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Email Sending Problem

In blizzard on Dec. 26, we lost all FIOS connectivity for 18 or so hours. We got basic internet/web connectivity back, but we aren't able to use FIOS to send emails using any sort of email client (MacMail, Outlook, etc.) Verizon tech support tells me they only provide the ability to send emails from their own webmail site using only your Verizon email address. Any other email sending is not their problem. They also do not, they claim, support any Mac issues at all. This was all from someone who claimed to be a "FIOS email specialist" who would only tell me his name was Rick. He seemed VERY focused on our POP settings, which of course were/are fine. I suspect he is supposed to help people who don't know how to set up Outlook to access their Yahoo email because they don't know where to change the settings for their SMTP server. In any case, when I explained to him the issue appeared to be network-related and not on our side, he got very upset. He was not at all interested in letting me show him the issue, which is eminently (and regrettably) replicable. It was only by demonstrating the problem to a lower level "tech" support person that I was even allowed to speak to the esteemed Rick. (One last vent: when I asked Rick if Verizon blocked any of the ports for outbound email he indignantly retorted that "Verizon does not block any ports." When I told him I had in front of me a press release from Verizon saying that they had blocked port 25 (something many ISPs do to help reduce outgoing spam), he said, "Well, yes of course -- all ISP's block port 25." Which of course they do not.)

Besides these outbound email issues, we also lost the ability to load the online version of GMail properly. Certain of the extensions do not load, and we get the error message that "there is not adequate connectivity." On occasion, it won't load at all.

There also seems to be more lags and delays in some sites loading, which of course could just be those sites, or general internet traffic. But it started only when the web was out in late December.

We have of course rebooted and re-set the router.

All of this happened with us changing no settings, changing no equipment.

When we hop on our neighbor's Time-Warner service (using their Wi-Fi), emails go out fine, and GMail loads fine.

Any sort of help would be appreciated. I have seen a few people posting similar complaints elsewhere, so I suspect I'm not alone. I'd tell Verizon about this (again), but my tolerance for being lied to and treated like a slow-witted child is exhausted.

Comments

Shamika_VZ

Hi NotANewbie,

I can understand your frustation here and I do apologize for any inconveniences. I have sent you a private message.

Thanks,

Shamika_VZ

Verizon Support

Notice: Content posted by Verizon employees is meant to be informational and does not supersede or change the Verizon Forums User Guidelines or Terms or Service, or your Customer Agreement Terms and Conditions or Plan.

somegirl

Can you give a bit more information? What error do you get? Have you tested your speeds?

NotANewbie

I left out some of the particulars since I thought it was getting too long.

The error message returned from failed send attempts is something like "content not accepted by server." What happens is when I hit send (on MacMail, WHICH I UNDERSTAND IS NOT SUPPORTED BY VERIZON, the message begins sending more or less normally, but then the progress indicator bar slows, and then it stalls out. It can take 90-120 seconds for an error message to return.

FYI, I am accessing this forum today via my neighbor's Time-Warner service, since we seem to have very limitied connectivity on FIOS. For example, some webpages, like Yahoo, don't load at all, while others, like CNN.com, only load text.. Just like on Dece,ber 26th, our service is in trouble after a major snow fall. Probably a coincidence.

We're pretty happy with FIOS, but we find we avoid it if we have access to something else since it seems so unreliable from a network perspective. If there's something in our set-up that's a problem I'd be happy to fix it, though I am deeply skeptical since a) we haven't changes any of our settings and b) whenever we're on any other ISP we have no problems at all.

Hope this helps! Thanks!

NotANewbie

Also, you asked about speeds - I just checked and its 6 down and 0.3 up (all mb/s using your own test from the web).

So there's a connection, but it seems like it's got some issues...

somegirl

@NotANewbie wrote:
Also, you asked about speeds - I just checked and its 6 down and 0.3 up (all mb/s using your own test from the web).
So there's a connection, but it seems like it's got some issues...

I would contact tech support and follow that route. Have them look at it as a throughput issue instead of an email issue.

Are you wired or wireless? Have you done any troubleshooting on that end?

onechionly

I am having the same problem. Sites would load up partially or not at all. I did a couple of tracerts to different websites and I would either time out mid way or it would complete with very high latency. If you have a solution to this problem please let me know. I will be calling tech support as well.

NotANewbie

As for the suggestion that I contact tech support, I tried that. I was simply unable to convince any of the several Verizon representatives that this was a throughput issue. This "Rick" I spoke to was very, very adamant that Verizon's only obligation was to provide email access from the Verizon website, and that if I could see the website Verizon had done everything it was supposed to do. And he was the supposedly high-level tech guy who seemed to know as much about the internet as my 10 year old. I gather his specialty was in helping people who didn't know how to set up POP clients, which wasn't and isn't my problem.

The service went out entirely after the most recent storm (this is on Madison Ave in Manhattan -- we don't have any lines above ground, and not too many trees outside of Central Park), but when it came back up the email seemed to work OK and the websites seemed to load better, though we now seem to be right back where we were.

There's definitely some kind of pause (latency-seeming) before emails go out that is not present when we access the internet via any other provider. The pause is similar to the site-loading delay.

I'm SURE it's my POP3 settings, Rick from tech support.

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