Salocin

nlvp

Thanks for posting this! This problem was driving me nuts for a while. I just couldn't work out why I could receive mail, but not send it. I did a search on the error code I was getting, and turned up your post.

As soon as I saw your mention of an ISP blocking port 25, I knew that was the problem. I changed ISPs last week, and this is the first time I have logged into my mail.

So, to respond to your opening sentence - yep, you saved me a lot of pain. Cheers!

DaveR

For the regular lay-person...
could someone walk it through fixing this "0x80042109" problem, step by step?

Thanks....
Laurie

Laurie:

The reason you can't connect is nothing to do with your computer. It is because your ISP (Internet Service Provider) has forbidden access to the required service (called the SMTP service for "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) on any computer except for theirs.

You need to call up your internet service provider and tell them to fix the problem. Alternatively, you could call up the company that provides you with email access and ask them to change the port they use for the SMTP service and walk you through how to do the same on your computer.

Nicolas.

Thank you so much. I have already "invested" a couple of hours trying to verify and re-verify per comcast help, but to no avail. Your explantion pushes me to do what I should have done much sooner -- I am contacting Comcast next.

This is so weird. I have SBC Yahoo! DSL and I doubt that they are blocking Port 25. However, I recently installed a Linksys Wireless router, and ever since then, I have not been able to send mail. I have opened Port 25 on the router and it did NOT fix the problem. Since then, I have also removed the router and hooked the PC directly to the modem. I still cannot send mail to certain SMTP servers. Basically, it cannot contact the servers even though I'm not behind the router anymore. So, I still cannot send mail. :(

Still wondering what to do. SBC Yahoo DSL tech support won't help because I can send sbcglobal.net mail. Microsoft's Knowledge Base doesn't say anything about it (other than what is mentioned above). Linksys won't help me because the router isn't even hooked up anymore and it's an Outlook issue. Nobody seems to be able to help me.

I am also having this issue with SBC DSL

We need to get a mass of folks to get some attention.

Thanks so much for the precise insight!! I too have SBC DSL service, and they confirmed that my problem is with a "port 25 filter". They are submitting a request for me to remove the filter on my account, which should allow me to once again send email from my non-SBC account!

Your post is MUCH appreciated. Viva the internet information hiway! Power to the people!

I had the same problem, too, and spent about six hours stumbling around before I found your site. Though it didn't solve my problem, it did point me in the right direction and pushed me to call my ISP about the situation. Of course, he couldn't do anything, but he mentioned some things that got me digging in another direction to solve the error...VPN. My wife uses it on here laptop for work...I just had to figure out hot to either get the router to play nice with it or get Outlook to play with it. Turns out it was the latter; I had to configure the particular send/recieve group properties to also use the VPN (Outlook XP, BTW). Turned out to be far easier to fix than rectifying the port 25 problem.

Just another little tip for those of you who may be using or may be able to use a VPN.

Thanks guys,
Doug

This was the only information that made any sense of this problem....thanks for posting and also all who responded....I too have SBC, but it's been working for 2 years now!...I guess they activated the port 25 filter....thanks alot spammers for causing this problem.....

I don't know if this is the solution for everyone or not... but here is the link to opt-out of port 25 filtering on SBC-Yahoo accounts.

http://help.sbcglobal.net/servabuse.php

SBC DSL will remove the filtering from port 25 at your request:
Go to
http://help.sbcglobal.net/servabuse.php
and select "opt-out of port 25" under "abuse type"
SBC will confirm your request and fix the problem in 12 hours.

SBC DSL will remove the filtering from port 25 at your request:
Go to
http://help.sbcglobal.net/servabuse.php
and select "opt-out of port 25" under "abuse type"
SBC will confirm your request and fix the problem in 12 hours.

Thank you so much! Our office started having this problem yesterday. We use SBC Yahoo as well. I filled out the opt out form, hopefully this will solve the problem on all of our computers!

Thanks, my e-mail prvider (Startlogic) knew nothing, blamed it on Norton, Microsoft was useless. Thank you

Thanks a lot man. This really helped me out!

thank a lot

i mean thanks a lot, nobody else could give a clear answer to this issue, it is appreciated

This was such a frustrating problem. The port filtering was EXACTLY what it was. I had 2 offices on SBC that just all of the sudden stop sending mail, but the ones on Road Runner sent the find through the same mail server. Thanks for the help people!

Thank you, I totally spaced this. I have just sent SBC the request to remove port 25 filtering. I have spend the last two days going over every setting in the server and pulling my hair out. The whole time I was thinking how does something that worked last week not work this week when nothing has changed.

Thanks for all the help. In case you are on Cox Internet, the Port 25 filtering is the problem, but they won't fix it or allow an opt-out. They want you to upgrade to a commercial account for $60. As soon as I figure out how to get away from them, I will. Thanks again to everyone for your helpful suggestions and experiences.

