Email Error

Me too.

The general rule of thumb is that email should go out by the same provider that it comes in, ie if you host example.com at XYZ Hosting, you should send mail that claims to be from snipped-for-privacy@example.com via XYZ Hosting. XYZ Hosting should take care of the necessary SPF/etc to make this possible (although check their control panel in case it's a setting you need to enable).

Most mail clients can accept settings for an SMTP server per account. Some older ones can't, so unfortunately they aren't suitable for modern use.[*]

Theo

I have to say this is bey "Any clues on where the error might be occurring based on:

My ISP is PlusNet. I am sending it via my own domain via PlusNet (I have no idea how that works) I use em Client which has recently been upgraded.

It went successfully using my outlook.com address from the same email client, where do I start looking first?"

I suspect "I am sending it via my own domain via PlusNet (I have no idea how that works)" is causing confusion, my ISP is PlusNet so that's how I get on to the Internet, the details in my email program are the Heart Internet details. Seems I am connecting to my domain server via my PlusNet connection?

Anyway it works now!

I think the actual confusion is from "sending emails from my own domain address but via my ISP's server" which to me implies relay.plus.net

I thought you sorted it a while back by moving away from Heart?

That failed because Mythic Beasts expected me to update MX records and that's not for me. If there was a way to transfer by getting a PIC or MAC or whatever I would consider it but I have a spread of email accounts so one will usually work!

It sounds like you moved the hosting but you didn't move the domain registration. If you move the domain to Mythic Beasts as well, they can handle the DNS for you. If you don't move the domain, you have to edit the DNS yourself (either adding DNS records like MXes manually, or changing the DNS servers wholesale to point to Mythic's DNS server).

There's no 'one touch switch' processes for domains, you're expect to know what you're doing. The best you can do is move the domain registration (at which point everything will stop working, temporarily) and then ask the new host to set everything up their way. That does not include transferring across old websites or email boxes unless you specifically ask them to.

Theo

I already had a domain hosted with Mythic Beasts which I had transferred from Heart, Mythic Beasts set everything up so I didn't have to do or know anything. I think when I went to transfer anther domain they suggested just adding it to the existing hosting but I would have had to update all the records, don't know, didn't get anywhere so in the end just left it. Perhaps I should have set up a second account.

Previously Heart got gobbled up by GoDaddy (as part of Host Europe) but now they seem to have become part of <https://your.online> which, perhaps worryingly, seems to be offline ...

:-)

Here is an early draft:

It could certainly use plenty of extra examples - and perhaps some screen shots from popular DNS management pages and email configuration pages etc.

Perhaps it could include tables of common SPF records for popular mail systems etc?

I used EM Client for a couple of email addresses for several years. It's free for 2 addresses. Don't need calendar, chat etc. When Microsoft updated their authentication EM had to update their client & the emails failed. Luckily I managed to get the emails to authenticate with another client. Can't remember which but I can look it up if needed. I should also say that these previously working emails wouldn't authenticate with Thunderbird, Betterbird or several other clients that I tried. Several months later I tried EM Client again & the addresses authenticated. -

s/" snipped-for-privacy@rapidplumbers.com"/" snipped-for-privacy@rapidplumbers.com"/

eM Client does keep up to date BUT sometimes only via a new version so there is a cost depending on how many email accounts you need. At the last update (v10) they introduced a personal licence covering 3 x computers which seemed a good deal.

In respect of authentication I have closed all my Yahoo accounts, they changed their process so frequently nobody could keep up.

The only issue I have with MSFT (outlook.com) is they demand re-authentication on my Android devices every three months which is a pain as I use long password safe produced passwords and re-entering that is a killer!

So far Gmail seems OK...

Looks good, will have a study over the weekend, you're a fast writer :-)

For those who want to get serious about email (and not many will) I can recommend this book. The author is excellent.

(Disclosure: I was one of the sponsors; I got a special limited edition:

Lol - well spotted - I had to read that several times to spot the problem.... all the right number of vowels, but the brain skipped over the n each time.

I wouldn't bother ... it seems 95% of the world still runs on phone numbers. Makes me wonder wtf I wasted my life swallowing the RFCs.

You should be able to setup 2FA for authentication to save re-entering the password.

I am limited by what the Android device allows, I'd better get used to it Windows is getting more and more like it :-(

I have now read this in more depth, many thanks for all the work you have put in!

Is it possible to break down/analyse an email address e.g.

Email address: snipped-for-privacy@rapidplumbers.com

The elements of the address are:

I don't know the technical bits but name, @ sign, domain etc. - it might make it easier for people task better questions rather than fumbling along like I did.

Something I have seen but don't know how it works like the ability to ad

From memory of playing with Slackware (30 years ago) overcoming Linux smarts to ensure an email is sent externally, I think it involved a '%' sign?

I'm sure you can tell from this how much I need the Wiki page :-)