Why won't my iPod Touch send email unless I'm connected to my LAN?

Thanks for the help, James! However, neither ports worked... I even tried turning SSL off, and that didn't help with either of them. I got a message saying "the username or password to (my account) was incorrect" the first time, and another message saying "one of your recipient addresses is invalid" the second time. (Which I know is not true because it was a test email to myself, which I can do on my LAN without any problems).

Do you have any other ideas? I'll even let you know every last detail of my account if that would help. Thanks again!

- Biblekid2

If you're on TimeWarner then you can't semd mail unless you are on a TW network. You may want to consider a MobileMe or Gmail account. You can forward all your TW mail there automatically, and begin transitioning away from using that address.

Michael is right, some ISPs prevent email from being sent via their accounts if you're not on one of their networks.

If you aren't using your ISP-provided email address, we need to know three things in order to attempt to figure this out.

1. Your email provider (the @what?.com part)

2. Your incoming mail server (ex: something.domain.com)

3. Your SMTP server (ex: smtp.domain.com)

Sorry it's taken me a while to get back....

I talked to our service provider (Surewest), and they told me that in order to SEND email on a different wifi, I first need to change my outgoing server to the one that particular network uses.

For example, if I'm out and about and get onto att's network, I first have to find out what their OUTGOING mail server is, and change mine to that one before I can send email on their wifi network).

Am I making any sense? I don't think there's anything other I can do about it, so I guess I'm just stuck where I am unless I do all the research for every single wifi I'm on and change my outgoing mail server to that particular one.

If you still would like me to provide any information after knowing this, please let me know.

Thank you SO MUCH for helping me out with this!

Well, they're wrong, but that does help to point out what their problem is.

As Michael suspected, Surewest won't let you use their SMTP (outgoing) server outside of their network, but you don't have to dig up the SMTP for every network you encounter. They're just assuming that the rest of the world operates with the same harsh restrictions as they do.

Try changing the SMTP server for your account on your iPhone to AT&T Wireless' generic SMTP server.

Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > You're Email Account. Then, scroll down to and select SMTP, then scroll down to and select "Add Server...". For the "Host Name", enter "smtp.attwireless.net" (without the quotes) and save. Now, turn your primary (Surewest) SMTP server off, and turn this one on.

If that doesn't work for you, try changing the SMTP host name to "cwmx.com" (without the quotes). This is AT&T's alternate SMTP server and may work in cases where the other does not.

Are you using your DSL/ISP provided email account? If so this is why you are having problems sending email while not at home.

The ports for sending email on your iPod touch are prob. looking for a port internal to your you home network. When you are out and about you might not be able to route back to your smtp server for your ISP.

James,

I'm not sure if I mentioned this (I know I did in my main question at the top of the page), but I have an iPod Touch, NOT an iPhone. This may make a difference as I have to be connected to a wifi signal, and can't connect to a cell phone based signal.

The att thing was just an example that the person at Surewest gave me, but the chances that I connect to their WIFI is very low, as I would probably have to be right next to their store or something.....

Do you still want me to try the steps you suggested? I don't think that would make a difference as I can't connect to cell phone connections.... not with an iPod Touch, anyway.

Let me know what you think!

Thanks a million!!!

Sorry, but I tried both things you suggested (the smtp.attwireless.net one as well as the cwmx.com one), and neither one worked. Here's a picture of the smtp.attwireless.net note that popped up:



What do you think I should do now?

Oh yeah... Sorry about the picture.... It's my computer that does that to pictures.

Yes, the network opened up Safari perfectly. And yes - the same error appeared for the cwmx.com one....

Oh boy, this is not turning out good. We may have to get more involved to troubleshoot this. We know that Surewest won't allow access to their SMTP outside their network (even on the alternate 587 or 465 ports), both AT&T SMTPs aren't working, and you have tried it on a network with internet access. Since at least one of the AT&T SMTP servers should work, the next thing we need to find out is if the email account itself is at fault.

How do you feel about creating a Gmail account for the purpose of troubleshooting this? It's free, and you can close it later if you want to.

If you want to, head over to http://gmail.com/ and sign up for a Gmail account. Once you've signed up, add the account to your iPod Touch by going to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account..., select "Gmail" and follow the instructions.

Gmail provides their own reliable SMTP server that can be used from any internet-enabled network.

If you can't send email from your new Gmail account, then something is seriously wrong with either the network or your iPod Touch. Try another internet-enabled network somewhere else. If that works, then the problem was with the first network. If it doesn't, then the problem is more than likely with your iPod's system and restoring it via iTunes may fix the problem.

If you can send mail via your new Gmail account, then the problem lies solely with your Surewest account. If you like Gmail, you should be to forward all of your Surewest email to your new Gmail account. It's free, reliable, packed with tons of useful features, and not locked to Surewest's network.

If AT&T truly allows anyone to send mail through their servers as James suggests, perhaps you need to turn off authentication in the advanced settings in mail prefs. I'll bet you have it on and have a password in the password field. Are you able to go to an Apple store for a Genius Bar appointment?

Does that mean that I should put something in the user name and password fields? I don't know what to put in if I do.

Also to Michael Lamy,
I tried to turn authentication off in the advanced settings like you suggested, but there was no option to do so. These were the only options: (See picture)

I'm confused as to what you're suggesting to do next James.... Should I be entering something in those "Optional" fields?

Come to think of it, both of you just gave me an idea.

Try going back to your original Surewest SMTP settings. You'll have to go through several configurations to find out if this works, but it's worth a shot.

Start on your home network. We want to make sure that at least it works at home before we go changing anything. When you select your SMTP server, you'll see the "User Name" and "Password" fields below. Enter your full Surewest email address in the "User Name" section, then your Surewest email password in the "Password" field. Now, go to "Authentication", and select "MD5 Challenge-Response".

Now, try to send an email from your iPod Touch via your home network. If it doesn't work, select the next authentication option until you run out (there are 4 total).

If it still doesn't work, change the "User Name" to just your Surewest email username (the email address, but without the "@whatever.com" part), and cycle through the authentication options again.

Once you have found one (or two or three) that work for you at home, take it on the road to another Wi-Fi network with internet access and try to send an email. If it doesn't work, try changing the SMTP's Server Port to 587 or 465.

If it still doesn't work (I know, it feels like this is going on forever), you might want to take it to a Genius Bar at an Apple Retail Store (if you're close to one). Sometimes, it's a lot easier to fix these things if you have the iPod in hand, rather than over a discussion forum like this.

Or, you could create a Gmail account and add it to your iPod, as mentioned above. That should tell use exactly what is at fault, but fixing it may be another story entirely.

For anyone still having this problem and finding this thread, I found a solution by creating a whole new outgoing smtp server. First off I re-set up my gmail account on my ipod with all the original settings just in case. Then in the Outgoing mail server settings for some reason the default smtp.gmail.com server has all it's information grayed out so I couldn't change it. I solved this by just creating a new one:
Host Name: smtp.gmail.com
User name: my gmail user name --- now this is the important part. Put your user name WITHOUT the gmail.com.
Password: *******
Use SSL: ON
Authentication: Password
Server Port: 587

Putting in my gmail user name without the gmail.com on this outgoing server setting was the most important part. I couldn't change it on the default server so I just created another one. Try this! Hopefully it'll work for youlike it did for me.