This is the most helpful page I've found on this subject. My email provider (XO) was completely worthless.

My problem is that I use many different wireless ISP connections on a daily basis (office, coffeeshops, etc.), many of which have seemingly just (as in the last week or so) started blocking port 25. The problem is I can't change the ISP's settings b/c I don't control them. Is there anything my email provider can do to help me?

bob -

Yes, your email provider can do what mine did - they can set up their SMTP server to work on another port as well as port 25 - since your ISP is only blocking port 25, you could get the email provider to open up port 250 (for example) and link that to their SMTP server - then you would configure your email client to use that port instead and you'd bypass the blockage.

Randall thanks a bunch for the SBC info. I've been dealing with this for like a month and your solution was the only one that work.

Breathing again!!!!!

Thanks hoss, this helped alot. Microsofts response to this issue was so left field, I was surprised that they havn't included information such as this.

Thank you again,

Jeff

thanks for your valuable asistance... it's like everybody has said, you have hit the nail on it's head... this problem has been so annoying since last year and nobody could help out. You guys did. Keep up the Good Work.

Thank you for your post.
However I am a complete "no brain" with computers and all this talk of ports and servers is confusing for me.
I have 2 computers home and work and both use Outlook for my emails but Hotpop is my email address provider for both.
Yesterday when I tried to send messages from both email accounts using outlook I started receiving a message mentioning 0x80042109 unable to connect to STMP??Could this be that my server could be done which is what a computer minded friend has said? Or do you think there has become a problem with my port?? As I said this problem only started on both computers yesterday??
Totally confused. I did contact Hotpop to ask if their server was down but have been given a queing ticket for my enquiry, so still waiting...
Any help would be greatfully received :-)

Just reboot the computer, came right with 4-5 of customers I had call up. Mainstream ISP that will not block port 25 (what ISP would?)
If fails,
Recreate the connection,
If failing (again),
Re-install Outlook

Every ISP (in this country atleast) use port 25 to send email. Its just standard, so why bother changing it?

Porter: The ISP still allows port 25 connections to their own SMTP server, they just disallow it to SMTP servers outside their control - they do this to make it impossible for spammers to use their network to sent email through third-party servers to dissuade spammers from using them.

When I called my ISP, they confirmed that this is what they were doing, and my email provider agreed to use a workaround and open port 250 for SMTP connections. As I understand it, a number of the top 20 ISPs have done this now, and will continue to do it, because it is quite effective in deterring spammers from opening accounts on their service.

For more information, look at this and read point 2, on "transparent proxying".

The SBC Yahoo DSL/port 25 issue was my problem. It would've avoided many headaches had they thought to warn us. Thanks much to all!!

THANK YOU FOR EVERYONE'S INVOLVEMENT! I did a search a week ago, but didn't find anything. And now, here I am. I was so confused because at my cousin's house, I can send mail via Comcast's SMTP just fine on their SBC DSL line, but no cigar with my own SBC DSL. Thanks for posting that URL (http://help.sbcglobal.net/servabuse.php), and I'm sure by next week, I can send mail again! :) (I kept my comcast e-mail after I moved out since graduating from college, not ready to abandon it yet.)

Thank you, I've spent the whole Sunday working on that issue. Now it's 1 in the morning and I told my ISP to shut down port 25 filtering. This is something I've never would have figure on my own.
Again, thank you

Thanks to the info regarding sbc...i too had this problem and hopefully it will now be rectified.

The port 25 blocking explanation saved me! Thanks for the posting!!! :)

Thanks for the posting. I had two ISPs outbound email stop functioning a few days ago and I could not identify a single change that could have affected both services at the same time. Still, until your post, I could find no discussion of a third-party cause to the problem, either. Thanks again.

does sbc fix the port problem, and then does the stmp work

thanks so much

I've had this problem for 3 days now and SBC said they removed the port 25 upgrage but my e-mails from outlook are still having the same error code.
I guess I need to reinstall Microsoft Outlook?
Any other suggestion?

Thank you, this helped a lot. I've been able to verify the problem. I have the Yahoo/SBC DSL account, and I found this link:

http://help.sbcglobal.net/article.php?item=4640

Note item #4 which you can use to opt out of Port 25 filtering. I've just submitted the request, hopefully it'll work.

You guys are awsome. I too was suffering from the SBC Yahoo DSL transparent proxy. Luckily I was able to use another port. If your using MS outlook you need to close it and reopen it for the port settings to take. Thanks again

Thx, a lot. this helps a lot.

Well, take this problem to another level. I have MSN POP3 mail and have been experiencing this problem for a couple of weeks but only on one computer. I have two set up the exact same way and I can not send mail on one of them. When I launch the send and receive, it shows sending two messages but there is no messages to be sent in the outbox. This may be a clue. I believe this may have started with the last security updates but I have disabled my firewall completly and it still won't connect to the SMPT server. Right now I am brain dead. Any Ideas other than the obvious?

