Mercury 4g Wireless Network Blocking Outgoing Mail Ports

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FineWine

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Nurse (R)

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#310933 1-Dec-2023 07:07

Long story short.

Mid 80’s Oldies move into retirement village villa Tauranga. Village internally wired for and by Chorus fibre optic but no ONT’s yet and services not in urban street yet (meant to be by Christmas - doubtful me thinks). So I had to organise a 4g lte Smart Modem 2 from Mercury/Kinect their provider and install and get up and going.

Got it all going EXCEPT outgoing smtp mail server on ANY ports.

They can receive emails fine, but when I try to send an email I get a box that says "Cannot send message using the server SMTP. The server response was: <recipent address>: Relay access denied."

The box has a button for the Connection Doctor which gives a green light for the IMAP Mail accounts, including SMTP.

Deleted and reset up mail accounts twice, automatically and manually trying pop3 and default IMAP. Wireless internet and landline all work.

macOS latest version with Apple mail. (no debates on this mail method pls)

After several long support desk conversations over several days they stated that Mercury/Kinect, Slingshot and whom ever else uses Spark 4g wireless network, have their smtp outgoing ports blocked for security and only Spark customers can use it.

Their resolution was for me to educate my oldies on how to use Mercury/Kinect web mail. They barely know how to operate Apple Mail, Skype and Apple Pages if that.

Am I being sold a load BS here or what ??

Any Mercury reps in here pls ?

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

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#3166688 1-Dec-2023 07:20

If it is port 25 then yes it is blocked.

You have to request this is unblocked.

SSL 465 and TLS 587 should not be blocked.

What ports / transport layers are they using?

John

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FineWine

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Nurse (R)

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#3166691 1-Dec-2023 07:25

SATTV:

If it is port 25 then yes it is blocked.

You have to request this is unblocked.

SSL 465 and TLS 587 should not be blocked.

What ports / transport layers are they using?
John

I did very extensive research on this and I know about port 25. Tried both SSL 465 and TLS 587. Still error message. Automatic Default port is TLS 587.

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

SATTV

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#3166695 1-Dec-2023 07:35

I found this,

https://www.mercury.co.nz/~/media/files/tpai%20user%20guides/how%20to%20set%20up%20your%20email.pdf

This indicates that they use port 25.

Their mail server may not be set up to accept 465 or 587.

You might need to get hold of mercury and see if there is an updated guide. The one above is old as it references outlook express and the last OS that had that was XP.

John

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FineWine

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Nurse (R)

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#3166696 1-Dec-2023 07:38

I know this page very well. Mercury/Kinect email settings

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

RunningMan

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#3166697 1-Dec-2023 07:39

Are they using Mercury Kinect as the mail provider? If so, pretty sure you're being fed BS. They're blaming other ISPs, but their own help pages indicates this is how they've set up their own service.

It's not the ISP blocking outbound SMTP, it's Mercury restricting access to their outgoing SMTP server to only Mercury IP addresses (and presumably Spark if that's who sits under them).

https://ask.mercury.co.nz/app/answers/detail/a_id/51/~/using-webmail-access

https://ask.mercury.co.nz/app/answers/detail/a_id/135

Your kinect email account allows you to receive emails wherever you are, from your chosen email application, however in order to send emails you need to be on a Mercury broadband connection. Your kinect email is set up like this for security reasons, so if your account was compromised it cannot be used to send spam or malicious emails.

This used to be a big thing with open SMTP servers on port 25 but with SSL/TLS/Authentication it's not something that's commonly seen any more - i.e. you can send email regardless of which ISP you are connecting through.

Spark do block SMTP port 25 https://www.spark.co.nz/help/get-more/xtra/port-25/ however, Mercury's own settings specify they don't use port 25, they use 465 & 587, so totally unrelated. Unblocking port 25 is only something that should be need to be done for user hosting their own mail servers, and pretty sure that doesn't apply to the folks here!

FineWine

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Nurse (R)

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#3166698 1-Dec-2023 07:43

Thanks RunningMan I am going to take another stab at Mercury today.

