I have tried several time to register an email account that I have with Softhome.net, but without success. I continually receive the following error message:

Connecting to a.mx.softhome.net.:
smtpSend:smtpEnvelope (service[at]admin.spamcop.net, beerstud[at]softhome.net): smtpTo rcpt to:beerstud[at]softhome.net (451 message delayed as part of spam avoidance measure )

Connecting to c.mx.softhome.net.:
smtpSend:smtpEnvelope (service[at]admin.spamcop.net, beerstud[at]softhome.net): smtpTo rcpt to:beerstud[at]softhome.net (451 message delayed as part of spam avoidance measure. )

Connecting to b.mx.softhome.net.:
smtpSend:smtpEnvelope (service[at]admin.spamcop.net, beerstud[at]softhome.net): smtpTo rcpt to:beerstud[at]softhome.net (451 message delayed as part of spam avoidance measure. )

I now that Softhome discourages the use of port 25 for SMTP and recommends the use of either port 2500 or even port 25000. Perhaps that is the problem.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

If this means the mail-host beta thing, you need to take your issues over to http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=723

If it's some other type of "registration" .. please define ... the 451 errors I would suspect are a time-slag thing put into place to make sure that "you" can't send 100 e-mails a second ... and you may be running into an issue of trying to send the next e-mail too quickly, thus increasing the delay applied to the next e-mail ... (I say this with no knowledge on how your ISP handles things like this)


To me, that's a strange set of words. Normally, if there's any "recommendation" like this, it's more of a "you can't use port 25" .. end of discussion .. Use of alternative ports is a way to work around the Port 25 blocking, but again, that's not really a 'normal' situation, rather something to allow those business types to handle some certain types of traffic .. usually for that business' employees

Appearances of your data suggests that you have access to your server logs, so do "we" jump to the conclusion that you're running your own e-mail server? If so, it seems like you'd already have access to some sort of support to verify correct operation at your end. But, that's obviously a silly assumption, else you would have added that data to your post. So, I'll leave that as a question .. if you have access to youe e-mail / system server logs, how about filling in the blanks as to what's running, what platform, what OS, etc .... Or am I just wasting time here, as the issue really is the mail-host beta thing?

Hey, that port 25 has gotten me. And because I'm no IT guy, I just suffer. It's when I go to the public WiFi site and try to send out mail through my SMTP server off my mail client. It tells me sorry, there's no port 25. So I assume it's part of the network filter. Hey, it's free Wi Fi, so I just wait to be back at my ISP to send mail.

Maybe you know of a workaround like using port 2500 when at the public site. I could look into setting that up as separate account to use when not at home. Just thinking. But really clueless.

Basic / easy answer .. does your ISP offer an SSL connection?

Technical answer .. you can use any posrt you want, but the success of your attempt boils down to what ports the 'host' is expecting the specific traffic to show up on ... For example, GMail is expecting this Windows machine to send SMTP traffic to port 465 (as compared to the 'standard' Port 25)

I don't know. But thanks for the idea Waz. I could read their support, but do you think if it was available that it would be really obvious in the setup instrucions? They tell us to send out of the SMTP server with authentication (smtpauth.earthlink.net)

Other than the instructions at http://kb.earthlink.net/case.asp?article=resid7280, I'd suggest contacting Earthlink Support via Chat, Email, or Phone and/or reviewing Jeff G.'s Hotspot SMTP-Auth Provider Status Report, especially the new Gmail entry.