Trying to figure out if I need a new domain host, mailhost, or both.

Both are currently US-based "big name" companies, but overseas offices in Asia have frequently recurring problems with sending and receiving e-mail through the domains registered and hosted with them.

Since the offices are in different locales in several different countries, it's hard to ascribe the problem to their respective local ISP's.

Domain host says everything is OK on their end, as does the mail host.

What am I missing?

It is a lot easier using a web based e-mail, such as gmail or hotmail, etc.

Some providers do provide a web interfase for you account. You can find out about this by looking at their web site. I know that Comcast has this feature.

On the plus side, you can access your e-mail from any computer. Just remember to logoff, so nobody can use the back button to get to your account.

Normally when travelling there should be no problem receiving your emails, but sending requires a contact to your provider's SMTP server, and that is usually not allowed.

Check out online options with your provider.

Thanks for the reply, but registered domains are at issue, and need to work with POP3/IMAP mail clients; gmail/hotmail/yahoo are out of the question.

If the domain DNS MX record points to the correct IP adr, then it should work receiving mails. Problems could be many: spam service, firewall, etc. sometimes there is a backup MX record, that routes mail to another server.

Sending mails normally depends on the providers SMTP server. You'll need to get someone to test that the SMTP server is working, when the problems occur.

As you probably know, there are many reasons for email failure. It sounds like SOME of your email gets through but not ALL of it. I would start by inspecting the bounce messages from people who are unable to send email TO your domain. Perhaps they're using blacklisted mail servers, etc.

Since the majority of all email is spam, the mail hosting services I've used tend to be pretty aggro - denying mail from dynamic IP addresses, requiring reverse lookups, graylisting, etc.

It's the mailhost being blacklisted, almost certainly. We use Sprint which is hosted by Frontbridge. That poor company has been passed around from owner to owner and the service has gone up and down. They were at their worst when owned by Microsoft.

Now that they've been sold on, they seem to be getting better. Still, due to the nature of the service, the servers do get blacklisted because of the volume of outbound mail (and the fact that some of the 'tenants' do undoubtedly send spam and/or volume mail that is incorrectly flagged as spam). This is one of the hidden 'gotchas' about using hosted mail services. Fortunately the blacklistings clear up within about 24 hours or so.

What you can do is sign up for a new host and point the MX record there. Check with your DNS provider on how long this takes to update. Some are instant, some take 24-48 hours, some can take longer. So long as you don't discontinue the old accounts prior to the change, you should be ok. Just ensure you have a 'backdoor' webmail login (e.g. webmail.'inserthostingcompanyhere'.com) you can log in with your account info so that when the MX record DOES change you can go in and look for 'orphan' emails.

Thanks everybody for the replies.

Will try a new mailhost and see what that does for service reliability.

What are some good mailhosts? Network Solutions?

Also, will SMTP Relay help?

If your ISP allows SMTP Relay with Authentication, then you should use it. It eliminates the need to ask the clueless staff at each hotel for the name of their SMTP server.

Among the larger shared-hosting companies, I know GoDaddy offers SMTP relay.

Are there any others worth considering?

I use Verizon DSL as my ISP, which supports SMTP relay.
But I don't use Verizon as my hosting company. I didn't know that hosting companies also provided SMTP services.

A service like LoaPost will eliminate the need for SMTP relay.

I'm sure you can find a couple more old SMTP threads on which you can plug your product

LoaPost is an interesting solution (though you've got a pretty significant/embasassing typo in the WinXP quickstart docs - I'll tell you where for a small editing fee ) to tunnel SMTP traffic from the localhost to your server and then on to the Internet, using what I assume is non port 25 traffic to bypass all the systems that would block that. There are a number of questions that it brings up - almost as many as it answers. Most notably is whether it is creating an open relay or if there are limits on where it accepts emails from. If you're turning individual computers into open relays there's a big problem there.

S.

I use allmail.net. as a host for all addresses. they are in oz. i am in usa. works worldwide, and is very inexpensive.

I have my pop3 and imap accounts setup for RETRIEVEL in one of my gmail accounts, which you can turn on turn off. I use this when I am on the road sometimes in 2nd and 3rd world, so I get all mail in one place. Works ad-hoc or overall if you like. I have never had a problem getting to it.