I just wanted to add my two cents worth... I too looked high and low for a solution to the transparent proxy server problem (althogh I didn't know it at the time) and I also use SBC Yahoo DSL. I have two different accounts, home and work, and for the longest time the one at work was fine until I had a power outage. I contacted SBC and had the port 25 filtering removed and in their reply, they mentioned that the filter was removed and that I should turn off my DSL modem for at least 15 seconds, and if I had a router to turn that off for 15 seconds as well. I turned both off and restarted them and the problem has vanished!!! Now I know why the system at my office worked longer, the router had not been turned off like the one at home had been. Anyway, thanks for all the posts everyone!!

Dudes you rock. I too was experiencing the same problem with port 25 being blocked. My boss kept thinking it was something I was doing wrong. What's weird is that I got the darn thing working after I uninstalled Outlook XP and installed Outlook 2000 on my own system. Anyone know why Outlook 2000 plays nicely with SBC and Outlook XP does not? Unfortuneately I can't uninstall Outlook XP and install Outlook 2000 on my clients systems so I guess they'll have to wait for the opt out option to take effect.

Great!!

I've been fumbling with this for over 2 years...shame on me, just got my BS in Computer Science...:)) THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!! And, yes Viva Information Highway!! BTW, I called up my ISP, and yes, they were blocking Port 25, which is becoming a general anti-spam action taken by most ISPs. All I had to do was to replace my outgoing server with the one that my ISP has. Email Heaven...o;))

The problem really is a pain in the ass. And I would like to thank everyone who have posted a comment.
Thank you!!

Awesome - thank you so much for your info. You really helped me out. Thanks.

Got fed up of my ISP changing the rules with SMTP - first they turned off their own servers, then they blocked port 25 - then they turned on their servers again but would only accept up to 25 messages per day and email @isp-name-only.com

Googled and found authsmtp - http://www.authsmtp.com - pretty cheap and works perfectly.

Again "You Guys Rock!!!!"
this problem has been a pain in the butt for awhile. First the email would work only in express, then not at all. contacted SBC and "opted out of 25 filtering" then just set my outgoing mail server to the ISP's server...problem solved!!!
so for those out there that the ISP will not unblock, try changing the outgoing mail server to your ISP's.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. I have been trying for days to fix this, even the techie in the office could offer me no solutions. You were bang on my ISP was blocking 25, so I inserted their server name as my outgoing server. Thanks again.

Does anyone know if Verizon can opt out of port 25 filtering? I have called tech support twice but they claim to know nothing of it. My laptop sends emails fine from my home location, but never from office (using Outlook 2003). At office, it goes into outbox and sits there until I get home, whereupon it sends. My office landlord allows me to use his T1 line, also his wireless DSL connection. He uses Outlook and has no problems sending email.

I'm also an SBC Ameritech customer. I could send but not recieve after I configured my website email address in outlook 2003. I changed the SMTP to ameritechs outgoing server only to have it work only once. After that none of my email address's would work. Not even my ameritech email. Having SBC/Ameritech opt out of port 25 did the trick. Good Job in discovering this fix!!!

Thanks so much! Opt out solved my problem with SBC Global. Glad I was able to find this through google. Thanks again.

I had the same error and found out that some smtp-servers will simply accept port 587 instead of 25. In fact some providers (like mine) are blocking 25 in general. This was for me the solution of a problem i had for years.

HI!

solved the problem once again! Thanks! BTW, SBC sent out a single email notice (as far as I remember) to all DSL subscribers around September of last year, warning people that Port25 filtering would "begin".

It took them several months to start this (I was hit in January), but other subscribers were hit in months following in 2005. SBC turns the filter on without any further warnings. SMTP email works 1 day and stops working the following day.

One note: It is important to power-cycle the router after requesting the "Opt Out of Port 25 blocking". Prolem went away as soon as both of these tasks were completed (5 minutes!).

Thanks!

This is a great help...Thank you out there...
Cheers
Alex

dear Sir
i was tried so many times but the probelum is same can not conntected to ur SMTP Server i use ISA Server so kindly tell me process, i too much in trouble from where open port through ISA Server

Thanks & Regards
Rehana

I switched my port from 25 to 587 and it immediately fixed my problem of not being able to send emails.

Thanks for posting this. I was using a hotels internet connection and was trying to figure why it was not working. It was their isp blocking my "smtp".
Your the greatest!
-Ricky

Switched port 25 to 587.
I did this to and it fixed it. Thanks!

I have 3 separet email accounts that i access from outlook 2003 and from one day to the nest they all gave me this error SMTP 0X80042109. One of them is a free yahoo account. Where they all blocked at once?

