As I assume many people here do - I use my smartphone (iPhone) to have email function when away from my home broadband connection - has worked perfectly well for years. It seems something significant has occurred in recent days/weeks and O2 seems to have closed access to my ISP's SMTP server - in fact I have been advised by my ISP that this now applies to a large swathe of ISPs. Please tell me this is not correct! I have also learned that O2 have closed down their own smtp service (smtp.o2.co.uk) - so I cannot use that as alternative to relay my outgoing email when using their network. Being able to take my email service with me is one of the most crucial functions of the iPhone and reason I purchased it. I cannot believe O2 would remove an essential service like this without even warning their customers. Outrageous! ...is anyone else actually having success sending email using their ISP email settings via O2 network? if so - please shout out.
Being pessimistic I think we have had at least two network events that have come together simultaneously to creat the shambles mobile email users are now experiencing: 1. O2 dumped their smtp.O2.co.uk gateway - their smtp settings were often used by their mobile users to "relay" outgoing emails for their own ISP's emails - most of us do NOT use the O2 email service as we usually have our own email service established prior to buying a smartphone and becoming a cellular subscriber. 2. Some ISP's traditionally blocked port 25 emails emanating from outide their network (eg sent from O2 network) but TalkTalk, in my case, had circumvented this by providing an authorised smtp server which meant it avoided being blocked because it went through an authentication process first.. The fact that O2 devices are no longer able to connect to the authenticated smtp servers suggests that whatever O2 took down when they stopped their "in-house" email service seems to have been implemented with a bulldozer - possibly severing all/most of the smtp gateways.
I also recall a passing, somewhat candid comment from someone in O2 Network Services that hinted of a "new" and "improved" email service to come... (this in itself should have provided that individual with a possible explanation that sweeping changes were in effect and might have been the cause of the very issue I was reporting but stupidly that individual insisted there was no relation...) - I suspect O2 are moving over to a completely web-based mail system and their network is being configured to be unusuable for POP3 - period.
...don't wish to be too optimistic but as from TODAY I seem to be able to send emails again via O2 data (like in the "old days"...) - something has definitely occurred - a fix maybe??? The whole experience of sending mail from within the app has changed notably - it is slicker and groovy again. I won't hold my breath but whatever combination of switches were pressed at either the O2 or TT network - PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THEM! Possibility the "engineers" will not even be aware as I see no announcement here whatsoever.
Well good news and bad news! Everything looked promising this morning as the first 2 emails I sent seemed to have gone without a problem. However on the third one I got the familiar message "unable to send" and was back to square one. I tried again this afternoon and the same thing happened - the first 2 emails I fired off went without any problems then it all stopped.
well... from around 0600hrs when tried first thing this morning to around 0700hrs (could therefore have been same whilst I was sleeping) it did NOT work (same symptoms as before). Then from 0700hrs approximately onwards it has worked and still is. Oddly, during the early morning OFF period my partner's phone DID work. Stranger and stranger. At least for now the system is more UP than DOWN so something has improved - just wish I knew what. Initial useless suggestion by O2 was that it might have been too much traffic during a peak period on internet (yeah, that will be why my partner's phone worked no problem then...) - either that or a FAULT! Yes, I think we know there has been an enormous on-going FAULT with off-network smtp mail - we just would like someone to have bothered to examine the problem properly and provided us some proper technical reasons why.
