Sending email takes a long time and then fails, why?

If whenever you try to send email from a program on your computer like Outlook or Eudora, it takes a long time to authenticate and then fails, then the reason is most likely because your attempt to relay has been blocked by your Internet Service Provider (dialup modem, DSL, cable, broadband).

More and more ISPs do not allow their customers to use outgoing mail servers (SMTP servers) other than their own, and enforce that by blocking their customers from accessing any remote servers on SMTP Port 25.

The solution to this problem is to contact your ISP and ask them what Outgoing Mail server (SMTP) they want you to put in your mail program settings.

Another possible cause is that you have a personal firewall running on your computer like Norton Anti-Virus, Black Ice Defender, or Zone Alarm that is not allowing this type of activity. The solution in that case is to either turn off that software, or configure it to allow you to relay mail.

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