I cannot send emails from Windows Mail. Solution!

Each email address or email account, if you like, has an incoming and an outgoing email server address. If you are able to receive but cannot send emails using Windows Mail, the problem has to be with the outgoing email server address – right?
FYI, Whether you’ve used IMAP or POP3, the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is employed to dispatch email messages.

Well, not always! There are many a slip between the cup and the lip but before we get into that, let us first make sure of certain things.

Does the email account exist?

Obviously, if the email account does not exist you would neither be able to send or receive emails.

Are you able to receive emails?

If you are able to receive emails it means you are successful in connecting to the incoming email server and the login (username and password) details are correct.

Can receive but cannot send emails on Windows Mail

Coming back to the matter at hand – If the process of sending emails is failing, there is definitely something wrong in the way the outgoing email server has been set up. So, this is what you should do.

• First login at the web based interface (typically, webmail) and send an email from there. If this doesn’t work, it can only mean the outgoing email server hasn’t been configured properly. Contact your ISP/web hosting company immediately.
• If the email from webmail comes through but the same doesn’t leave your Windows Mail outbox, there is something wrong at your end – either the way you have set up outgoing server on Windows Mail or the service you use to connect to the Internet.

Outgoing email server setup in Windows Mail

Double check the following with you ISP

• The outgoing email server address.
• Does the outgoing email server require a different login than the incoming server?
• Does the outgoing server require a secure authentication?
• The port number of the outgoing email server.

FYI, you can change the outgoing email server details by double-clicking on the email account from the “Internet Accounts” window (Tools -> Accounts). The various settings are found under the “Servers” and “Advanced” tabs.

Even if everything has been checked and rechecked, the problem of not being able to send email may persist, which means the problem lies with your Internet connection. Many a time, ISPs disallow sending emails from any other server but their own! Thus, you would not be able to use the server address supplied by your web site host but rather need to employ the one from your ISP. Also, most web site hosts keep port number 25 (or 26) for the outgoing server and this port is blocked by the ISP. The only solution is to get in touch with the company from whom you use the internet connection and ask them to walk you through the process of configuring Windows Mail so that you are able to send emails. Typically, ISPs provide their own outgoing email server address with a specified port number and require you to login with a username and password. Thus, you need to configure the email client only once with this new information and from then on, you would not face any problems in sending out emails.

Also refer to cannot send emails using an email client – Outlook Express and Outlook Express not working.

Final note: Some ISPs / web hosts might place a limit on the number of emails you can send per hour. If you exceed this, your emails might not be sent.

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