Problems using Gmail client to send email through relay.plus.net

[#1]

Hi all, I'm hoping someone can help : )

I've been happily using Gmail's "Send mail as:" feature to "Add another email address" and send email through relay.plus.net for the last couple of years... but since last week I started seeing delivery failures for all my emails with the message:

554 avasout-peh-004 smtp ESMTP server not available (blacklisted by local policy)

I went into Gmail's web interface, deleted the configuration and then tried adding it back in again (smtp server relay.plus.net, port 587, my username & password, Secured connection with TLS) and got the message "Couldn't reach server. Please double-check the server and port number." Tried different ports (25, 465) and SSL instead of TLS - still no joy.

Looking on this forum, this is probably a blocked IP address and I need to get it unblocked. Problem is, it's not MY IP address that has the problem - I can configure a local copy of Thunderbird to send email through relay.plus.net just fine!

Any ideas, please?

Thanks!

[#2]

The correct encryption setting for the SMTP server on port 587 is STARTTLS, not TLS.

I would have thought that if you are sending from your Gmail address "on behalf of" your Plusnet account it ought to be  sent using Gmail's SMTP servers.

The local copy of Thunderbird will be using the native Plusnet account, configured properly, sent from your IP address so will work fine.

[#3]

Hello CronByss, Was this issue sorted? if so, can you tell us what was the fix. I am having the same issue now.

[#4]

Hey @CronByss  and @Deepmind, we're currently looking into a possible issue with Gmail. We'll need a bit more information from both of you to help with this investigation. 

Can both of you send me a private message please with the following:

• Email address sending from
• Email address sending to
• Time and date of email send

[#5]

Sent you a PM with a screen shot of error on relay.plus.net

[#6]

GMAIL ADDMAIL SETUP WINDOW

[#7]

As per here - https://community.plus.net/t5/Email/How-to-change-your-outgoing-server-on-a-mail-client/m-p/1606155#... / the SMTP server for MAAF is not mail. but smtp.

Port should be 587 and encryption STARTTLS.

[#8]

Thanks. tried that and it does not work.

Error Message: **Couldn't reach server. Please double check server and port number..**

[#9]

Hi all,

Yes, I still get the same error when trying to use the Gmail client to send email through Plus.net's SMTP servers. I "fixed it" by using a different hosting provider to route my email from Gmail.

I'd previously tried all permutations available through the Gmail interface but, for the avoidance of doubt, I can confirm the attempting to send through relay.plus.net on port 465 with SSL authentication still results in the message "Couldn't reach server. Please double-check the server and port number".

I got those settings from https://www.plus.net/help/email-guides/how-to-set-up-plusnet-email/ and not the other URL provided in this thread.

It should be easily reproducible to anyone with a Gmail account?

Failing that, I'd be happy to forward the headers from a returned email to someone who can look deeper. That's what included the "blacklisted by local policy" message that started all this for me.

Cheers

[#10]

Now figured out how to send @ClaudiaG23 a private message with an example set of headers! Hopefully they will help.

[#11]

@CronByss thanks do much for your detailed reply. I have always had my email account from callnetuk to -madasafish to -plusnet which all worked for years. i just kept getting returned messages from Gmail client since last week and decided to delete and reinstate on gmail platform and that's when all went South.

Hopefully Plusnet Tech. can rectify the issue. I personally think its the Plusnet server has issues and keep rejecting "handshake tokens" from gmail.

[#12]

Both,

If your email is hosted elsewhere why are you sending email via Plusnet’s SMTP servers? You ought to use the SMTP servers associated with your domain’s MX inbound service.

Email forwarding has become bad karma over the years thanks to Gmail enforcing non-mandatory RFCs. Life is far simpler avoiding email forwarding and host your mailbox on your domain host’s services.

[#13]

@Townman , in a word: history. Correcting that is how I "fixed" the problem for me.

However, the inability to send mail from the Gmail client through plusnet's smtp servers remains, and ought to be fixed anyway - as other customers using plusnet domains will hit it.

[#14]

@Deepmind , my commiserations!

Sounds like we both took the same debugging step and took a giant leap backwards. Great minds think alike : )

[#15]

@Townman , actually, re-reading @Deepmind 's email, I don't think they're using email hosted elsewhere are they? Aren't they saying their account is so old, they've been through various different acquisitions before being sold to plusnet?