OT: Anyone got BT Broadband and uses a different e-mail address?

[FridgeFreezer]

I'm hoping someone can answer this one - I am thinking of moving to BT Broadband due to a pretty good offer on it at work, but I use several e-mail addresses with domains I have registered independant of any ISP. Currently Demon's SMTP server lets me send mail from any account, and I don't want to lose this ability.

So:

- Can you send mail from any address through BT's SMTP server

or

- Will BT Broadband allow you to access a 3rd party SMTP server (my domain registry co has their own server)?

Any info greatly appreciated.

Oh and yes I did read BT's help pages but they don't go into detail about any of this sort of thing...

[Pete Attryde]

Not sure if this going to help,

I have BT broadband and using Outlook express check my hotmail and gmail accounts and can send mail using either account, i think i use gmail as default.

HTH

Pete.

[JSG]

Simple answer is yes. I use BT Broadband which comes with a Yahoo / btinternet set of email accounts.

I just using forwarding to point my own domain names to the @btinternet.com mail box. From within BT / Yahoo email you can then set which domain address you want to send as.

[FridgeFreezer]

Cheers guys, as expected you came in a lot faster than my call to BT, which (when I got through the options maze) was put on hold and cut off

[DSN]

I have BT broadband at home and I do use the BT email address I got given however my wife had a mail account with another user and we managed to link it through for her account.

Think you need to have the BT address set up but can then set up all your other accounts so it just filters through the BT exchange (you will probably guess I am not that knowledgeable on these things but that should prove it can be done with some general knowledge!).

Hope it helps and if you need specifics, I can probably do some screen shots to send to show what I did.

Cheers,

[pugwash]

Can I recommend looking at Think Broadband as a pretty independant source for supplier reviews

We were on a very vey good deal for 5 lines with BT, but I just wasn't happy with the product or service. I moved all the lines to Nildram and i couldn't have been happier- it was abhout £2/ mnth per line more expensive, but a million miles quicker and more reliable with much much more efficient customer service.

I haven't come across an ISP yet which prevents you from downloading from another SMTP adress, although a few seem to be able to block access to third party POP ports which means you can only send across their networks. (can't see how they do this though as you are outgoing on an HTTP port but incoming on a POP port so they must have a very clever firewall both my side and their side of the internet)

Just to clarify an SMTP adress is just like any website, in fact on a lot of SMTP servers you can even telnet to the SMTP adress. This means your PC will invariably be able to download mail from a third party server (i do this as we have 1 ISP but 2 different hosting services providing SMTP email), you wil then send out email using your ISP's POP address, but as you can specify the email address that your recipients see, then it looks like you are sending through the hosting server not the ISP server (by looking at the email header you can find out where the email orginated in cyberspace, but no one ever looks unless they are being really geeks). Does that make sense?

[MogLite]

I believe you are trying to do what I do with my email.

I'm with BT Broadband.

My outgoing mail server is mail.btinternet.com

Yet my incoming mail server belongs to fasthosts.

I pay £15 a year to Fasthosts to provide me with mail services from marshallsay.com.

Its possible that you don't need it if your severage webhosting already provides you with pop3. But I don't pay for hosting anymore, I use the BT space with redirects.

Works well and is a cheap solution thats pretty reliable and yet I still control the domain.

Hope it helps.

[FridgeFreezer]

The offer I'm looking at is really *very* cheap as it's for BT employees (and has been offered to make up for shafting us out of other benefits ) so I'm not too bothered about the service - I *know* it will suck but I also know I can sort most problems out myself by walking into the exchange and kicking the DSLAM

You and DSN have described what I currently do - my e-mail goes out through Demon's SMTP server but with a different "from" address than my demon account, their server doesn't care as it authenticates to my physical connection, not any specific address. My incoming I just wanted to check that BT weren't going to get over-zealous about what you send like they used to (and Yahoo still do I think).

[LandyManLuke]

BT will let you use third party SMTP, i set an account up just like you want last week.

[steve_a]

hmm, some confusion of terms:

smtp is OUTGOING mail. Typically the host of the server will block ip's from not their network unless they provide a username & password setting on the server. depends on who is your mailer.