Rgs,
Sascha

I am having the same problem but it cannot be the ISP blocking port 25 because I am the mail administrator for our company.

We have a number of regional offices that connect to our Exchange server and there is only one workstation that is experiencing this problem.

All others appear to be able to send and receive with no difficulty.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Here's a caveat: I work from home and pick up a wireless signal here (Linksys it calls itself, due to my Linksys wireless card I suppose). It's really reliable and the signal is excellent, so I want to keep using it, but while I can receive in all my acounts-- Yahoo, AOL, and my Outlook domain email (Microsoft hosts), AND I can send from Yahoo and AOL, I cannot send from my Outlook.
Does anyone know what I can put for my outgoing server to get around this?
Thanks!

Devon,

What's happening in your case is that you're using a nearby network that's unprotected, and that runs off a Linksys router (it's because the router is Linksys, not your wireless card, that it's called that). Probably a neighbour with a wireless network.

The chances are that his network provider is blocking port 25 to prevent spamming - since you're using someone else's network, you're subject to their network's restrictions, and there's not much you can do, unless your internet email provider allows connections through ports other than 25 for the purposes of sending mail - I'd write to them.

Rgds,

N.

OK, i've read everyone's responses but have still had no luck. My internet is with Telstra Bigpond, i have 2 different emails set up in outlook, my @bigpond.net.au email works fine, but my @dreadnaught.com.au email has had this message coming up for about 1 month now. Telstra Bigpond have been of no help & say they can't fix it. I'm not sure what to do.

hi guys! i'm having a little problem with my browser and i dont know if it is true or not but i hear someone who tells that the sbc globlar proxy server was changed to another adress so if someone could help me i'll be so happy.

*** Solution! *** wireless only error (0x80042109) Outlook NetIdentity Yahoo

I have been *crippled* by this for months. I launched a corporate effort via email, but NO! my email didn't send because I was on the road through transient networks! Email sends fine at home through Comcast. Could receive, but could not SEND on the road on available 802.11 networks.

Solution: Change the Outging Server (SMTP)Port to 587 from the default 25, which can be found in the "More Settings --> Advanced" sectiton. I didn't need to restart anything. It worked on random wireless networks that I have been on as well as my normal Comcast ISP through my email providers Yahoo and NetIdentity.

I would like anyone who finds this to be the right solution to paypal a tip to the folks that solved the problem.

I am sending $5 to summer (June 17th post, and $10 to the originator, nlvp. nlvp, send me an email address to paypal... urs(June 8 post) dont know how to find you.

Vive le Internet!!

Rex

Very generous of you! If you really want to send me money, the email address is nicolas and the domain is salocin.com (this website). The website URL is my first name backwards, which is sort of neat but a little geeky. I was young when I bought it, that's my excuse.

Don't feel you need to send any money, because that's not why I posted, but clearly if 8 people did this, it'd pay my hosting bill for a year, so I'm not going to stand in it's way!

$10 sent! Thanks again... Happily emailing away... Rex

I was having the same trouble (yes with SBC). This page helped fix the issue:

http://help.sbcglobal.net/article.php?item=4640

Simply changing to port 587 worked here.

Regards,
Kevin

A huge thanks for this post!

I work in an ISP help desk, and this information will help many of us and our customers, as we have recently introduced a port 25 block in an attempt to reduce spam/viral activity on our network.

for Outlook error 0x80042109 go to control panel/user/mail and delete your profile

just a question very familiar to what you guys are talking about.

I have a desktop and a laptop connected to the internet thru a linksys router, both using outlook 2003. the desktop is hardwired and the laptop is not. both are online and surfing.

I don't want to sound incompetent, but it seems like I have difficulties with Outlook 2003 on my laptop. we get the same error 0x80042109.

But it works fine on my desktop.

Help!

Hey guys, I HAVE THE SOLUTION

I have the same problem because I am using my Earthlink e-mail account via Outlook 2003 on XP Home Edition, while working in Europe. I was receiving error 0x80042109 (I actually memorized the number sequence!).

1. TOOLS --> E-MAIL ACCOUNTS
2. VIEW OR CHANGE EXISTING E-MAIL ACCOUNTS --> NEXT
3. HIGHLIGHT ACCOUNTS --> CHANGE
4. MORE SETTINGS
5. ADVANCED TAB
6. change OUTGOING SERVER (SMTP) PORT to 587 instead of the standard 25

If you use an anti-virus software package, be sure to extend the time-out to 60 seconds, instead of 30, as e-mail scanning takes longre and may cause your incoming/outgoing server to time-out on you because the anti-virus software is still scanning your mails. I find it easier to simply disable e-mail scanning.

e-mail me if you have any more questions.

David

Ya'll rock. After reading the posts I figured it all out and took care of my email not sending problem in 2 minutes. Just so you know, if you are using everyone.net to host your email you should use 2525 for the port and disable SSL.

