Just a quick email to the list to find out what other service providers are doing regarding XTRA blocking port 25 when your company does not provide internet connections, so many of your customers are using xtra as a service provider but not for other services wuch as mail.
Many of my customers are XTRA customers, but are also vodafone etc etc, so an external autheticated mail server is a huge bonus for them. Use secure port?
Xtra offer a product called 'Secure Remote Email' which is an alternative for roaming customers. SSL, and works regardless of the ISP you're on. Note that if your Usually-via-Xtra customer was on Vodafone and sending to a destination other than xtra, using smtp.xtra.co.nz would never have worked in the first place as Xtra don't provide Authenticated SMTP except for their SRE product, IIRC. Likewise your Usually-via-someone-else customer attempting to send their mail back to someone-elses-smtp-server over a service with Port 25 Blocked will have similar relay issues unless theyre authenticating somehow - however, 'thems the breaks' if theyre on Xtra's network, and their network provider (whoever it is that is Xtra's customer on their behalf) hasn't gotten an exception to the rule. Solution, as already suggested: Use another port, or use smtp.xtra.co.nz. Noted that Xtra have stated that people who want to be excluded from the block need only ask. I say good on Xtra for finally implementing something which should have been done years ago! The doomsayers need to start thinking pragmatically about this; there are plenty of ways around this. (Heck, when i'm travelling, I am either using SSH or Webmail..) Mark.