Open SMTP servers are very bad news, they are used to spam and hence suppliers are very reluctant to allow access from outside their ip range without validation.

POP is INCOMING. pretty rare for a server to be set up to only allow log ons from the isp's domain as it would stop you collecting your email while away somewhere, and pop is always protected by username & password.

So FF, I think you have another question hidden in there, can you send via BT's SMTP but use a reply to/from field of one of your independents? Possibly This is bad practice and reverse lookups to ensure that it isn't spam will probably kill your email quite quickly....

If you are just going to use smtp.otherguy.com as your server for sending emails from ff@otherguy.com then that should be fine.

Rather than littering the forum either PM me or I am back in Gosport from Thursday evening if you wanted to chat face to face about any of this stuff.

[FridgeFreezer]

Steve, cheers I think my Q has been answered as I can either send through BT's SMTP server with a different address, or through my hosting co's SMTP server with my login for there.

[LandyManLuke]

Lifted from BT's site here

Can I still use an existing non-BT Yahoo! email account when I connect via BT Yahoo!?

Yes.

For example, if you have your own email domain or an email address with your previous Internet Service Provider, you can still configure Outlook Express (or other email program) to send and receive emails using that account.

However, it's important to configure your non-BT Yahoo! account settings correctly, because - as part of the fight against spam emails - we're introducing SMTP authentication. Even if you've been able to send and receive emails on your non-BT Yahoo! account without difficulty so far, you'll need to configure your program's settings.

What you need to do

Configure your non-BT Yahoo! account as follows:

- From the 'Tools' menu in Outlook Express, choose 'Accounts' and select the 'Mail' tab

- Double-click on the non-BT Yahoo! account you wish to configure

- Select the 'Servers' tab

- Place a tick in the "My server requires authentication" check box and click on the Settings button next to it.

- Select the 'Log on using' option and enter your BT Yahoo! Mail account username and password. Check the 'Remember password' option, but leave 'Log on using secure authentication' blank. Click OK, and OK again, followed by Close.

You'll need to make these changes on all non-BT Yahoo! email accounts you wish to access using your email program via your BT Yahoo! connection.

You'll also need to repeat these steps on any other computer you may use to check your non-BT Yahoo! email account.

[ChrisH]

Hi put my 2 pennies into this!!

BT read the SMALL print about Pricing!!! yes If your on the Demon Home package like I am Your paying about 24.99, But I have looked around there is few suppliers giving you a "unlimited" download at a maximum speed of your telephone line!

Most have a fair use policy that can be a problem if you extend your self! some limited the speed your connecting on & some limited how big your mail box is!

Was setting up a system yesterday for an old guy wanted to spend about £30 per month on call, line rental & internet we looked at BT when they say one cost for 6 months then upgrade to this, the Inclusive minutes are if you use another number & make call over the internet!. this tech support is oversea's always is when I ring & if they can't fix your problem they will blame your firewall.

Pipex looked good but the run a limited account service ie in GB download per month if you you go over the say for 2gb you would be paying about £2.75 ever GB after that. oh if you want to pay for your account on the by credit of debit card they charge any extra £1. both these are 18 month contacts

We ended up at Eclipse in Exeter.

OK If I ever changed from Demon which I doubt as my email address is in the public domain I would go to. its a cracking little service Devon based, Tech support is in Devon on a Exeter Number. very good tech support. even heard from a couple of customers when such as there has been a problem withe line they have rung up the customer after BT has fixed the support checking every thing is ok!! NOW thats what I call service This is a 12 month contract

Hope this helps

[Bull Bar Cowboy]

The offer I'm looking at is really *very* cheap as it's for BT employees (and has been offered to make up for shafting us out of other benefits )

I have BT option 4 (up to 10meg ........ unlimited usage) and the service is exceptional ............. it was carp to begin with, but I had a face to face meeting where I told this BT senior manager his life story in about 2 sentences ....... I think he quickly learn't that it pays not to bullsh!t a lifetime career engineer .......... mine is not cheap ............... its free............. working from home has some slight benefits...

Ian