Hi,

This tormented me for MONTHS, but the fix can be done simply without changing ports. I use Outlook 2003 and SBC Yahoo DSL. My hosting service, mavweb.net, told me to use the SMTP for SBC with my SBC email acount login and in the setting for the reply address to use my domain email address.

When testing the result by emailing myself, the From address was in fact my domain email -the result I wanted. Also, less for my server to process.

-shon

HELP, I am having this same issue with Verizon email, but I go through BellSouth DSL to access online. All of a sudden, after two years working great, my two laptops working wireless through a Linksys router and a desktop bypasssing the router, all stopped sending email...but still receive. Spent an hour on phone with Verizon and they were clueless. Do I call BellSouth and see if they recently did something to port 25???
-Paul

I had the same problem with BellSouth DSL, Earthlink email and Outlook 2003. Wouldn't have found the solution buried on Earthlink's website if it weren't for this blog and everyone's input. Thanks!

For Earthlink users, the step-by-step fix for changing outgoing mail from port 25 to 587 is at http://kb.earthlink.net/case.asp?article=80631. Before you close the main Internet Email Settings (POP3) window, you can click on Test Account Settings to make sure everything's working. It should take you less than a minute to fix.

I found the link at the bottom of their basic "How to Configure Outlook 2002/2003 for SMTP Authentication" page under Related Articles. But, for those of us who aren't quite as tech savvy or who didn't find this blog, Earthlink doesn't even suggest clicking on "How to Configure the SMTP Port to Port 587 in Outlook 2002/2003" if the initial settings don't work. If this is a widespread problem and since it doesn't affect our ability to receive messages, it would be nice for Earthlink to send a broadcast email to clients about the potential problem and its solution. Anyone from Earthlink reading this? Feel free to drop this in your suggestion box.

Happy New Year!

Cheers,

Todd

By the way, I was also getting error codes 0X8004210B and 0X800CCC03. These problems seem to be related to 0X80042109 since the above solution also eliminated them. Hope this helps others find the fix more quickly using Google.

Cheers,

Todd

This was huge. I have just been VPN'ing to get around this. Such a pain. Thanks for the post. Really appreciate people that take the time to share the solution to a common issue.

for sbc users: use smtp.sbcglobal.net in outgoing server. if u hv email ID with sbc. then in outgoing server give the authentication & select log on using & type ur email addres & pwd there.
it will gonna work.

thanks lot , i had the same problem now it is solved

This was very helpful! Thanks alot!

Try to Disable Norton Anti-Virus Firewall will and check the settings of Outlook(E-mail).
If this doesn't work out then change the SMTP port 25 to 587

Thanks. I use comcast and they first told me to contact Microsoft. The next day I found this and after an hour of trying to convince them that to check port 25, they did and sure enough they had blocked it due to them detecting an e-mail sent to me with a virus attached. I removed the e-mail, ran the virus scan and asked them to turn it on for me. Again thank you very much for posting this.

Your Post makes a lot of sense but my ISP which is verizon DSL said that I have a problem with outlook express and not my server. This does not make sense because I could send e-mail at certain point with my software. If somebody could help me with some kind of info it would be great. Doug

Hello from England, I was having the same problem as you guys, but am with yahoo.co.uk Now then My ISP is with AOL but outlook kept on giving me a error 0X8004210B and 0X800CCC03...Some times it would send others it would not.....AOL in turn sent me an email with a link that does not seem to work on this laptop that does not have AOL on...oh dear....
anyway what they where saying is that you have to put the send and recieve to over 12 minutes and the time out to 12 minutes on port 25. I dont know whether this helps BUT!!!!!!!

Oh and I changed to smtp port no 587
since then NO problems....I just wish the ISP or yahoo would have told us the problem, or that they changed the settings etc...thanks to all the info on your site and the guys and gals that are giving info so freely.....hack the hackers I say

You are THE BEST!!!!
I can't thank you enough man...
All that's left now is to learn hungerian so i could shout at them...

Does anyone know of any other ports for Road Runner? When I'm running aol, it blocks my rr email sent through outlook express.
Thanks!!

Does anyone know of any other ports for Road Runner? When I'm running aol, it blocks my rr email sent through outlook express.
Thanks!!

Thank you very much!

This is now a known issue with SBC/ATT DSL. Go here for the FAQ and solution to the problem!

http://help.sbcglobal.net/article.php?item=4640

Thanks heaps for this! It's the only place on the web that I could get a decent answer. Cheers for your help :-)

This has been a great help. I've never had problems sending, but am now on an extended roadtrip and am relying on free wifi access points and finding that 90% of them block outgoing email access.
The port change is great. Thank you.

does anyone have any information for juno? I need an alternative port for them and they are not helpful.

