Cox.net Will Not Send from iPhone

On 12-Mar-2008, at 05:46, David Clark wrote:
> Since June 2007 I've been a cox.net customer and had their cable
> internet at home. So, my main non-business account is dc1999cox.net.
>
> In early October I started using an iPhone, and since then have sent
> literally hundreds or more Email msgs using that account from the
> Apple iPhone.
>
> Friday, cox.net quit working to send on the iPhone. I've talked to
> cox.net tech support (twice), AT&T, and even went to the Apple Store
> in Irvine to check out my phone.
>
> Does anyone on this list have a clue what cox.net is doing? Why did
> my service from the iPhone suddenly and without warning quit
> working? I can receive messages but not send. We've tried multiple
> times to restart - reset the iPhone, delete and re-enter the account,
> and just about anything else suggested. But, nothing works to permit
> sending. The cox.net T/S people as much as accused me of being a
> spammer or up to some other no-good.

Well, other than accusing you of being a spammer (Which would have
gotten a "I'd like to cancel my service RIGHT NOW" reply from me) what
did they say?

What is not working?

How are you connected when the send is failing. Does it fail if you
are on wifi in your house? or is it only failing when you're elsewhere?

BTW, this is why you never use your ISP for your email.

On FridayMar 14, 2008, at 7:49 AM, LewisGmail wrote:

> Well, other than accusing you of being a spammer (Which would have
> gotten a "I'd like to cancel my service RIGHT NOW" reply from me) what
> did they say?

In multiple discussions, the cox.net people told me I would not be
permitted to use their outgoing servers when not connected to their
cable, meaning anywhere except at home. That is not true, of course,
because I've been able to continue using cox.net at my office on this
MacBookPro except that it appears Earthlink is relaying those
messages. The MBP Mail utility Pop Down window offers that option,
and I take it.

> What is not working?

When I am in the cox.net inbox using the iPhone, I cannot then send a
message from that account. The message winds up in the outbox and
cannot be sent. The iPhone works for any of my other three accounts
- .Mac, Earthlink, and Clarklawfirm.com (a webhosted account).

> How are you connected when the send is failing. Does it fail if you
> are on wifi in your house? or is it only failing when you're
> elsewhere?

Cox.net works when I am on wifi at home, but not on the iPhone Edge
network. Remember, for almost six months it DID work from the iPhone.

> BTW, this is why you never use your ISP for your email.

  I thought that was the purpose of an ISP. I still have an
Earthlink account and once in a while use it to send messages. For
months I've been slowly transferring away from Earthlink to the
cox.net account, but now must apparently keep some service in order
to use their relay.

I do appreciate all the help. You are all far more knowledgeable
about these matters than me.

Thanks.

Dave

On Mar 15, 2008, at 8:51 AM, David Clark wrote:

> In multiple discussions, the cox.net people told me I would not be
> permitted to use their outgoing servers when not connected to their
> cable, meaning anywhere except at home. That is not true, of course,
> because I've been able to continue using cox.net at my office on this
> MacBookPro except that it appears Earthlink is relaying those
> messages.

Actually, what Cox.net is telling you is true. What is happening is
that when at the office Mail is trying to send your outgoing message
via cox.net. When it fails, it is smart enough to ask you if you want
to use a different SMTP server. So it asks you if you want to use
Earthlink, and when you take that option, your mail is being sent
through Earthlink even though your From and Reply-to information is
still Cox.net

> The message winds up in the outbox and
> cannot be sent. The iPhone works for any of my other three accounts
> - .Mac, Earthlink, and Clarklawfirm.com (a webhosted account).

This is a bit odd, since the iPhone should be giving you at least an
error message saying that it failed to connect to the SMTP server.

> Cox.net works when I am on wifi at home, but not on the iPhone Edge
> network. Remember, for almost six months it DID work from the iPhone.

So, they must have just recently started blocking mail-relays from
external networks.

I glanced at the cox.net support page, and they do explicitly say that:

1. They will only allow you to use their SMTP servers when connected
to their network (i.e. they block port 25 relaying out of their
network).

