I can receive emails but I can’t send them.
Change your outgoing (SMTP) server to smtp.bonnecomm.net, or if that doesn’t work, 172.20.2.22.
Incoming and outgoing email is handled by different servers. When you configured your email account, you will have filled in an incoming (POP or POP3) server and an outgoing (SMTP) server. The POP server is what handles the incoming emails. The SMTP server handles the outgoing emails. The POP servers are easily protected and are thus generally accessible from everywhere on the internet. However, the SMTP servers for most ISPs are only accessible while connected to the ISP’s network. So if, for example, you had been using Sympatico, you can reach the incoming Sympatico mail server (pop.sympatico.ca), but you would need to be connected through Sympatico in order to reach the outgoing mail server (smtp.sympatico.ca). Since you are here, you are not connected through Sympatico and thus cannot reach smtp.sympatico.ca.
I send emails but they don’t always go through, and I don’t always get a message telling me they weren’t delivered.
If it’s important, every email client program (Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple Mail etc.) and most online email services (GMail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.) have the option of requesting a Return Receipt. Enable this feature. If your email doesn’t get through, at least you’ll know.
Email is older than the Internet itself, and the method of moving emails is based on a method called “Best Effort Relay”. It is exactly as it sounds. With email, no one can guarantee that the message will be delivered. You send your emails by passing them on to something called an SMTP server. Generally, an SMTP server will also be associated with a POP server. If the recipient of the email has an account on the POP server associated with the SMTP server which you gave your email to, then the email is delivered. But, if the recipient isn’t there, the SMTP server then relays your email to another SMTP server which will attempt to do the same thing.
This relaying of your email will continue until your email is either delivered, or is so old that the system tosses it away. So if the destination is not on the chain of relays, your email won’t be delivered.
Thanks to something called the Domain Name Service, it is theoretically possible for any server, including the SMTP server, to find the destination of your email. However, for security reasons, all SMTP servers which receive emails directly from the open Internet, require those passing them emails, to first login with a username and password. If you were sending an email to “jdoe@someplace.net”, but our SMTP server did not have a username and password to smtp.someplace.net, our SMTP server would not be able to relay your message to someplace.net directly. Our SMTP server would need to relay it to another SMTP server hoping that one was able to login to smtp.someplace.net. Therefore, even if you can see the destination through the internet, it doesn’t mean your email can be delivered.
The Message not deliverred emails you sometimes receive are a very nice courtesy. However, many SMTP server are configured not to generate them. While Rogers very nicely generates these messages, Bell has chosen to disable this feature. And even if the feature were enabled, because the return message is travelling the same way as the original message, there is no guarantee that the return message will get through to you.
The same applies to your Return Receipts. When you enable this feature, it appends a tag to your message telling the recipient’s email client to send a message back saying that the message was received. There’s no gurantee that you’ll receive the receipt if it is sent. However, by asking for it, if you don’t receive it, you can thus expect that something has gone wrong and deal with the issue before it is too late.
Router Configuration
What’s my username and password?
Set your router to DHCP (Obtain an IP address automatically). Do not use PPPoE. I don’t care what they say at the Geek Squad or where ever you went. Set your router to DHCP, not PPPoE.
Here at Bonnechere Community Internet Ltd., we like to make things easy for you. All radio-modems used by Bonnechere Community Internet Ltd. work as routers and have your username and password programmed into them. Since they don’t work as PPPoE server, if you connect a router to them and program in a PPPoE connection, it’ll find no PPPoE server to connect to and won’t connect.
Connection Issues
I own my radio-modem and it was struck by an act of God!
Because you own it, it’s covered under your home-owners insurance. However, if it’s only the radio-modem involved, it’s likely less than your deductable. As a result, you’ll need to pay for a replacement, but we’ll do everything we can to keep the price down. We’ll also advise on how to prevent the problem from happening again in the future.
As of the summer of 2010, we have increased our efforts to avoid lightning damage amongst our clients. All newer PoE-Injectors will have built-in surge-suppression.
During a lightning storm, what we recommend is that you plug the PoE-Injector into a power bar, leave the power bar plugged in, but turned off. If lightning strikes, it may travel along the outside of the cable between the radio and the PoE-Injector, and short out your PoE Injector. But if you unplug the radio from the PoE-Injector, the same strike will travel to the radio-modem instead.