I think an answer is in sight

thanks!

I work for dell and had a customer call with this problem (port 25 blocked by comcast) when he called them they said it wasnt their problem and referred him to us. Fortunately he had a Dell on Call service contract or it would have cost him $99 to learn his problem was caused by his ISP and should have been resolved by them. The tech he spoke to at comcast didnt have a clue. Yor thread was most helpfull, god bless all the wonderfull folks on the net that provide shuch a wealth of practical solutions for such a wide range of problems. Google is my best fiend on the help desk. You dont have to know all the answers just how to find them.

I was beginning to bust my brains over this one. After a quick Google search I'm sooo glad I found this site. It saved me from the all nigher I dreaded. Good looking at bud!

Apparently ALL the cable service providers block port 25 to ALL mail servers but their OWN!!! Make sure you read the crappy terms of service befoe you buy.

They do remove the blocks if you sign up (almost double the price) for their business class service.

I think I might switch back to DSL again atleast I am no hamstringed into using their mail servers alone!!

This reminds me of why cable broadband sucks!!

I have comcast for my internet connection and i changed my outgoing server SMTP from port 25 to 250 without calling comcast about it. And it worked! Thank you, thank you, thank you to nlvp for posting this fix back in Oct '04!! I've been dealing with this issue for months!

Thank you so much to everyone for posting all this information. People can be so amazing!
I am connected wirelessly to my mum's ADSL with Primus, but using a Bigpond email account. For the last 6 months I have been able to receive but not send any emails. Tried every update you could think of, uninstalled and reinstalled, etc. Then finally I found your site!
To fix my problem: All I had to do was go into the email settings in Outlook, and change my outgoing server info from Bigpond to Primus. Problem solved!
Hope this helps anyone in a similar situation.

So this post in about 2 minutes solved what verizon and microsoft tech supports could not for 2 weeks. hmm.
I use verizon email but optonline is the ISP. I kind of suspected this was the problem at first but didn't think much of it.
First I though it was a verizon problem because my parents were having issues with sending verizon mail as well. Their problem resolved but mine didn't so I contacted verizon support, which is VERY hard to find by the way. Their idea of help is "are you spelled the email address right? did you spell outgoing correctly?" duh. so they said it had to be a problem with Outlook, so contact them.
They did have some useful ways to try and help but never asked some of the most obvious questions. They gave me a test email acct, with a different pop and smtp server to try, and they didn't work either, so it definitely was not a verizon issue.
I didn't really have time to look into this until tonight, so when I read this, I went back to my original idead and the first thing I did, change my outgoing server to
mail.optonline.net instead of outgoing.verizon.net
hmm guess what, my outbox is now empty again.

Please Help me!!! I have never had this problem at all untill 3 nights ago, I have not changed a thing on my computer, it is happening to both my home computer as well as my laptop. Noone can figure it out. I use scientific atlantic for my internet provider.
Here is the message when I try to send mail from Outlook

Task 'staciesteele - Sending' reported error (0x80042109) : 'Outlook is unable to connect to your outgoing (SMTP) e-mail server. If you continue to receive this message, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).'

Thank you

Hi I had the same problem. My ISP offered me a work around. Thanks for the help.

I had the same problem and had been, as so many other, tearing my hair out. I was using the same POP3 account on 2 computers and the same provider (Earthlink). I set up the email configuration exactly the same way on both machines, except that one has Outlook 2002 and uses a cable modem and the other has Outlook 2003 and uses a dial-up connection. The one in Outlook 2002 had always worked fine, but the new one completely failed.

Thanks to your help, I looked the issue up on Earthlink's support page and found this simple workaround
http://kb.earthlink.net/case.asp?article=4015
I fixed the problem in 2 minutes!

Same problem, same Microsoft useless thread. Found this site and am working on changes as we speak.

I know for a fact that ISPs dont discuss security enhancements publically for obvious reasons.

However, there should be some type of effort made to communicate these changes to honest users besides malfunctions.

Outlook stopped receiving or sending from one day to the next, and started with the 109 error code. Only difference I had just updated to Norton 2006. The ISP provider called it; the Norton Firewall system was interfering with the Outlook connectivity. Norton's awesome online chat crew figured it out in a short while and reconfigured my firewall to allow Outlook to send/receive.

It has been a great help for me. Thanks a lot!!!

Switching to 587 worked. This was a big help.

Thank you so much. This was exactly my problem and I fixed it thanks to your suggestions. YOU ROCK!

For users out there: if you use mail from common email servers like Yahoo or 1and1.com, both of these have their alternative proxy port numbers listed in their FAQ sections in their corresponding websites. For both of these, in this case, use port 587 in your outlook configuration.

Thanks a lot!

