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SapphireblueFlag for United States of America

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Outlook Express won't send NON-AOL email when dialed in through AOL

Hello, my client has a business web hosting account that provides email@herdomain.com addresses and a mail.herdomain.com SMTP/POP server.

She dials up through AOL. While she can receive email@herdomain.com email using Outlook Express with no problem, when she tries to send email@herdomain.com email using Outlook Express she receives the following error message:

The connection to the server has failed. Account: 'mail.herdomain.com', Server: 'mail.herdomain.com', Protocol: SMTP, Port: 25, Secure(SSL): No, Socket Error: 10061, Error Number: 0x800CCC0E

OE is set up right, using her own mail server. I wonder if this is somehow a problem related to her using AOL. Please note, this isn't a question about getting AOL email through Outlook Express---the only way AOL figures into this issue is that it's what she uses to dial up.

Can anyone shed some light? An AOL or Microsoft knowledge-base-type link for "official" confirmation of the cause of this problem would be an extra-nice bonus. My Google searches keep coming up with questions about getting AOL email through Outlook Express, and this is not that question. Thanks!
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Mob-bom

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GeauxVols

Many ISPs block SMTP from servers other than their own. I cannot email Netzero emails from any other account, unless I am dialed into Netzero. This is an annoying, yet common feature, it seems.
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ASKER

I know that blocking 25 is pretty common business, but am hoping to get a confirmation that AOL does it. I've found a couple of tech sites that say AOL doesn't, but they're all a couple of years old... and AOL is just useless when I call 'em up on the phone to ask about it. Their webmaster & postmaster info sites are similarly unenlightening.
How to test whether your ISP blocks port 25

Press Start/Run and enter:

telnet://[emailserver]:25

Replace [emailserver] with the address of any external mail server. For example:

mx1.hotmail.com
mail.telenet.net.au

Do not use your ISP's mail server address. If the port is not blocked, you should receive a response starting with '220 ' string.