Problem with smtp--or whatever

I don't kknow what in the world I did, but now when I try to send an email--from whatever program I try, be it OE, Windows Live Mail, Windows Mail--I get the following message: An unknown error was returned from the SMTP server.

Subject 'dinner'
Server Error: 521
Server Response: 521 This system is configured to reject mail from 216.223.173.54 (Spam attack detected)
Server: 'smtp.rtcol.com'
Windows Live Mail Error ID: 0x800CCC61
Protocol: SMTP
Port: 25
Secure(SSL): No

Can anyone help? Thanks.

 

Hi Halo:

This may be silly, but I have Windows Live Mail, Windows Mail, Thunderbird, Yahoo Mail, GMail and MyWay Mail all activitated on my laptop that uses Vista. On my desktop computer with XP Home, I have the same except OE for Windows Mail. The web-based email programs work just fine. It's the others on which I get the error message whenever I try to send something.

Since this problem appeared, I probably have sent a dozen emails using one or the other of Windows Live Mail, Windows Mail or Outlook Express, and each one returns the error message.

You wrote that I can setup a hotmail account to use in WLM as a test. I have WLM set up with a Hotmail section which shows if I have anything in the inbox, but it doesn't have a tab for composing new mail--at least, I can't find one.

 

How do I do that?

 

That was easy. However, it did not work. I tried it on both Thunderbird and Windows Mail. Since I do have web-based mail, I guess I'll just wait until Monday and call my ISP provider, which is our local, independent telephone company. Thanks to both of you for your efforts.

 

Just got off the phone with my ISP. They told me it's a system-wide problem and they're working on it. Thanks again for your efforts.