[mojc]

I am a new Mac user and have iMac and just bought a macbook, I use Airport express for my network. the problem i'm having is i'm not able to send email from my macbook, i went into mail/preferences/account info. and noticed my Outgoing Mail Server is offline it says smtp.mac.com:"user name"(Offline). I'm guessing this is my problem, but i can't figure out how to get it online? I can receive messages and access the internet through my network on my macbook with no problem.
Thanks, J

[johnd0e]

check your account settings for the outgoing mail server.
- SSL should be enabled
- Authentication method : password

[Typhoon14]

It may also be the case that your service provider does not allow the use of other SMTP servers. In that case, you will have to get the SMTP information for your ISP. This is usually available on their website or by calling them.

[mojc]

Thanks for the posts. SSL is checked and also authenticate using password is selected. my iMAC works just fine and is set up the same way (as far as i can tell) as my Macbook including using smtp for outgoing mail server...and i just noticed that my outgoing mail server on my iMAC also shows offline..yet sends messages...very strange. not sure what else to try. thanks again for both of your help...i'll keep searching for answers.

[taleung]

Quote:

---

Thanks for the posts. SSL is checked and also authenticate using password is selected. my iMAC works just fine and is set up the same way (as far as i can tell) as my Macbook including using smtp for outgoing mail server...and i just noticed that my outgoing mail server on my iMAC also shows offline..yet sends messages...very strange. not sure what else to try. thanks again for both of your help...i'll keep searching for answers.

---

I've got the same problem and would say it is a bug in 10.5
I had applied the same setting in Mail and Entourage.
With Mail I get the offline error message, while with Entourage I dont have any problems.
E-mail get send perfectly.
Regards....peter

[fcosta]

Hi mjoc, This is a very old issue and by now I hope that you have solved your problem of the offline server!
In spite of being an old issue for you it is quite new for me. I am using a mmacbook pro with OS 10.6.4 (so it is not only problem of the 10.5 as mentioned before) and my outgoing server is always offline. I can't send emails, however can receive. I already tried so mny things that I don't know anymore what to do. Strange is that with same or similar settings I can send in my iPhone 3G and in my iPad.
Can you tell me about your experience and how you solved your problem, because I guess that you have done it.
Thank you
Filipe

[DanielDiNicola]

fcosta, on 08 November 2010 - 07:41 AM, said:

Hi mjoc, This is a very old issue and by now I hope that you have solved your problem of the offline server!
In spite of being an old issue for you it is quite new for me. I am using a mmacbook pro with OS 10.6.4 (so it is not only problem of the 10.5 as mentioned before) and my outgoing server is always offline. I can't send emails, however can receive. I already tried so mny things that I don't know anymore what to do. Strange is that with same or similar settings I can send in my iPhone 3G and in my iPad.
Can you tell me about your experience and how you solved your problem, because I guess that you have done it.
Thank you
Filipe

And I have this exact same problem, have had it for months and months, tried just about everything to resolve it. Has the answer been revealed to anyone yet? If so, please do share it with me. Thanks so much!
:DanielDiNicola

[svroberts]

I have the same issue. The issue may be old but its still hanging around. The tip about changing your outgoing mail or smtp server is appropriate in some circumstances. Some providers will only let you send outgoing mail through their servers. This is to stop you sending SPAM through their connection.

However, what I discovered today is that when you have multiple mac's connected to the same home network, the message 'can't send outgoing mail through this server' appears. I haven't resolved the problem yet but it seems that perhaps there is a conflict of IP address or some other conflict that occurs when more than one MAC tries to send outgoing mail through the same connection. Using SSL as someone mentioned earlier is irrelevant. SSL encrypts the contents of the email as it is transmitted to the server so that it is not easy to 'listen' or read the contents of the email as it flies through cyberspace. The standard 'Password' or MD5 Challenge Response should be sufficient.

Anyone have any ideas why this conflict is occurring? Any idea why this problem only seems to appear with more than one computer?

Cheers
Steve

[iainsmackay]

I have had this problem initially with a PC and now a MacBook. Orange require a special setting in the Outgoing server box (smtp.orangehome.co.uk). The good news is that the Offline signal disappears, the bad news is that my company’s server (and presumably customers’ servers too) treat my message as Spam because this address does not match the other settings.

When I took my MacBook to the local Apple Store to see if they could get rid of the Offline signal in the Outgoing Mail Server box, the signal had vanished and everything worked perfectly. Back home and the Offline signal was there again! Thinking that this was an Orange problem I tried at a friends home where he has BT broadband. Offline still there. So why does it work at the Apple Store and not on Orange or BT??

The other annoying problem is that even if I get the Outgoing server sorted with the special Orange setting, when I take it to a hotel or customer’s premises it will not work there!

Has anyone tried using an SMTP mail service? AuthSMTP have an ad on the MacWorld website and they claim to overcome such problems[/size]

[rcallaway]

Sometimes the SMTP server shows as "offline" in Apple Mail because Apple Mail is sending the wrong password for the email account (from the Keychain). This may be because you have recently changed the password online but not on the Mac. If you try sending a message from Apple Mail using the relevant "From" address (which is selectable just above the message pane), you should get an error message after Apple Mail tries the connection. The error message will provide a field to enter a password, and there will be a checkbox to enable you to save the password to the Keychain. I have found that once the Mac knows the correct password for the account, the "offline" status for the SMTP server disappears.

[Stavros]

A solution for Lion:
From Mail app right click to the mailbox which has the problem.
Then click Edit "Mailbox".
At Accounts go to Advanced, check the "use secure sockets layer (SSL)" and set Authentication Password.
At "Account information" go to "Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP)"
"Edit SMTP server list" and to the proper account uncheck the "Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)" and put Authentication to None.
This solve my problem

[Tatjana]

I have the same problem but none of these solutions seem to work...anybody else find something that def does?

[finnwillie]

I am having the same problem and have had for months and everything the Apple techs have advised has yet to work. I have also tried using live and gmail accounts and reseting MAIL along with the key chain access but to no avail. Any advise would be great.

[dbhearts]

I have just migrated to a macbook pro running 10.6.8 and mail has been working fine for two weeks until today when the "offline" issue discussed above appeared. All outgoing mailservers accounts are "offline" somehow and I cannot find a switch to turn them online. The only switch I know is the offline/online switch under Mailboxes and cycling this does not change the outgoing servers, they all stay offline. I quit/restart mail and no effect. This was working fine until today. Hmmm. What to do? You know, I did software updates yesterday and I may have gotten a new OS update, I didn't look. Does anyone know of an issue with 10.6.8?

finnwillie, on 02 March 2012 - 08:12 PM, said:

I am having the same problem and have had for months and everything the Apple techs have advised has yet to work. I have also tried using live and gmail accounts and reseting MAIL along with the key chain access but to no avail. Any advise would be great.