Outlook cannot connect to your outgoing smtp email server

[martinlest]

I still use my Windows 7 PC for email (Outlook 2007) and have had this message bugging me for a very long time. The thing is, if I open the message in the 'Outbox' that refuses to go, and click on 'Send' again,
then, when I try to send the message again via Outlook's 'Send All' button, it invariably goes just fine. I sometimes have to close down Outlook and restart it, but usually the simple fact of opening the message again and reselecting to send it does the trick.

So if it works the second time, why not the first? My account settings must be OK (I have double checked I have them correct many times) or my emails would not be sent at all. I have a number of email accounts set up in Outlook in any case, Yahoo and BT, and this problem can occur with any of them. Seems like a generic Outlook issue.

Anyone any ideas? Thank you.

 

[samuria]

Check your setting against the list Yahoo outgoing mail server - Parameters and configuration

 

[martinlest]

Thank you - I tried changing the port from 587 to 25, though most websites I have looked at (I restrict the search to those with data from the past three months) do show 587 or 465 as the port for the Yahoo SMTP outgoing server.

A test message goes out OK when done from within the account config/setup window.. but as soon as I tried sending a message in the usual way via a Yahoo account, after the timeout period I get the same error as I originally posted, 'cannot connect to SMTP server'. I opened the email and tried clicking 'Send' and then in the main GUI, 'Send All' once more. Again, as before, the message went out immediately.

This is seriously odd (IMHO!).