2. They will not allow you to use their SMTP servers unless you are on
their network (i.e. they don't do relays).

I guess they just don't think their customers travel with laptops,
never mind iPhones. In fact, if you go to Apple's Mail setup assitant
(http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/mailhelper/) and enter a cox.net
address, it suggests that you use cwmx.com for your SMTP server (which
I am assuming is AT&T's server). But given the cox.net policies
above, you will have to turn off WiFi on your iPhone to send email
from home (you won't be able to access cwmx.com from the Cox.net
network).

So, you might ask Cox.net if they have a secure SMTP server that they
allow their customers to access from outside their network when you
are traveling, for example. Alternatively, you can set up the SMTP
server for the iPhone to use Earthlink's secure SMTP server (http://kb.earthlink.net/case.asp?article=4015
) for all your outgoing email. (This requires you to keep your
Eearthlink account, even if you just use your cox.net account for
incoming email.)

Or, it may be time to use gMail SMTP or some other SMTP service like I
suggested in my earlier response.

Hope this helps.

Tn

On Mar 15, 2008, at 5:51 AM, David Clark wrote:

> On FridayMar 14, 2008, at 7:49 AM, LewisGmail wrote:
>
>> Well, other than accusing you of being a spammer (Which would have
>> gotten a "I'd like to cancel my service RIGHT NOW" reply from me)
>> what
>> did they say?
>
> In multiple discussions, the cox.net people told me I would not be
> permitted to use their outgoing servers when not connected to their
> cable, meaning anywhere except at home. That is not true, of course,
> because I've been able to continue using cox.net at my office on this
> MacBookPro except that it appears Earthlink is relaying those
> messages. The MBP Mail utility Pop Down window offers that option,
> and I take it.


That suggests to me that the Cox people are giving you the correct
information, and that from work you are sending the mail via
Earthlink. Mail behaves that way when the designated server refuses
its attempt to connect.

Please send us a message in this thread from work using the Macbook
Pro. We can then look at the Received: headers.

The message to which I'm responding came from a Cox connection but
went directly to Apple's server, not through a Cox server. That makes
sense, since you're using your mac.com account, and Mail configures
those that way.

Received: from [192.168.2.2] (ip72-211-216-171.oc.oc.cox.net
[72.211.216.171])
        (authenticated bits=0) by mac.com (Xserve/asmtp005/MantshX 4.0)
with ESMTP id m2FCg74e026106
        (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=AES128-SHA bits=128 verify=NO); Sat,
  15 Mar 2008 05:42:07 -0700 (PDT)

   --John

At 5:51 AM -0700 3/15/08, David Clark wrote:
>On FridayMar 14, 2008, at 7:49 AM, LewisGmail wrote:
>>BTW, this is why you never use your ISP for your email.
>
> I thought that was the purpose of an ISP.

An ISP (Internet Service Provider) can provide many services.

<Lecture>

        Most importantly, there is routing of packets to and from
your computer. If you don't have this, you don't have anything. When
you type <http://www.apple.com> <return> into your browser's address
bar, packets go out, and packets come back, and the browser builds a
web page from the information so delivered. Cable companies (like
Cox) and phone companies are well situated to provide this service,
since they already have wires going into most homes. You don't have
to buy connectivity (or "internet dial tone" as it is sometimes
called) from them, but they're going to offer it.

        Almost everyone wants email. Almost every ISP offers email
along with the rest of their services. You can use it, or not. There
are ISPs that just offer email services, w/o providing connectivity.
Gmail is a good example of this. pobox.com is another. If you seem to
switch ISPs on a semi-regular basis (you move, you change from cable
modem to DSL, whatever), and you want an email address that doesn't
change, you can use these services. Some people register their own
domain (idio.com, say), and run their own mail servers.

