Outlook 2003 will not send from SMTP

This is a problem I've had with a user and I've been unable to either fix it or find another like it.

We do not have an Exchange server but use a web-based vendor and Outlook 2003 (POP3 and SMTP provided by the vendor). The user has a Dell Precision WS370 (1 gig of RAM and a 2.8gh P4 processor) running XP Pro SP2 and Office 2003. She is unable to send email using the SMTP settings everyone else in the office uses. She IS able to send via webmail and can receive through the POP3 settings.

I've tried wiping and reloading Office as well as changing the SMTP settings. I've blown away and reinstated her profiles. When anyone else logs on to the machine, they are unable to send either (which leads me to believe it could be an OS question but I have no idea how).

My last resort is to wipe and completely reload the OS, which I really hate to do. Does this sound familiar to anyone else?

 

If you were to run netstat -ano from command line, you could see if something is tying up port 25....?

 

On the affected machine try this, start run cmd, then hit ok. Then type in telnet mail.whatever.com 25 the mail.whataever being the address you supposed to use for smtp server.

 

Port 25 is not being used by anything and the Telnet command executes fine, though it doesn't make a difference. Our email vendor has another SMTP port (I've got it written down somewhere) and I've tried that one too, to no avail.

One thing I thought I might try is put a new NIC in, though I can't really see how that would help.

I'm stumped!

 

Look under the Help menu in Outlook and try the Detect and Repair option.

Steve

 

Good if you can telnet to the port its probably some weird issue with outlook. Thats my best guess.

 

Nope, doesn't work. And when I removed Outlook I also hoovered out the registry to make sure the reinstall would be clean, and it appeared to be.

If it's not Office/Outlook, the only other choice I've got is that it's an OS (or maybe hardware?) issue. I'm going to try and swap NICs just to see if that'll do it, otherwise I'm afraid I'm going to have to wipe and reload. ARGH!

 

I would also make sure she has all the updates.

Steve

 

What Outlook error does she get? 0x<whatever> number especially.

What sort of security software do we have? This kind of smells like outgoing email scanning (from an antivirus program), or a firewall set not to allow Outlook to access the internet (which would leave the port open to a different program like telnet, BTW, and may be an account-specific setting, rather than a universal machine one).

Does it happen in safe mode with networking (if applicable)

Assuming you are not on a domain, can she send if she logs onto a different computer?
If you are not on a domain, why not just create a new user account and copy her info over? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151/en-us

Just a few ideas. Best o'luck.

 

Hmm... haven't tried it from safe mode with networking. She's not really getting any errors at all, it just sits there trying to send then says the SMTP server can't be found (which is what happens when I enter any login info and test the settings). Anyone who logs on to that computer gets the same thing, so it's not a profile thing.

We do have a domain and we're using McAfee 8 and have Windows firewall turned on (and yes, I tried it with the firewall off and no joy). What's kicking my ever-spreading butt is that she can send from webmail. It's fine from webmail so I know it's not *her* (or 'a setting' as my boss likes to say ) but I cannot figure out what's preventing anyone from getting to the SMTP server.

I think I'm looking at a total wipe and reload. Insert aggravated scream here.

 

Well, if it was me I would at least try it once with McAfee totally uninstalled (not just the firewall, the antivi, the "Wormstopper", the spam killer, the works) before going to all of the trouble of a clean install, but of course it is up to you.

 

Well, I'm going to give it a shot Saturday, as well as trying with a new NIC just for the heck of it. But I've kinda given up.

Thanks for the help, though!