Cag Mail

[ozzywizard]

I want to configure my outlook to work with CAGmail. but I do not know the basics like what is the incoming and outgoing mail server and is it pop 3 etc. . and anything else it may ask in the outlook wizard.

[saintly_1]

Its

 

pop.consumeractiongroup.co.uk

smtp.consumeractiongroup.co.uk

 

 

[ozzywizard]

Exelent response Saintly. thanks heaps . . now are ya gonna send me a mail to test it out haha . . .

[ozzywizard]

Do I tick box for secure login password auth (SPA)

[saintly_1]

errrrrrr ........... mines not ticked

[ozzywizard]

thanks its not ticked now. okies i gots it receiving mails but not sending if anyone any ideas.

[Tezcatlipoca]

thanks its not ticked now. okies i gots it receiving mails but not sending if anyone any ideas.

 

This happens a lot with home users.

 

Essentially, your ISP (Internet Service Provider) might block port 25 (the default port to send mail on) outright, or might only allow traffic via their own SMTP server on that port.

They do this in an effort to reduce the world's spam problem. The downside is that home users trying to set up external emails - such as CAG - often run into the problem of not being able to send.

 

The solution is to use your ISP's SMTP details. You can either tell us who provides your internet, or do it yourself by punch ' SMTP settings' into Google, so, if you are on Virgin broadband you'd punch in 'virgin broadband smtp settings' which would give you smtp.virgin.net.

Use your ISP's SMTP and you should find it running fine. Note that your ISP might (really should) require authentication, so you'll need to use whatever your username/password is with them, which you can check with them if you don't know it.

 

If it still doesn't work, your ISP might have blocked port 25 outright. There are several ways around this, but they can be a little complex, so go with your ISP's SMTP settings first and, if it doesn't work, repost here and I'll explain the next step.

Edited March 12, 2010 by Tezcatlipoca

[ozzywizard]

Exelent Tez, just to let you know im online now so will give this a try. it is set by default to 110. I am on virgin media.

[ozzywizard]

smtp.blueyonder.co.uk

 

http://imgur.com/38TPR.gif

[ozzywizard]

geesh just spent ages on this and it will not work . . any suggestions. I cant even get it to work with virgins so no chance with another lol.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Exelent Tez, just to let you know im online now so will give this a try. it is set by default to 110. I am on virgin media.

 

Ok, 110 is the default port for POP3 mail, which is your incoming. 143 is reserved for IMAP, a bi-directional alternative to POP, and 25 is for SMTP, or the outgoing mail.

 

In Outlook, if you click on the More Settings button on the bottom right of the window from your screenshot, you get a series of tabs. One of these should be Outgoing Server, where you can selectively fine-tune the outgoing mail settings. This should be set to My outgoing mailserver requires authentication ticked, then the bottom radio button - Log on using - selected. This is where your outgoing details are defined, in this case your Virgin username and password.

 

The user details you have filled out on the main accounts window (again, the one you did a screenie of) are for the incoming mail, so whatever your CAG details are should be here, not your blueyonder.

 

By this method, you are telling Outlook to POP3 (incoming) your CAG mail using your CAG details, and to SMTP (outgoing) via your Virgin account with your Virgin details. You are defining your incoming details on the first screen and the outgoing in the More Settings -> Outgoing Server tab.

 

You might also want to change the Your Name section of the settings from your email address to something like Ozzy. This is purely aesthetic, but whatever you put here will appear as the sender in your recipient's mailbox (note this is different from the sending address).

 

Hope this helps.

[ozzywizard]

Yayyy Tez, it works. geesh I am hard work . lol. . .

thanks heaps alls well now, will give ya a shout if I get any more probs haha . . .

 

scales tipped.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Always happy to help, and glad it's working for you.

 

If this whole process has been frustrating, you can lay the blame at the door of Spam.

 

In the good old days, mailservers didn't need any kind of authentication at all, and every mailserver would happily handle requests from anywhere in the world.

 

When spam started to abuse this, they began needing authentication. Then spam started abusing that with faked/stolen details, so almost all residental ISPs now either block port 25 outright, or, more commonly, only allow SMTP traffic from their users to go via their own SMTP servers.

 

It makes sense in that it enormously helps to mitigate the world's spam problem, but it's not common knowledge to most and, when trying to get your email working, incredibly frustrating to the average user.

 

Bloody spam...

[ozzywizard]

haha yeah, well im currently checking through all my settings as everytime i get a mail (sent from me as test ) it changes title to spam and i get this lol.

 

Spam detection software, running on the system "lacey", has identified this incoming email as possible spam. The original message has been attached to this so you can view it (if it isn't spam) or label similar future email. If you have any questions, see the administrator of that system for details.

[Tezcatlipoca]

The answer to your issue is complicated, but essentially the receiving server - either CAG's primary in Manchester or their Bytemark backup in the Netherlands (whichever is tagged "Lacey") - has antispam filters/software running that is applying this classification to your mail.

 

I don't have time to drill into CAG's server to have a look for myself, but I'd guess that Lacey is running a simple PTR (reverse DNS) lookup on the incoming mail - which is from yourself - and finding that even though the From address is (Edit) (so it claims to be from the consumeractiongroup.co.uk domain), the headers show it actually coming from blueyonder, or Virgin or whatever. It might normally allow such mail through, since somebody else might be sending you a legitimate email from a relay, but the fact that both the sender and receiver are the same sets alarm bells ringing (this same sender/receiver is a classic spam indicator).

 

Basically, a lot of spam tries to go via a server other than the domain it claims to be from (so some spam might say it is from joebloggs@somedomain.com, but the email might be sent by a mailserver identifying itself as someotherdomain.co.uk. Because the two domains don't match, the receiving server might become suspicious and it's anti-spam defenses kick in, either marking it as suspected spam or deleting it outright. Add to that the fact in your test mail both the sending and reciving email are the same, and the receiving server is pretty sure you're a spammer and marks your mail as such).

In most cases, spam runs through a series of filters and picks up a 'score' as it does so. For example, let's say Lacey has been told to mark anything with a score of 5 or more as spam. Now Lacey might score you 2 points for not coming from the domain you say you are, but it might still let it through without marking it. Now let's say Lacey is told to score 4 for mails that use the same sender/receiver address, again, less than the 5 threshold. But yours trips both filters, and so scores 6. Lacey does what it's told and marks it as probable spam.

 

Ok, so the whole process is a lot more complex than that, and there's every chance that something else is happening, but that's the gist of how basic spam filtering works, which does sometimes (mis)identify mail as spam. You can test this further yourself if you have any remote emails (Yahoo, Hotmail, GMail, etc.). Log into your remote account and send your CAG account an email.

Now your test email is coming from the domain it says (your Hotmail, for example, is coming from a hotmail.com server) and the sender/recipient addresses are not the same (Edit).

My guess would be that this test does not get spam marked.

 

Got a problem with this? Again, blame bloody spam. All these systems exist as a direct result of the enormous spam problem in the world today.

The mailservers I run at work have exceptionally robust, multi-layered spam filtering systems active, purely because of the issue. How much of an issue it is? Well, I work for a moderate sized, national UK company. My mailservers receive and drop around 1200 to 1500 spam messages a day, most of them by using the exact same domain-matching method I've outlined above.

Edited March 12, 2010 by maroondevo52
Removed e-mail address

[ozzywizard]

wowws it really is big buisness and a very complicated one. I gets you though and understand the concept your on about even though It is way over my head on the tech side. I hope my mail addy being in your post doesnt cause spam bots to pick it up lol.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Ahh..good old CAGbot..