        Web hosting is another service that (some/many) ISPs provide.
AT&T, for example, provides 50 GB (or something) worth of space on
their web servers for you to post pictures, etc. Flickr does the same
- but they don't provide connectivity.
</Lecture>

In general, while I don't agree that Lewis' advice is right for
everyone, you need to remember that you don't _have_ to use your
local ISP (the one that is providing connectivity) to send and
receive email.
--
-- Marshall

On SaturdayMar 15, 2008, at 3:54 PM, johnbaxterlistsmac.com wrote:

> Please send us a message in this thread from work using the Macbook
> Pro. We can then look at the Received: headers.

I'll try doing that when I get to the office on Monday.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions from everyone.

Dave

It is beginning to look like this is more and more an issue with Cox
not allowing SMTP mail relaying. Most ISPs do limit email relaying
since most spammers depend upon open SMTP servers to do their dirty
work. However, most simply limit out going messages to something like
250 or so emails per day. Something reasonable for most people, but
something spammers can't live with.

The best choice I've heard so far is to not use Cox's SMTP server. I
don't use my own Cable server. Instead, I have my own domain and email
server via a hosting service. That's $4 per month.

A cheaper solution would be to buy a domain and a forwarding service
which can be had for as little as $6 per year. Most will throw in a
dozen or so email forwardings too.

So, get your own domain. That way, when you switch ISPs, you can keep
your email address. I have the weintraub.name for example. Then, get a
Gmail account and set it up, so all mail sent from the Gmail account
have your forwarding address on it. It's actually pretty simple to do.

Gmail gives you a unbelievably large 6 Gb of email storage, allows you
to use mail client programs like Apple's Mail.app or Microsoft's
Entourage as well as it's web interface, plus it doesn't attach ads to
the bottom of messages.

Using a setup like this, it appears that you're using your own domain
to handle email since all mail says it is coming from and going to
your domain address. You have to look at the header detail for someone
to realize you're using Gmail.

Plus, Gmail allows for secured SMTP which means you can use a public
WiFi connection without people reading your email. And, the iPhone
comes with its own Gmail application.


--
David Weintraub
qazwartgmail.com

On Mar 16, 2008, at 6:20 AM, David Weintraub wrote:

> It is beginning to look like this is more and more an issue with Cox
> not allowing SMTP mail relaying. Most ISPs do limit email relaying
> since most spammers depend upon open SMTP servers to do their dirty
> work. However, most simply limit out going messages to something like
> 250 or so emails per day. Something reasonable for most people, but
> something spammers can't live with.

As I said before, I have had the same issue with Charter. Though I
was one able to send my email on the iphone, they made changes so
that it can no longer be done. I can, however, send charter mail if I
use Safari to log into my account and send from there. It is a pain
but I can do it that way. At the local Apple store, I was told by an
'expert' that he, too, has Charter and that he also inquired and was
told that it can no longer be done though we can send email through
the Safari browser from Charter's online site.

Does Cox not have an internet site where mail can be collected?

Kathie

--On March 16, 2008 3:20:20 AM -0700 David Weintraub <qazwartgmail.com>
wrote:

> It is beginning to look like this is more and more an issue with Cox
> not allowing SMTP mail relaying. Most ISPs do limit email relaying
> since most spammers depend upon open SMTP servers to do their dirty
> work.

Actually this is no longer the case. Most spam is sent by zombie computers
that are part of a botnet. Although many of these will attempt to relay,
most frequently they just send directly to the destination SMTP server
without relaying. When using relaying, the destination only has to block
the relay IPs. When all the bots send directly, each IP has to be
individually blocked.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_computer>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botnet>

> The best choice I've heard so far is to not use Cox's SMTP server. I
> don't use my own Cable server. Instead, I have my own domain and email
> server via a hosting service. That's $4 per month.

This could reverse the problem where you can send through your custom
domain from the iPhone but not from a computer on the Cox network. To fix
the problem above where zombies send mail directly to other servers many
ISPs now block all outgoing port 25 traffic unless it goes through their
own SMTP server.

You might be able to use cox.net's SMTP server to send mail where the FROM:
address is your custom domain but some ISP's block e-mail through their
SMTP server that claims to be from another domain.

