Free Wi-Fi access is blocking SMTP outgoing emails - any way around this?

Question

My wife is at the hospital right now due to a family medical issue (long story but basically the family member in question is going to be fine).

She's using her laptop there in the waiting area and the hospital has wireless Internet access. Wonderful, so she can work, right?

Well it seems none of her outgoing emails over POP3 (using Outlook) are going anywhere. We're pretty sure the hospital has blocked it, and probably even said so in the little EULA they make you click through on the first go. But I'm not really swift enough to know how they're doing this (port blocking?).

She's asked me if there's any way around this. Does anyone know of a way?

Note that I am not asking for some way to break the rules, I'm just curious if anyone knows of some proxy method of getting those emails out. GoDaddy is the ISP, for whatever that's worth. I know they have web access email but that's a pain and we'd like to keep everything in Outlook if possible.

Answer 1

It could also be that the ISP is blocking the ports for SMTP. Check to see if your email provider has an alternate SMTP port. For GoDaddy I believe it is 3535.

Answer 2

It seems to me unlikely that godaddy is "blocking" this connection. However, it is very common for wi-fi hotspots to block port 25 -- the usual SMTP delivery port for e-mail.

An easy way to test whether this is the case is to open a "command" window and type

telnet example.com 25

Replace example.com with the smtp server that godaddy provides.

If you get a message that says "Connecting to..." with no other response, then the port is blocked.

You can change the "Outgoing Port" in Outlook from the Tools -> E-mail Accounts dialog.

It is common for network providers, including wi-fi hotspots, to block port 25. They do this in an attempt to prevent spam from originating on their network.

Port 25 is the standard SMTP delivery port for e-mail. It is the port that an e-mail server listens on to receive incoming e-mail.

It is also a common "submission" port. That is the port that an e-mail server listens on to relay outgoing e-mail.

Most e-mail providers allow users to access an alternate submission port. In fact 10-year old RFC 2476 specifies separating the delivery and submissions ports into 25 and 587 respectively. Port 25 is supported for submission for historical reasons.

If your provider supports an alternate submission port, and I believe GoDaddy uses 3535, then I recommend using it all the time. Even some home Internet providers block port 25 (AT&T DSL for one) and you'll avoid problems by not using port 25.

Answer 3

If you have a ssh server at home she could use a ssh tunnel to her smtp server through your home connection using port 80 which probably isn't blocked.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ssh_tunnel#SSH_tunneling

Answer 4

GoDaddy being the ISP, I assume you're using the GoDaddy SMTP server?

If so, then to see if GoDaddy blocks it, or the hospital: send a message to yourself (to some GoDaddy hosted email address) using that connection. Any SMTP server must accept messages for its own subscribers, without any authentication. However, for non-GoDaddy recipients SMTP may be blocked with a reason of "Relaying denied" or something like that.

If that message comes through, then you need to set up authentication for your SMTP server, to ensure GoDaddy knows it's one of their subscribers trying to use it. Without authentication, GoDaddy should not accept messages for non-GoDaddy recipients.

If the message is not sent, then port 25 (or 465 for secure SMTP) is probably blocked by the hospital's firewall. Maybe GoDaddy supports alternative ports as a workaround for that.

Often such alternative port is 587 ("message submission port"). Unlike ports 25 and 465, port 587 has been defined to always require some sort of authentication. As such, it is less prone to abuse for spam, and thus less likely to be filtered. Apple Mail automatically tries ports 25, 465 and 587, but for other email clients one might need to choose 587 manually. Of course, not all SMTP servers actually support port 587.

Remember: when using port 587 then also set up authentication details as well! Of course, after fixing any port-issues, you may need to set up authentication after all (if that's not in place yet), to allow the SMTP server to relay messages to subscribers of other providers.

Answer 5

Your Outlook is likely set up to use your ISP's SMTP server for sending email, which likely isn't accessible from the hospital's internet connection.

I would recommend purchasing Mailhop Outbound from DynDNS.

Edit

You could get a Gmail account, and use that for outbound SMTP in Outlook. Instructions for setting that up are here.

Answer 6

If you are using GoDaddy SMTP server (smtpout.secureserver.net), the default port should be port 80. Check your Internet Mail Account settings in Outlook, and set the following: Outgoing mail server (SMTP): smtpout.secureserver.net User name: Password: Outgoing Server tab: Check "My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication" Check "Use same settings as my incoming mail server." Advanced Tab: Set port to 80 (or 465 is using SSL)

Not that GoDaddy also allows the following ports for SMTP: 587, 25, or 3535

Good Luck

Answer 7

I will list all of the options here....

1) Use Web Access for mail for her company. This is the quickest and easiest method if it is available to you.

2) You can VPN into above said network. This will allow you to hit the mail server and should bypass the hospital port filtering.

3) You could set up a bounce on your own windows or unix box with a port mapping program.

4) You can set up your own mail server on a segment you control outside of this network. I recommend setting the incoming SMTP port to something that is never blocked like 443. SImply configure your SMTP server to point to that outgoing server and your messages will cruise...

5) Use an internet proxy service that does this sort of thing.

Answer 8

Many ISPs block port 25 to reduce spam. Change your email client's SMTP port to 2525 and try again.

You may need to check with your email provider to find out which SMTP authentication method is preferred.