AOL blocking port 25???

[tryintoo]

While my mom was on a trip, my brother's daughter downloaded America Online 8.0 and AIM on mom's computer (of course without her permission). We have uninstalled AOL and searched and deleted anything having to do with either AOL or AIM, but now mom can't send email using Outlook Express and her ISP.

She has Windows XP (does not have SP2 - so no firewall), Norton Antivirus 2005 - no firewall. She was able to send email before AOL came in the picture. I did all the virus scans, spyware and registry cleaning and did not find anything.

I called her tech support and they had me "run" cmd and the telnet command and we could not get a response. They told me that something was blocking that port and felt it was AOL and that I would have to contact them to get the file that was doing this and delete it. They also had me use the telnet command and reset the TCI/IP.

I googled and looked on the internet and couldn't find anything else to do. I tried to call AOL's 800 number, but without an account they weren't going to talk to me.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to "fix" this without formatting and starting over?

Thanks in advance. If you wish to pm me that is fine.

[Dv8ted2]

While my mom was on a trip, my brother's daughter downloaded America Online 8.0 and AIM on mom's computer (of course without her permission). We have uninstalled AOL and searched and deleted anything having to do with either AOL or AIM, but now mom can't send email using Outlook Express and her ISP.

You may need to repair internet explorer. Removing AOL can do all sorts of damage such as removing the TCP/IP stack.

She has Windows XP (does not have SP2 - so no firewall), Norton Antivirus 2005 - no firewall. She was able to send email before AOL came in the picture. I did all the virus scans, spyware and registry cleaning and did not find anything.

Is she behind a router? It is not smart to run without a firewall.

I called her tech support and they had me "run" cmd and the telnet command and we could not get a response. They told me that something was blocking that port and felt it was AOL and that I would have to contact them to get the file that was doing this and delete it. They also had me use the telnet command and reset the TCI/IP.

You got a tech that was not too bright. The Telnet port is 23, not 25. The Telnet port has nothing to do with the SMTP port.

[drjtech]

[You got a tech that was not too bright. The Telnet port is 23, not 25. The Telnet port has nothing to do with the SMTP port.

Telnet to port 25 is a pretty standard troubleshooting technique - any tech ought to know that.

Telnet to Port 25 to Test SMTP Communication

This article describes how to telnet to port 25 on a computer that runs Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) services to troubleshoot SMTP communication problems.

-drj

[zoobie]

Yes...AOL blocked port 25 about 6 months ago

[greymalkin]

AOL is pure evil why do people still use it!


and she's your neice...your brothers daughter is your neice.

[tryintoo]

Telnet to Port 25 to Test SMTP Communication

Alternatively, if you are having problems receiving SMTP mail from the Internet, you can follow the steps that are listed in this article to test connectivity to your SMTP server from a host that resides on the Internet and that is not on your network.

If I understand this wording the article is for problems receiving email. She isn't having any problems receiving email - only sending. She isn't behind a router, she VERY infrequently emails a couple of family members and uses the computer mostly for word processing and receiving email from the same couple of family members.

Guess format and/or recovery is my only option - I made recovery disks when we first got the computer a couple of years ago. Only problem, I'm 325 miles away. I did email the postmaster@aol.com and will give them a week to respond - I'm not holding my breath.

Yes, it was my 11 yr old niece going on 20 you did this and her name is "mud".

AOL is pure evil why do people still use it!

You get no argument here!

[zoobie]

Over 30 million use AOL
Several million more use Walmart Connect/Netscape Connect, an AOL clone
Try port 26

[Dv8ted2]

[You got a tech that was not too bright. The Telnet port is 23, not 25. The Telnet port has nothing to do with the SMTP port.

Telnet to port 25 is a pretty standard troubleshooting technique - any tech ought to know that.

Telnet to Port 25 to Test SMTP Communication

This article describes how to telnet to port 25 on a computer that runs Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) services to troubleshoot SMTP communication problems.

-drj

The only reason this is not a good idea is that businesses are now starting to block port 23.

[OmegaSupreme]

In Outlook, is the outgoing (SMTP) server set to your current ISP's server?

[tryintoo]

Microsoft wrote:
This article describes how to telnet to port 25 on a computer that runs Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) services to troubleshoot SMTP communication problems.

The problem I had when I ran cmd and typed telnet mail.myISP.net 25 on her computer was that I received no response and then I did the netsh something command he told me which he said would reset TCI. And still nothing.

If the command works, you receive a response from the SMTP server that is similar to the following:

Maybe I'm reading this article incorrectly because I don't see anything to do if you do not receive a response.

Appreciate the suggestions. I've pretty much resolved myself to the idea that my next trip north will involve setting this computer up again.