> Plus, Gmail allows for secured SMTP which means you can use a public
> WiFi connection without people reading your email. And, the iPhone
> comes with its own Gmail application.

I think this is the better solution. Because GMail allows connections on
the SSL mail port, most ISPs don't block this port, and you can relay mail
(as long as you authenticate first) it will work with most ISPs.


Kevin

On Mar 16, 2008, at 3:20 AM, David Weintraub wrote:

> It is beginning to look like this is more and more an issue with Cox
> not allowing SMTP mail relaying. Most ISPs do limit email relaying
> since most spammers depend upon open SMTP servers to do their dirty
> work. However, most simply limit out going messages to something like
> 250 or so emails per day. Something reasonable for most people, but
> something spammers can't live with.

And many allow submission from "outside" provided authentication (SMTP
AUTH) is used. Since Cox hasn't made that simple suggestion, it seems
likely that they don't.

   --John

On Mar 16, 2008, at 12:40 PM, johnbaxterlistsmac.com wrote:

> On Mar 16, 2008, at 3:20 AM, David Weintraub wrote:
>
>> It is beginning to look like this is more and more an issue with Cox
>> not allowing SMTP mail relaying. Most ISPs do limit email relaying
>> since most spammers depend upon open SMTP servers to do their dirty
>> work. However, most simply limit out going messages to something like
>> 250 or so emails per day. Something reasonable for most people, but
>> something spammers can't live with.
>
> And many allow submission from "outside" provided authentication (SMTP
> AUTH) is used. Since Cox hasn't made that simple suggestion, it seems
> likely that they don't.
>


> I looked closely at cox.net website and it states they do not
> relay. (it's really hard to find.)

Using AT&T SMTP.cwvx.com in iPhone setting for outgoing msgs does not
seem to work. Error MSG says can't send.

This MSG is coming from my iPhone, so some servers/email addys do work.

Don't want to stop using cox.net Email addy due to many hours spent
making the change to them less than year ago.

Maybe will sue Cox and post the suit on my cox.net CoxFraud.com website.

Dave

On 15-Mar-2008, at 06:51, David Clark wrote:

>> How are you connected when the send is failing. Does it fail if you
>> are on wifi in your house? or is it only failing when you're
>> elsewhere?
>
> Cox.net works when I am on wifi at home, but not on the iPhone Edge
> network. Remember, for almost six months it DID work from the iPhone.

Cox.net changed something to specifically disallow this. There is
nothing you can do other than use someone else to send your outbound
email. There are a lot of companies that do this and some of them are
quite good. If you have other options for ISPs in your area, contact
them about this specific situation and see if you can get a better
deal, then tell Cox to take a long walk of a very short pier. If you
don't have any other realistic choices, then just look for another
alternative for your email. you could even go so far as to register a
domain for $8/year and then use dyndns as your mail relay. Their
mailhop outbound is $15/year and a $2 setup fee. It's limited to 150
messages a day, so if you're a compulsive mailer, or run mailing
lists, it might require multiple $15/year purchases.

<http://www.dyndns.com/services/mailhop/outbound_readme.html>

I thought dyndns offered a single package for incoming and outbound
mail services, but I don't see it.

>> BTW, this is why you never use your ISP for your email.
>
> I thought that was the purpose of an ISP.

The purpose of the ISP is to get you connected to the Internet. Email
is a sideline for them that they HAVE to provide, but they generally
put no value in it. Also, relying on an ISP for your email address
means you have difficulty switching ISPs.

