I just got a cable modem and a router. The cable modem->PC connection is working fine. But when I insert the router between them I can no longer send email, although I can still receive it. The error message looks like I'm failing some sort of SMTP authorization, maybe the MAC of my router is not recognized by my ISP as a valid device and is then shutting me out???

My cable internet provider is earthlink. I have a netgear FVS318 router/firewall.

Thing is that earthlink apparently has some home networking software, but I'd rather not use theirs as I have my home network already configured the way I like it.

Any help?

Mike

I had a similar problem when I was using hotmail and my ZoneAlarm firewall. I did some experimenting and found out that when I disabled my ZoneAlarm firewall I could get mail, but when I enabled it, I couldn't. I then fiddled with the settings on the firewall (it has three general levels - low, medium, and high). When I go to get my mail I set it to low, which give minimal security, then after retrieving my mail I set it back to high which gives me maximum security (i.e. stealh ports). It all made since then. When in stealth mode the firewall hides ports from the internet, including the SMTP port. So when hotmail tried to respond with my mail it couldn't find the port to do so.

It is most definately probably a firewall issue, and not a Router not recognizing a MAC. Routers don't care about MAC addresses, they are only there to route traffic based on routing protocols like IP, or IPX. MACs are interpreted by the end devices or switches which will ARP (address resolution protocol) IP addresses to MAC addresses and visa versa.

Try turning off your firewall and see if you get some action. Then if that works, fiddle with your firewall settings to see if you can have the SMTP work with the firewall enabled.

D

Thanks, but I should have mentioned I have the router's firewall turned off and I'm not using zone alarm at all from earthlink. But I have more data that supports my hypothesis.

I have 2 PCs. When the cable modem was installed I directly connected PC-1 to the modem and went through the registration process (earthlink powered by ATT broadband). With that done I am able to send and receive email normally. Earlier today I tried to directly connect PC-2 to the cable modem... after the reset-powercycle dance, I was able to get on the internet and retrieve email normally, but could not send email from PC-2.

I believe that something in the chain from my PC->cable_modem->POP->smtp_server is inspecting some address on my end and is denying access to my SMTP server either to prevent hackers from sending email through that SMTP server or to prevent legitimate users from using more home computers than earthlink wants them to use. The nature of the error message is definitely of the 'access denied' type and not a 'destination unavailable' type.

I can go to an internal network admin attbi URL and see that their system is able to recognize which PC I'm using to connecting from my house. I think what I may need to do is go through the registration process again, but this time with my router in the middle.

Earthlink says they 'do not support home routers', but I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that that's an understatement when in fact they are actively blocking their use. If true, I'll be switching providers, painful as that may be.

Any assistance will be appreciated.

You do not have to disable your firewall to send and recieve email. All you have to do is change your SMTP settings.

For simplicity, when your directly connected to your Internet cable connection, you can communicate with the mail server by using the short name of "smtp_server". But that is only the short name, not the long name. When you use a router, you can't resolve the short name anymore and you have to enter the server's long name, ie "mail.earthlink.net", in your email settings. Find out what your emails servers' long names are and enter those in your email program. Check out the link below for Earthlink server names:

http://www.help.mindspring.com/docs/006/dialup_domains/domains.php3

Thanks analyst, it's answers like yours
that make me think I'll get there
eventually, because you're assuming that
this should work. Because of your
confidence I'll perservere a little longer.

But my system is already configured in
the way you suggest. I never use the
"short name" and have always used the
long name. Furthermore note I've stated
that the error message I'm getting is a
'not authorized' sort of message... if I had
incorrectly used the short name I would
have gotten a different error.

Other ideas?

Touche, I should have read more thoroughly.

"I can go to an internal network admin attbi URL and see that their system is able to recognize which PC I'm using to connecting from my house."

It's possible they may be registering your computer's MAC address, since when you do a direct connection on one PC, it works, but when you do a direct connection on the other, it doesn't. It's just that when you only stated email was a problem, and not Internet access, I had assumed Internet was working, and I would think that if they registered MAC address, no service, Internet or email, would work.

So, try looking at the network adapter properties of the PC that works, and write down the MAC address. Then go into your router configuration page, and see if there is a MAC cloning option, where you can manually enter the MAC address of the router. Enter the address of the PC. This option is for people who use services that registers the computer's MAC address. Since your router is acting at the proxy, your service sees the MAC address of the router, not the address of your PC's.

Ahh, that may do the trick.

As a matter of fact I just tried it and I seemed to have lost connectivity, perhaps I need to reset the cable modem after changing the router's MAC address? At any rate I'll give the various devices various reset sequences and see if that changes anything and report on the status. I think this may do the trick! and if it doesn't I'll start a new message thread since this is getting a bit old.

Mike