Outlook cannot find Orange SMTP server

[Brucelles]

This is a bit of a shot in the dark, as I live in France (Carcassonne) atm, so this could be a stupid question, but here goes.

I have Orange ADSL and phone at home in my south of France home. I also have a flat in Paris for a while. In Carcassonne I have an orange email address and here in Paris I have ADSL managed by SFR.

Since moving, my laptop will no longer send emails. I use Outlook 2003, and the SMTP server is set to smtp.orange.fr, which is correct, but trying to send mail just pops up an error message saying that the SMTP server cannot be contacted. I also clicked the 'Test Account Settings" button and get the same thing.

I used this laptop on my visits to Paris and never had a problem with any of the hotel wifi systems but I suspect SFR are messing with my stuff.

Any ideas please?

[nightkhaos]

Have you tried pinging, tracerouting and nmap the server to see if you can connect to it?

[peterb]

Some ISP's block SMTP (port 25) connections to mail servers other than their own. I had that problem with Freeserve (Wanadoo) in France, trying to contact my own mailserver in the UK. In the end I had to clear my outgoing mail through Wanadoo's French mailserver.

[Jay]

also some ISPs only allow IPs from their network to hit their SMTP servers.

[Brucelles]

Thanks guys. I had a poke around last night and it appears that the answer is that Orange are a bunch of unhelpful French people. Indeed access to the SMTP server is blocked except from other Orange lines.

I have had to use my SFR account for emailing out and Orange and SFR to receive. It's not elegant but it works.