David Clark wrote:
> On Mar 16, 2008, at 12:40 PM, johnbaxterlistsmac.com wrote:
>
>> On Mar 16, 2008, at 3:20 AM, David Weintraub wrote:
>>
>>> It is beginning to look like this is more and more an issue with Cox
>>> not allowing SMTP mail relaying. Most ISPs do limit email relaying
>>> since most spammers depend upon open SMTP servers to do their dirty
>>> work. However, most simply limit out going messages to something like
>>> 250 or so emails per day. Something reasonable for most people, but
>>> something spammers can't live with.
>>
>> And many allow submission from "outside" provided authentication (SMTP
>> AUTH) is used. Since Cox hasn't made that simple suggestion, it seems
>> likely that they don't.
>
>> I looked closely at cox.net website and it states they do not
>> relay. (it's really hard to find.)
>
> Using AT&T SMTP.cwvx.com in iPhone setting for outgoing msgs does not
> seem to work. Error MSG says can't send.
>
> This MSG is coming from my iPhone, so some servers/email addys do work.
>
> Don't want to stop using cox.net Email addy due to many hours spent
> making the change to them less than year ago.
>
> Maybe will sue Cox and post the suit on my cox.net CoxFraud.com website.

Have you tried sending via port 587? I don't remember an answer to this question in this thread.

David

johnbaxterlistsmac.com wrote:
>
> On Mar 16, 2008, at 3:20 AM, David Weintraub wrote:
>
>> It is beginning to look like this is more and more an issue with Cox
>> not allowing SMTP mail relaying. Most ISPs do limit email relaying
>> since most spammers depend upon open SMTP servers to do their dirty
>> work. However, most simply limit out going messages to something like
>> 250 or so emails per day. Something reasonable for most people, but
>> something spammers can't live with.
>
> And many allow submission from "outside" provided authentication (SMTP
> AUTH) is used. Since Cox hasn't made that simple suggestion, it seems
> likely that they don't.

You obviously haven't dealt with major ISPs around the country. The tier 1 folks read from scripts in most situations. Which is why if you don't phrase your issue correctly you'll never get them to tell you the correct answer.

Which is why I like my local ISP who resells BellSouth/AT&T DSL. The answer by name and I have even met some of them. :)

David

>>> BTW, this is why you never use your ISP for your email.
>>
>> I thought that was the purpose of an ISP.
>
> The purpose of the ISP is to get you connected to the Internet. Email
> is a sideline for them that they HAVE to provide, but they generally
> put no value in it. Also, relying on an ISP for your email address
> means you have difficulty switching ISPs.

There is nothing in the cox.net Subscriber Agreement, Terms and
Conditions, or Use Agreement that in any way limits what I was trying
to do. There are lots of clauses which forbid harmful content,
engaging in fraud, harassing someone, posting abusive content,
sending viruses, and so on. There is also a clause that says the
user/subscriber "cannot violate any other Cox policy or guideline."
I'm not sure that would pass muster with a court where Cox sold the
service without warning that Email sending might be cut off, then
allowing such sending on a Treo, then allowing it on an iPhone,
suddenly without warning cutting off the service, and not spelling
out this in any "policy or guideline." There are also other places
on their site that promise certain service, including Email accounts
and a website. Remember, too, Cox promised that it would be, "Your
Friend in the Digital Age." So much for crummy advertising slogans.

I understand that I could go through the exercise of changing to
Gmail or dot Mac (and have both accounts), but after just doing that
for nearly all non-business Email, it would be a PITA and will
involve a major loss of time. One of the reasons for switching to
Cox was the high speed network and it appeared the service would last
for a long time, not like some earlier less stable ISPs I wound up
with such as Flashcom and Telocity (part of Direct TV). I changed in
June, tried to alert all my correspondents, and still have friends/
family who send messages to my now-dying Earthlink account.
  

On Mar 17, 2008, at 7:14 AM, David Clark wrote:

> Using AT&T SMTP.cwvx.com in iPhone setting for outgoing msgs does not
> seem to work. Error MSG says can't send.

you have a typo above; it's cwmx.com.

leave user name and password blank, port set to 25.

assuming you have this entered correctly and it does not work it's
because you are trying if on wi-fi. it only works on EDGE so you must
turn wi-fi off before sending mail, which makes it a less than
satisfactory solution but one that i've settled on for the time being.