I use outlook, when I use the reply and forward buttons, outgoing e-mail items sit in my outbox for indefinite lengths of time and may or may not go after mutliple send attempts. I wonder if this is related to the port # problem, when I use my EL acct with port 587 it has no problem, however with my 24-7 webs acct they balk. No help from webs. Anyone else out there experiencing this problem.

I started having the same problem today after I have been able to access my webserver mail with no problem using Outlook 2002. I did the telnet to my ISP mail server and it worked fine, but then when I done it to my other mail server from my own person domain. It failed. I will be contacting my ISP to find out why they are blocking my port 25.. Thank you for this info

Your post was instrumental in helping me to solve my able-to-receive-but-not-send problem. Thank you very much.

I had the same problem, and I was going crazy. I was receiving mails through outlook and had to answer through AOL:(

Now, I found this site and I am very greatful your descripting. Thank you very much.

I calles my ISP optimium Online.

I just had to changt the SMPT to mail.optonline.net

Also see:

http://www.citidexliweb.com/help/CablevisionEmail.html

Regards,
Danny

Thanks for the help - contacted my ISP who gave me the following DOS command to run -

IPCONFIG -FLUSHDNS

running this command resolved my problem.

thanks for your help. Turned out this solution wasn't applicable to my problem. i was getting this error because of McAfee- only when I disabled the firewall on my email & increased the time was I able to send my email. What a pain. I'm contacting McAfee to see if they can help.

hey guys! thanks to your comments i simply changed my port from 25 to 26 and this works fine!!

would there be any problems with doing this that i should expect?

thanks again

Thaanks we have this problem with a new machine it was working fine on a bigpond connection but when connecting to the internet through optus cable it blocks SMPT

most of the success stories are where the isp and email provider are different. any ideas when they are the same? ie comcast is the isp and comcast is the email provider. in this case am using the smtp server and still getting the message. shut off mcafee and that didn't help

most of the success stories are where the isp and email provider are different. any ideas when they are the same? ie comcast is the isp and comcast is the email provider. in this case am using the smtp server and still getting the message. shut off mcafee and that didn't help

thanks this helped me :)

Very helpful information. Thanks a lot!

Thanks a million. More than two years later and your post is still helping. For anyone with a yahoo conflict--yahoo says to switch the incoming port to 995 and outgoing port to 465 and check both "use authentication" boxes.

ABSOFRICKIN' UNBELIEVABLE!!!! I've spent days trying to figure this out. My outbound emails in Outlook 2003 suddenly stopped working. And it was around the same time that I installed all sorts of virus and firewall programs, so all my research has taken me in that direction.

I had Outlook rules programmed to automatically send out my Special Report on How to Overcome a P.o.r.n Addiction when someone would submit their email at www.PornSober.com. So suddenly I had dozens of requests backlogging in my outgoing folder! This has been the absolute biggest pain and it turns out the fix was so stinkin' easy!

Thank you so much for your post. I even spent like $40 for a reg cleaner program thinking that might fix it. It didn't. Hopefully I can get my money back.

In anycase, I went to Comcast to learn that they suggest changing the port from 25 to 587. This didn't work for the pornsober.com email so I went to TotalChoiceHosting.com and submitted a help ticket and it turns out they say to change it to 26! I did and it worked! That was it! 587 worked for my netzero email.

Thanks again.

My boss was in travel in Australia and there she cannot send mail through out smtp server (argentina), this problem makes me crazzy for about 3 days. I find your solution. Problem Fixed !!
Many Many thanks to you.

Thanks for the information. I was lucky, it only took me one hour to find your solution. I use two different ISP's (one at work, another at home, brand new this morning)and four different email addresses.

I called bigpond tech support as the failure was occurring on their server (I thought) and they couldn't solve the problem, but were able to confirm my login details were OK. Once I knew the server and login details were OK, I remembered reading about Port 25 blocking on the new ISP's website.

It was your solution that reminded me of the blocking. I didn't twig to it immediately as I didn't really know what port blocking was all about.

Here is Internode's webpage explanation

http://www.internode.on.net/faq/internet-filter.htm#What_does_all_this_mean_What_are

Once I called their tech support, they were able to very quickly give me the new Outlook 2003 settings to sort everything out.

I'm not sure if anyone has explained why Port 25 is blocked in earlier posts, but my understanding (according to Internode tech support)is that it is an attempt to reduce spam, trojans, and worms. Malicous programs often use Port 25 on your computer to propagate themselves anonymously on the web.

Anyway, thanks for posting the solution, you saved me heaps of time!!!

Thank you very much. That solved the problem for me.

It started when I downloaded a new program that evidently changed my settings.

You are awesome! I fought with this all day! I finally stumbled on your posting! I figured out that my ISP began blocking 25 if it was not an encrypted connection! So, I contacted my email provider (its a work email I am a home office guy) and they pointed me to their alt smtp port that is an encrypted connection! It fixed my problem!!!!! Thanks thanks thanks!

