Is anyone here having problems sending emails using Thunderbird?

I have been using 1.5.10 with no problems up until about a week and a half ago, when suddenly it started to have difficulty sending emails, needing several retries before successfully sending.
Now it will not send at all, but will still receive just fine.

I have checked all the obvious things like SMTP settings, password caps lock etc., tried turning off anti-virus and firewall, but nothing makes a difference.

I don't seem to be the only one with this problem either:

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=546933

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=547156

Maybe a Windows update has borked something?

Continues to work fine for me under Windows XP Pro with all the standard updates applied.

What are your SMTP settings? SSL? TLS? Password? Port?

The first thing I'd try is connecting to the SMTP server by hand. Telnet (using your favorite telnet application, or, if you don't have one, telnet.exe from the command prompt) to your SMTP server on port 25 ("telnet.exe smtp.example.com 25"). Then try to send an email using this script:

Quote:
220 smtp.example.com status
HELO workstation.example.com
250 smtp.example.com Hello
MAIL FROM:<email@example.com>
250 2.1.0 email@example.com....Sender OK
RCPT TO:<email@example.com>
250 2.1.5 email@example.com
DATA
354 Start mail input; end with <CRLF>.<CRLF>
From: <email@example.com>
To: <email@example.com>
Subject: testing email server

this is the body of the test
.
250 2.6.0 <blahblah> Queued mail for delivery
QUIT
221 2.0.0 smtp.example.com Service closing transmission channel

Red text indicates server responses, which will be similar to, but not exactly what I listed. Obviously, change out hostnames and email addresses for accurate data.

Last week I had the same issue. I followed a similar approach as Bitt suggests above, and found out that the mail server accepted emails without problem and without user id/password (when internal on the network). I thereafter removed userid/pw from the SMTP settings, and it worked again.

Can't remember whether I later received a popup for a new id/pw or not, however it has worked for me since that change.

Jelle

Thanks Bitt,

I tried that and when I send the MAIL FROM: command I get the following:

500 Command unknown: 'MAIL'

(Using telnet.exe)

Any ideas?

OK, scratch the above, I mistyped the command.

Right, using the above script I can send an email from mail.example.com to mail.example.com.

I then took out the password authorisation from the SMTP server settings in Thunderbird like Jelle did and the damn thing works again .

Huge thanks to both of you!

Bitt, would I be able to pass that script on if necessary?

Thanks.

Sure. It's just a very simplistic SMTP transaction. This is pretty much exactly what your mail client does, although it uses some more advanced options.