>> Using AT&T SMTP.cwvx.com in iPhone setting for outgoing msgs does not
>> seem to work. Error MSG says can't send.
>
> you have a typo above; it's cwmx.com.
>
> leave user name and password blank, port set to 25.
>
> assuming you have this entered correctly and it does not work it's
> because you are trying if on wi-fi. it only works on EDGE so you must
> turn wi-fi off before sending mail, which makes it a less than
> satisfactory solution but one that i've settled on for the time being.

You're correct about the typo in the message. The iPhone has cwmx.com

However, Settings on the iPhone automatically set the Outgoing server
port to 587.

It still doesn't send from the iPhone using the Edge network.

Tried also to send a msg from "clarklawfirm.com" [my webhosted
business site] out of the iPhone and it worked just fine.

>>> Using AT&T SMTP.cwvx.com in iPhone setting for outgoing msgs does
>>> not
>>> seem to work. Error MSG says can't send.
>>
>> you have a typo above; it's cwmx.com.
>>
>> leave user name and password blank, port set to 25.
>>
>> assuming you have this entered correctly and it does not work it's
>> because you are trying if on wi-fi. it only works on EDGE so you must
>> turn wi-fi off before sending mail, which makes it a less than
>> satisfactory solution but one that i've settled on for the time
>> being.
>
> You're correct about the typo in the message. The iPhone has cwmx.com
>
> However, Settings on the iPhone automatically set the Outgoing
> server port to 587.
>
> It still doesn't send from the iPhone using the Edge network.
>
> Tried also to send a msg from "clarklawfirm.com" [my webhosted
> business site] out of the iPhone and it worked just fine.

Finally got the iPhone to work this afternoon. The correct setting
was at http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/mailhelper/, which about
the 5th person I talked to at Cox finally pointed me to. No one at
Apple noted it at all, including the genius at the Irvine store. The
setting for outgoing was cwmx.com with nothing more [i.e., no "smtp"
preceding the server name], no SSL, no authentication in sending. So,
I gather that AT&T is now relaying my cox.net sent messages. The Cox
tech also noted that AT&T has apparently had a recent server problem
of some sort. He encountered several others at their store who had
the same problem with the iPhone.

I may nonetheless sign up for the dyndns.com service. $15/year for
outbound mail isn't a bad deal.

Dave Clark

Attn: Dave Clark

I purchased my Iphone a week ago and just now realized my phone was not sending my outbound emails! I also have Cox in Scottsdale. I have spent the last 2 hours trying to solve this problem by reading all the forums. Your post finally helped me fix the problem. I did enter just cwmx.com as the outbound server with no port #'s as you suggested, and I heard that wonderful swishing sound meaning my emails had FINALLY sent! (I had tried this before but I had forgotten to remove the user name & password I had previously typed in, so it never worked) I swear, you can drive yourself CRAZY trying to make something work, when its usually something so STUPID as removing a username. Anyway, after my emails SENT, I did look back at the settings and they had defaulted to cwmx.com:25 on its own! Geez, maybe I can finally get some sleep!

On WednesdayMay 7, 2008, at 8:33 AM, sally enniss wrote:

> Attn: Dave Clark
>
> I purchased my Iphone a week ago and just now realized my phone was
> not sending my outbound emails! I also have Cox in Scottsdale. I
> have spent the last 2 hours trying to solve this problem by reading
> all the forums. Your post finally helped me fix the problem. I did
> enter just cwmx.com as the outbound server with no port #'s as you
> suggested, and I heard that wonderful swishing sound meaning my
> emails had FINALLY sent! (I had tried this before but I had
> forgotten to remove the user name & password I had previously typed
> in, so it never worked) I swear, you can drive yourself CRAZY
> trying to make something work, when its usually something so STUPID
> as removing a username. Anyway, after my emails SENT, I did look
> back at the settings and they had defaulted to cwmx.com:25 on its
> own! Geez, maybe I can finally get some sleep!


Glad to hear everything finally worked out. I also bought ($15) the
dyndns.com service. That has helped as well.

Am switching my primary Email for non-business to gmail.com IMAP.
The iPhone has it all set up on it.