Right ... someone who understands popboxes and email hosting ... over 'ere please

[deepdarkwood]

So, I thought my email host was with x - their name is on the incoming mail server in my email account setting. I am having problems setting up email on new laptop - and contacted x, who say that I don't have mailhosting with them. Sure enough, when I go onto my control panel with them, it ain't there.

So ... where is my email coming from?!?

TIA

hopeful bump

This is a bit difficult to answer without knowing who X are, or what you actual email address is. It's quite possible to have an email address that's nothing to do with the actual mailbox that you pick it up from, if your mail is redirected from the domain (the bit after "@" in your email address) to the real mailbox. Some mail programs assume, when you set the up and say that your address is

[email protected]

that your mailbox is called "joebloggs" and it's hosted at "domain.com", when in fact it may be redirected to some other mailbox that is nothing to do with domain.com. Even more confusingly, neither your email address, nor your real mailbox, are not necessarily anything to do with your ISP (the people who provide your broadband connection).

So, as I say, it's impssible to say without knowing the details, but you need to figure out if your address is the same as your mailbox, and if either of them is anything to do with your ISP. You my be able to figure this out from another computer that was set up in a way that did work, if there is one.

oooh, thank you.

x is 123-reg, who I pay for hosting, but aren't my ISP (not sure why I was being secretive!) - my mail address is [email protected] (hosted by 123reg) ...

If I go into the old laptop, the inbound popbox is a 123-reg one (although not the outbound, which is via my ISP.

Any clearer/any suggestions for next steps? I have a shiny new mac I can't use

OK, so you say "their name is s on the incoming mail server in my email account setting"

That's likely to be something like mail.somedomain.co.uk or pop.adomain.com (or similar).

Your account details will likely be your e-mail address [email protected] (although sometimes the "@" may be another character) and a password.

Do you have a spare e-mail account on Google Mail, Windows Live / Hotmail, or Yahoo? (if no other mail account, you could open a free trial at www.fastmail.net ) so you can use that to send a test message to your POP mailbox (to be able to check it arrives on your Mac)

You will need to set the ISP's SMTP (outbound) mail server too, which often does not need username or password (they know you are connected to the ISP network because of your IP address). If your settings for that are wrong, then that might be causing your problems. Many applications do send and the receive for mail.

If you are still getting error messages, it may help to post the actual message (without obscuring mail server names too much of course)

OK- in your control panel with 123-reg there should be some indication of what happens to your mail- evidently they don't host it, but in that case it is normally redirected to somewhere else- so normally it's either mail for

[email protected] goes to
[email protected] (which it apparently isn't) or
[email protected] goes to
[email protected] (or whatever) -which it might be.

It is also possible, but unusual, for the DNS records on your domain to allow the mail to bypass 123-reg completely, and just go somewhere else without 123-reg actually doing it. But I think that's unlikely.

Anyway the point I'm trying to make, at rather pointless length, is that if 123-reg aren't hosting your mail, they should at least be able to tell you who is. If you have an address that is [email protected] that people can send messages to, the mail must be going somewhere, and they should know where it is.

When you say you're "having problems" setting up your mail- what exactly happens when you put what you think are the right settings?

another thing to try is www.zmailer.org/mxverify.html

put your e-mail address in either the first or third boxes (the middle site might still be dead or wonky) and it should check where the e-mail goes. It connects to the mail server and there should be some dialogue shown which say "I'm pop mailbox at somedomain" then next line might say HELO xx.uu.xxxx (message means this is xx.uu.xxxx trying to connect) and the mail server should reply

That first bit "I'm pop mailbox at somedomain"
may help, and the IP address that is shown before it connects may also be useful.

prism - I'm guessing the having problems might be that trying to send a test message fails if SMTP info is incorrect, making it look like incoming mail isn't working either.

Using something like a GMail account at least allows for a new unread message to be put in the POP mailbox ready for collection...

Lovely techy people :-)

I've been off talking books & having wine, but once I'm calm & sober again will try all these thoughts & get back to you.

(But I should say, in the meantime, DH has managed - he's not entirely sure how - to sort email on new mac, so things are briefly happy again.....)

glad you're unstuck