How many times have you been faced with these questions, “why can’t I send any emails?” or “what does it mean by: relay denied 550 when sending an email” or “what’s an outgoing mail server, do I need that?”

These are just a few questions from many I have been asked over the years when dealing with sending email problems.

The most common symptom for these problems I have seen is: your laptop works fine in the office, but when you go home, or you’re on the road, you can receive email fine but cannot send emails.  This is because your laptop is no longer on the same network connected to the same ISP (Internet Service Provider)

ISPs have locked down their mail servers (rightly so) to prevent spammers from exploiting their server for their gain.  Those mail servers can typically only be accessed from inside the ISP’s borders (or cloud) so when you connect to another service provider you can’t send emails anymore.

Of course the solution would be to change your outgoing mail server (SMTP) settings to use the new provider.  This can get very annoying if you are frequently travelling or always back and forth to the office and home.

The simple solution is to use a mail relay service that is safe, secure and easy to setup and use.  There are several to choose from on the market by doing a web search.  I tested a FREE one called outMail  by http://www.secure-smtp.co.ukwhich took me only a few minutes to set up my account.

Once I received my username and password to authenticate to their secure mail relay I changed my outgoing mail settings (SMTP) to the details provided and bingo I was up and running regardless of my location.  Better still I wasn’t restricted to a single device so I used the same settings on my home PC, laptop and my iPhone.