Temporary Change of SMTP - can it be done?
Is it possible to temporarily change the outgoing SMTP server at time of sending an email? I have a problem sending to one person on my contact list (who has an AOL email address).
As a workaround I can go into my Thunderbird Account Setting and change the Outgoing SMTP servers, send to the AOL addressee, then reset the Outgoing SMTP servers to their original setting. I wondered if there was any option withing the New Message creation to temporarily select an alternative SMTP server to use for that email only?
The background is:- - Many years ago some ISPs (mainly BT.com) rejected emails sent via the servers of my email hosting company. - In order to get around this I started using Gmail outgoing servers, with my Gmail settings masking the Gmail ID so that any recipients saw emails as from MYNAME@MYDOMAIN.COM. This has worked perfectly for many years (probably 10+ years). - Very recently I have a new contact with an AOL.COM email address, and AOL is blocking my emails to him and sending me a rejection notice with references to DKIM & SPF failures (to be honest that means nothing to me and is beyond my technical know-how). - Ironically I found by trial and error that if I change my Thunderbird Outgoing Server to my own ISP Servers then AOL accepts my emails. I would like this to be a little bit simpler as I cannot get AOL to give me any useful suggestions.
Many thanks for any ideas.
All Replies (3)
Just an FYI. AOL is Yahoo, so I doubt you are communicating successfully with yahoo addresses either. More FYI. DKIM and SPF and essentially newer technologies adopted or being adopted by most major providers to largely prevent exactly what you are doing using an email address that is not "connected" with the sending servers. ie BT email on Google.
The process for you is as simple as adding another new outgoing server to your list of outgoing servers. The from can be changed in the compose window via dropdown list above the To: and the identities for the account are used to populate that list.
So once you have the new SMTP server added go into your account settings and on the first page above the Server settings you will see a button on the bottom right "manage Identities". Every account has one and that is the information shown on that page. Name email outgoing server etc. Click on manage identities and add a new one specially crafted for you AOL correspondent (so make sure to select the correct SMTP server)
Because you will be wanting to pick the correct SMTP identity on sending, you will probably want to uniquely enter your name somehow. So instead of for instance Paul make it Paul for AOL or PaulB. Picking the right one from a list of two Pauls is not going to work I don't think and the list only shows the display name and email address. Just be aware the name used will be who the outgoing mail appears to be from (display name) so keep it clean and concise :)
Thanks very much Matt. I haven't come across the "manage identities" before. I will experiment with it and see how I get on. Unfortunately my testing has caused Gmail to temporarily log me out for too many logons from too many sources! I will update when I have news but it may be some time, Thanks again.
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