Question: So are they blocking my oldies specifically or what ??

If specifically what do I need to ask Mercury to do to resolve this ?

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

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RunningMan

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#3166700 1-Dec-2023 07:50

According to the linked help articles above, they are intentionally blocking all their customers from sending mail unless they are connected via a Mercury broadband connection. Presumably this is done by IP address range filtering on the SMTP server, dissallowing non Mercury address space.

It's not just your oldies, it's all their customers. The resolution they give is to use webmail (which they've correctly told you), but the reason you've been given contradicts their own help pages.

I doubt there's anything you could reasonably ask them to do as presumably it's a poiicy decsion which would need to be overturned.

FineWine

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Nurse (R)

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#3166702 1-Dec-2023 07:55

The strange thing is that prior to moving into the village from their long time own home, they were on TrustPower/Kinect now Mercury/Kinect Fibre Optic. This only started with the 4g Smart Modem 2 WireLess.

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

Oblivian

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#3166707 1-Dec-2023 08:14

FineWine:
The strange thing is that prior to moving into the village from their long time own home, they were on TrustPower/Kinect now Mercury/Kinect Fibre Optic. This only started with the 4g Smart Modem 2 WireLess.

Then there's your answer

blocking all their customers from sending mail unless they are connected via a Mercury broadband connection. Presumably this is done by IP address range filtering on the SMTP server, dissallowing non Mercury address space.

Can't relay through them from outside their IP ranges.

RunningMan

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#3166715 1-Dec-2023 08:49

FineWine:

The strange thing is that prior to moving into the village from their long time own home, they were on TrustPower/Kinect now Mercury/Kinect Fibre Optic. This only started with the 4g Smart Modem 2 WireLess.

Yep, that's the exact issue. They will only allow a connection to the outgoing mail server if you are connecting from a Mercury broadband connection. It's spelt out several times in their help articles:

You can log in to Webmail here for those times you need to send an email when you are outside of your Mercury network connection.

Your Kinect email account allows you to receive emails wherever you are from your chosen email application, however in order to send emails you need to be on a Mercury network connection. Your Kinect email is set up like this for security reasons, so if your account was compromised it cannot be used to send spam or malicious emails.

My emphasis.

RunningMan

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#3166716 1-Dec-2023 08:54

Mercury really should clarify their help articles here - I've quoted a couple above, one refers to having to be on Mercury broadband, the other Mercury network. Whilst everyone here would understand network being an IP network, most of their customers are probably far less technical, and network would just mean they are paying Mercury for electricity from the network, so therefore their email should send.

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Aaron2222

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#3166720 1-Dec-2023 09:13

FineWine:

So I had to organise a 4g lte Smart Modem 2 from Mercury/Kinect their provider and install and get up and going.

Sounds like the connection is through Mercury, just over 4G/5G as opposed to Fibre.

Oblivian

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#3166723 1-Dec-2023 09:25

Topic title 'spark 4g...'

Aaron2222

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#3166726 1-Dec-2023 09:31

Oblivian: Topic title 'spark 4g...'

Looks like Mercury's wireless broadband offering is over Spark's network: https://ask.mercury.co.nz/app/answers/detail/a_id/94

@FineWine Can you confirm if their wireless broadband connection is with Mercury?

freitasm

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#3166727 1-Dec-2023 09:32

Aaron2222:

FineWine:

So I had to organise a 4g lte Smart Modem 2 from Mercury/Kinect their provider and install and get up and going.

Sounds like the connection is through Mercury, just over 4G/5G as opposed to Fibre.

If the OP is using Wireless Broadband NZ - Wireless Internet Plans | Mercury then it's correct. Mercury will need to sort out access to the SMTP relay to connections from this service as well.

Now, if the OP using the 4G modem but with a Spark SIM then there's nothing that can be done.

The OP is not clear on what service provide is being used.

The error message is clear though "Relay denied" means the client have access to the SMTP server, but the server refuses to do anything.

This has nothing to do with Spark.

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