Jump to content

Welcome to Geeks to Go - Register now for FREE

Need help with your computer or device? Want to learn new tech skills? You're in the right place!
Geeks to Go is a friendly community of tech experts who can solve any problem you have. Just create a free account and post your question. Our volunteers will reply quickly and guide you through the steps. Don't let tech troubles stop you. Join Geeks to Go now and get the support you need!

How it Works Create Account
Photo

"Cannot send message using the server Btinternet"


  • Please log in to reply

#1
sue.words

sue.words

    Member

  • Member
  • PipPipPip
  • 182 posts

I have two main email accounts, one BT Internet and the other Google Mail. 

When I send emails from the BT Internet account sometimes (often, but not always, nearly every time) a few minutes after I've clicked Send I get the message "Cannot send message using the server Btinternet" (see top picture on attached file).

As you can see, for some reason BT Internet is listed twice and the second listing is highlighted. If I click the upper listing the email is generally successfully  sent

Just now when this happened, instead of clicking the upper listing, I clicked "Connection Doctor", and that made the lower picture appear.

Obviously (I think), something is wrong. It is certainly inconvenient to have to wait for the error message to appear before being sure of sending an email.

Has anyone any idea how I can put things right, please?

 

Attached Thumbnails

  • Screenshot 2019-12-04 at 22.50.04.png

  • 0

Advertisements


#2
britechguy

britechguy

    Member

  • Member
  • PipPipPip
  • 258 posts

I would contact Btinternet to pursue this.  They could have made server settings changes recently such that connections are not working.  There are times where certain servers and ports remain "grandfathered in" for a period of time but eventually become problematic.  Since it appears you are using IMAP access there is no risk in deleting the account from the device and setting it up again from scratch to see if that fixes things, provided you have not been using local folders as opposed to IMAP folders for your e-mail, which would be unusual and would have had to have been configured by yourself or whoever set up your e-mail client.


  • 0

#3
sue.words

sue.words

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPipPip
  • 182 posts

Thank you, Brian. Followed your advice and got onto BT. Had long "Live chat" with nice person, resulting in some instructions that I'm too busy to pursue at the moment. As soon as I have time I will return to sorting it out. Then I'll post the instructions here, together with feedback on whether or not they solved my issue.


  • 0

#4
britechguy

britechguy

    Member

  • Member
  • PipPipPip
  • 258 posts

One of the things I love about "the live chat" method of working with technical support is that to a one they've had the capability of saving the chat at its conclusion.  A very convenient way of having everything that was said saved for future reference.

 

Please do report back after you've had the chance to apply their recommendations.


  • 0

#5
sue.words

sue.words

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPipPip
  • 182 posts

Sorry for the delay. I've been too busy with Christmas preparations to pursue this till now.

What the adviser said was that I should look at this: 

https://www.bt.com/help/email/manage-email-account/manual-settings/what-are-the-settings-for-outgoing-and-incoming-bt-email-servers 

 

This begins like this:

 

What are the settings for outgoing and incoming BT Email servers?
 

IMAP and POP are the protocols or technologies that enable you to download your email messages to your computer or device.

To find out if you're using IMAP or POP, open up your email program, highlight the mail account you want to find out about, then open its settings or properties. Look to see whether the Mail Server "type" is set to IMAP or POP.

  • IMAP always syncs with the BT Email server, so any changes you make in your email program will also appear in your webmail inbox
  • POP3 doesn’t sync with the BT Email server so changes you make in your email program will not be transferred to your webmail inbox and could be lost

So if you're going to regularly use webmail and an email client, we'd recommend using IMAP with SSL enabled.

  • SSL (Secure Socket Layer) ensures that all data exchanged between your email client and the BT Email server is encrypted making it almost impossible for anyone to steal your username or password

I began by going to Mail > Preferences, where I was a bit discouraged to see that there wasn't a lot of correspondence between what I could see there and the stuff above. But I clicked on BT Internet in the LH column and then on the Server Settings tab. Looking at what was there I saw that the first item under  Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP), Account, was set at BT Internet (Offline). This ties in with what my error message kept showing (see the screenshot above). 

When I clicked the downward arrow beside this I saw BT Internet. I clicked on this and straightaway tried to send a test email to myself. It went at once. Since writing most of this I have successfully sent a second test to myself.

As the problem only happened sometimes (but did happen about half an hour ago), I don't know for sure that the problem is solved, but it looks as if it might be.

So, the nice adviser – and he/she was nice – thought the problem was a lot more complicated than it probably was (assuming I have cured it).

I feel a bit silly now but I still don't know how the problem happened in the first place.

Thank you again, Brian, for encouraging me.


  • 0






Similar Topics

0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users

As Featured On:

Microsoft Yahoo BBC MSN PC Magazine Washington Post HP