Brad

I have comcast, and after 3 hrs on the phone, I get told my account was blocked for email abuse. They gave me a local # to call to remove the block.

I did send a bunch of emails to a friend of mine with pics and mp3 files the day before this error started occuring. Not sure that's "abuse" but whatever...

I call this email abuse # and get voice mail. I'm forced to leave a voice mail and now wait for someone to call me back...

We shall see...

The info here is great though. It helped me guide Comcast thru what needed to to be done and when all was set right and it still wasn't working, that is what led the Rep to go find out I was on the abuse list...

I don't know if anyone needs help with this and comcast, but here's the link to get it fixed.

http://www.comcast.net/help/faq/index.jsp?faq=EmailOutlook18533

This has been making me mad all day
thank you all

I too am grateful for the info. I'm using a wireless laptop and a hardwired desktop for Comcast email running over BellSouth DSL lines. I could receive but not send.

It turns out that Comcast actually posts the solution for travelers. They say to switch the incoming port to 995 and outgoing to 465, check both for SSL. Initially the test on the laptop still failed but when I proceeded to "finish" and went back to the ap it began sending.

I am so Happy to find the Fix for Comcast users. I am secretary for a non-profit community organization and I regularly send out 150 e-mails to the members. I kept changing the port to 587 with no luck, then I saw Todd's post:

http://www.comcast.net/help/faq/index.jsp?faq=EmailOutlook18533

It worked beautifully! Thanks Everybody!

HELP!!
I saw someone else was having this problem, but I didn't see an answer posted.

Everyting used to be fine. At work, with my verizon wireless card, and at home on cable/optimum online. I could send and receive e-mail in outlook and AOL, and I could use Lime Wire with no problem. Then, one day I setup a linksys wireless router which I ended up not liking very much and returned. Now when I try to send e-mail from home (cable/optimum online connection) via outlook I get the 0x80042109 error, but I can still receive e-mail via outlook. I can still connect to the internet, AOL, BUT I can't connect with Lime Wire anymore. This is all within a matter of a day.

The weird thing is, at work (T1 line) and my verizon wireless card I don't have any problems sending outlook e-mail, but I still cannot connect to Lime Wire.

I've turned off Norton 360 firewall and windows XP firewall, but nothing works. Sorry for the long e-mail. PLEASE HELP!! =(

I'd just like to say that you guys just saved me another 3 hours of banging my head against the wall. Believe it or not one of my clients is still using CompuServe for email and I was only able to send email via Outlook 2003 configured to use IMAP. After changing the default port from 25 to 587 all of the messages "magically" left the outbox! THANKS A MILLION. I owe you guys a drink... LOL

Great of you to post such useful stuff...BUT...doesn't quite explain my problem. YES I get the message and mail is blocked - but its only intermittent. If I close everything down, switch off the router and PC, boot again - its OK.

Any ideas on this ?

Thanks

Phil

Thanks for this page man. I just changed my port to 587 and everything is working now.

Thank you very much man, I spent 2 days figuring out what was the problem and I didn´t know what to do, so I change the port to 587 and everything worked fine.

YOUR INFORMATION AND SUPPORT WAS UNVALUABLE THANK YOU MAN.

I could kiss you right now. I've been fighting with my internet company for 2 MONTHS! They've told me it's everything from my msn to antivirus to microsoft problem. I even sent them your postings and they still can't figure it out! I just took a chance and changed the outgoing port to 587 and it works like a charm again....THANK YOU SOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!

I am a tech support rep and screaming at us dosent get you very far

We scream at tech support because they keep you on the phone for 40 mins talking rubbish that doesn't give you any "support" what so ever! & when you ask to speak to their supervisor because they are rude they put you on hold for 10 mins & then cut you off!!!! Thankyou "SKY".
Now to the point...
I can receive but not send.
I've tried everything, 587 etc but nothing works.
I'm not very good with these things - Please HELP!
Your site looks like my best hope.

im having the same problem. my port was already set to 587 - ive been getting emails fine when ive been using the internet at cafes etc (wirelessly) - now i have a adsl cable attached from my neighbours router - i can get online fine but cant send or receive emails.. I use gmail through outlook...
can anyone help please?!

I had sending trouble via Outlook after getting AT&T U-verse. couls not send via port 25. called AT&T got 5to tier-2 tech support and had them unblock port 25. Only took 20 min. All is well now.

thankyou... but the problem's just got wierder.. i went back to the place where i'd beene downloading emails fine.. and they wouldnt download when i was on their connection either! they send fine- and i have 2emails accounts and 1 of them sends AND receives just fine - its just the gmail one im having problems receiving with..
ive tried changing ports etc etc but nothing..
help!

Telus made me change to port 1025, works perfectly now. Thanks for your post!