to smpt.123-reg.co.uk" is shown After a delay of around 30 seconds the following appears;- "Sending of the message failed. The message could not be sent because the connection to Outgoing server (SMTP) smpt.123-reg.co.uk timed out. Try again." The computer which does work is a Windows 7 Pro 32 bit machine. Those that don't send are all 64 bit machines. Two run Win 7 Pro and the third runs Win 10 Home. Comparing the settings on all 4 machines, they appear to be the same - so I don't know what the problem is. There are various articles relating to this problem on the web but they all relate to earlier versions on Thunderbird and the locations for changing "time out" settings remain a mystery. I'm not even sure that it is as simple as changing a "time out" setting. Any help would be much appreciated. PJW

Chosen solution

Looking at your first post, I notice "Connected to smpt.123-reg.co.uk...". Is that the exact error? If so, I think the server address in Account Settings/Outgoing Server (SMTP) should have smtp, not smpt.

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All Replies (4)

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 10 Contributor
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What are the antivirus programs on the 4 computers? Timeouts often are caused by AV scanning of outgoing mail. AV scanning of email and email connections is generally not recommended.

You could run the problem computers in Windows safe mode to see if AV is the source of the timeouts.

PJW2018
PJW2018 Question owner
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sfhowes Thanks for your suggestion. All 4 computers run AVG Antivirus (the paid for version). Starting a machine in Safe Mode with Networking (Windows 7 Pro 64 bit) doesn't help and neither does manually turning off AVG. This problem has only recently started - Possible after the latest Thunderbird update. Prior to that TB and AVG were working together without any problems.

Regards

PJW

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Chosen Solution

Looking at your first post, I notice "Connected to smpt.123-reg.co.uk...". Is that the exact error? If so, I think the server address in Account Settings/Outgoing Server (SMTP) should have smtp, not smpt.

PJW2018
PJW2018 Question owner
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sfhowes Absolutely spot on. Brilliant thank you. I don't know how it got changed on 3 machines but I've just changed it on my Win 10 laptop and everything works. I must have misread this setting at least a dozen times. :0(

Thanks for your help. Much appreciated.

Regards PJW