email server (outgoing)

I am in Phoenix and seeing the same problem. The popup box "Cannot send message using the server...".   This is only a problem for outgoing emails.  I am not having troubles receiving them. 

The Cox moderators told us to notify help.cox@cox.com when this happened previously (that problem was with incoming messages not arriving for hours or days). I am going to do that now. 

When this happened last November, Cox identified it as a server problem so the popup message is correct ..... but there is no fix that you can do and no one has suggested a workaround.

An update on the above issue:  Using the Mail icon on my iMac, connected to cox internet, I can't send email but can receive them.  If I connect to the same cox email via Safari (it looks a bit different but is the same email system) I can send and receive emails.  Go figure!  

Just spoke with COX this is bigger than just a Mac issue. I have run into the outgoing server issue numerous time is the past just out of the blue it stops send out.

Cox server is down on the West Cost. They are sorry.....

Really time for everyone to change service providers. This is not acceptable. Not sure what the best other option is... Anyone know. I am done with Cox.

Michael

I think this issue would benefit from a little more diligence in the definition. As I read this message stream I'm not sure the problem I have is the same or different.

I'm using Outlook 2011 for Mac and I'm using an offsite email server at iPage - a third party service provider that I believe Cox generally calls a "vanity domain server" - it gives us our own domain and IMAP service. I am receiving messages OK although there is an indication that they are slow because I can time them using another offsite exchange server we have for our corporation and time them coming back in on our IPage IMAP accounts. We have multiple users in our home and the problems are the same for all users with both laptops and iphones.

The serious issues is that all users are getting intermittent messages when sending. We are of course using the outgoing Cox SMTP - smpt.cox.net. I'm not certain we should pay too much attention to the actual messages as we don't know if they are generated by Cox, by Outlook or ?? But they all relate to the server dropping or disconnecting. Generally this goes with the sent mail going into the Outbox and sitting there for up to 3-5 minutes and then going out. Latest message - "Connection to the server failed or was dropped."

I read this as a log jam on the Cox SMTP. The problem is more repeatable during the day than at night.

I think this problem requires more definition. For instance, what is the ping time during the day and peak traffic if we ping smtp.cox.net? And what is the average delay time before sent mail actually goes out? Are any users experiencing sent mail not going out at all?

It's unlikely that this is the same as the receive mail problem. If both are having issues then that point to transmission quality and not the actual servers because received mail for me is coming directly from iPage and not from Cox. But everything I sent on any account save Exchange is going through Cox SMTP.

I was losing so much mail late last year, that I changed my email address at most services to my gmail or icloud mail addresses. I still have a few people or companies sending to my Cox address, mainly low-priority stuff, to keep track of Cox service. A few days ago, all Cox incoming mail stopped. I quit using Cox to send mail a couple of years ago, except for an occasional test, since it was useless when away from home, anyway. When incoming mail failed before, I still got it on my iPhone, and could still read it on webmail. I just sent a test from One of my Cox addresses to the other, and it went through, so it is up again.

I have a continuing problem that I believe is related to the Cox SMTP. I have multiple users getting the "dropped server" messages and delays from the outgoing "smtp.cox.net"

Please see this discussion...

Connection to the server failed or was dropped.

I am beginning to think that the "server dropped" message and the "can't find server" are two different things for the following reasons:

server dropped - always happens when I sent via an IMAP account - happens on any user Mac laptop and any email account. I believe this is an outgoing SMTP-type message.

can't find server - this happens randomly and not coincident with a sent mail. I believe this is a receive message that is being generated from Outlook try to check the IMAP server which in my case is not the Cox server but a variety of different email services - gmail, ipage, bluehost.

I noted that my router is getting three DNS servers from Cox and I can adjust the order on my Mac. One of them, 68.105.28.12 name server - seems to have a much faster response time - not that the others look bad but they are 15-30ms and this one is average 11ms. So I'm going to see if that makes a difference.

I do not believe that all of the three offsite IMAP servers are slow or dropping out. I do not believe that it is one user Mac. Therefore I believe that something like DNS server is affecting my Outlook requests for the IMAP offsite server. A browser would just hiccup and I wouldn't notice this issue. But a program like Outlook notices.

More later.

I have just - on the advice of Cox - changed all my IMAP SMTP servers to the offsite SMTPs for each of my offsite accounts.

GMAIL

BLUEHOST

IPAGE

I am not using smtp.cox.net at all - I was advised that when you use secure service on port 465 for SSL or 587 for TSL, you don't need to use the Cox SMTP server.

Now that I have switched all of my messages have gone away and I'm sending without event on all accounts.

I still believe the Cox SMTP has a problem - perhaps it was designed to work only with the Cox email account. Whatever it is, I don't see them solving it and so I advise that anyone having this issue make the changes I listed above.