iPhone - New Wireless Router, Can't Send Email

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Deeky

Gawd
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Feb 7, 2008
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I'm hoping maybe someone here has suffered a similar problem and knows the solution. If not, I'll try the Networking forum.

iPhone 4, no issues. When running on 3G, no problem sending/receiving email. When connected to my home wireless network (installed yesterday), suddenly I can only receive. Sending emails results in an extended pinwheel followed by an error message claiming it cannot connect to the SMTP server. Obviously, there's a setting somewhere that needs to be tweaked; I simply do not know what it is. :(

The router is a NetGear WDNR3700 w/ updated firmware.

Any help would be appreciated. Cheers.
 
Deeky said:
I'm hoping maybe someone here has suffered a similar problem and knows the solution. If not, I'll try the Networking forum.

iPhone 4, no issues. When running on 3G, no problem sending/receiving email. When connected to my home wireless network (installed yesterday), suddenly I can only receive. Sending emails results in an extended pinwheel followed by an error message claiming it cannot connect to the SMTP server. Obviously, there's a setting somewhere that needs to be tweaked; I simply do not know what it is. :(

The router is a NetGear WDNR3700 w/ updated firmware.

Any help would be appreciated. Cheers.
Click to expand...

What outgoing email server are you using?

What outgoing port is it set to?
 
Can you browse the web / do any other online functions with the phone on wifi?

There's no reason why the iphone wouldn't be able to send and receive email, so long as your router is setup properly. It's just a network path, and there's no config change needed on the phone (other than turning on the wifi)
 
Hmm. It seems I'm required to provide a different SMTP server for the wi-fi connection. The SMTP of my provider works fine so long as I'm on their network. As soon as I switch to wi-fi, I need to provide an alternate SMTP. I suppose now I have to track down the mobile SMTP of my ISP.

EDIT: Still failing even on the alternate SMTP. Contacting the ISP.

EDIT: Oh, sorry. To answer your questions, I was using my mobile provider's SMTP server with port 25. And yeah, I could do everything except send email ... which seems to indicate an issue with the SMTP server/port.
 
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Deeky said:
Hmm. It seems I'm required to provide a different SMTP server for the wi-fi connection. The SMTP of my provider works fine so long as I'm on their network. As soon as I switch to wi-fi, I need to provide an alternate SMTP. I suppose now I have to track down the mobile SMTP of my ISP.
Click to expand...

You may just need the full login information or connect through ssh. When on their own network, simple login name may be enough but when off it you may need the full [email protected].
 
You ISP (that the wi-fi uses) may be blocking port 25. A common alternate that many ISPs are using is 587
 
Ehren8879 said:
You ISP (that the wi-fi uses) may be blocking port 25. A common alternate that many ISPs are using is 587
Click to expand...

I does, according to their website, but only when attempting to send to a non-Shaw (my ISP) POP3. I'm currently using Shaw's remote POP access server. In this case, both SMTPs are port 25, and both work under the proper circumstances. The Shaw SMTP sends fine on port 25 while on wi-fi, the Bell SMTP (also port 25) is great on 3G. But neither can do both jobs. I tried both with port 587 pulling double duty, and neither made a difference. Shaw was still useless on Bell's 3G, Bell was broken behind a router on Shaw's internet.

This is to be expected. I'm beginning to think this is less an SMTP problem and more an iPhone issue. The phone attempts to send on the primary SMTP (Bell) and is meant to move on to the secondary (Shaw) once the initial attempt fails. It's doing that, but it takes 20 minutes for the phone to decide the first attempt has officially failed.

Oh, right! I forgot, I juggling two instances of this thread atm. Sorry. The meat of the progress (or lack thereof) can be seen here, in the Network forum: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1036203062#post1036203062

:p
 
Alright. Problem solved, thanks in large part to MavsX (from the Networking forum).

After a full day of toying with ports and making service calls to Shaw and Bell, I arrived at the realization that this is not an SMTP issue; it's an iPhone issue. Despite claiming otherwise, the phone is not differentiating between Shaw's (ISP) SMTP and Bell's (mobile) SMTP when the phone moves between 3G and my home wi-fi. I won't go into additional detail - there's plenty above - it's simply not working as indicated. Google-fu indicates this is a very common problem and has been for some time.

Neither SMTP setting plays nice on the other network (regardless of port), so I need a magic bullet. MavsX mentioned Gmail; he uses Google's SMTP at work (which I assume has a wi-fi network). I revisit the Gmail option. I've never used Gmail, plunking in the SMTP info wasn't of much use as it requires authentication and SSL. Long story short, I eventually stumble across this page. It details the solution I've been looking for, step-by-step. Very simple. It even ensures the mail arrives with the proper reply-to: info and NOT that of the spoofed POP. I wasn't aware Gmail was capable of that. Very cool.

So anyway, the Gmail SMTP is capable of sending email regardless of network; at least when switching between Bell's 3G and Shaw's wi-fi (the only tests I've conducted so far). It requires SSL, so I can only assume it will function just as well regardless of the path to the internets.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond! Cheers. :D
 
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