Webrunner Blog

Cant send emails from some hotels?

If you travel and stay at various hotels, no doubt you have experienced problems with outgoing emails being blocked or staying in your out box. This can be a real pain in the butt when it comes to being productive. In this article I will give you some tips that may help you get through.

Some hotels have configured their internet service to block outgoing emails so that their ISP’s are not inundated with SPAM. Yes it’s true, spammers stay at hotels too!! Anyway, without getting too technical, the emails are kept from going out in one of two ways that often can be easily remedied.

The First thing to check is your outgoing mail settings. If you are using outlook you can go to account settings and double click on the email account you are using. Next go to “more settings” and click on the “outgoing server” tab. If the “my outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication” is checked, uncheck this option and click ok. Often when you are in a hotel, you are using their ISP and settings so your authentication will not work with their system. Conversely you may need to check this option if it is unchecked. Now check to see if your emails send. If not try option two!

The second possibility is by changing your SMTP port settings. You must of course check with your ISP (internet service provider) to ask if they provide an alternate port. The most widely used port setting is 25 which is the default setting for POP accounts. To change the port simply go to account settings, double click the email account you are using, click on more settings then select the advanced tab. You will notice a POP port and an SMTP port setting. In the box for the SMTP setting change it from 25 to whatever your ISP provided.

These two methods will work most of the time though not always. IF WebRunner Domains discovers other help for emails we will let you know!

NOTE: When you receive an alternate port from your ISP it is good practice not to publish that port number. This will keep spammers to a minimum on those ports and hotels and other public wifi locations wont be forced to limit use.