I'm always so pleased when I find a way round some exasperating computer problem that I thought I'd share my moments of triumph ...

Saturday 29 December 2012

BT broadband - sending non-BT account email - solved

Whew! what a struggle!

In spite of bad past experiences with BT broadband, I was tempted by their current offer.

Their website support for email settings etc is the absolute pits. It is unbelievably poor. I spent a whole day and more struggling to set up my non-BT outgoing email. Judging from their discussion forums this is quite common, http://bit.ly/Tpv9uj.

Another user describes the problem:

I switched to BT Infinity earlier this month, but want to retain my existing non-BT email account. I'm continuing to receive emails, but cannot configure the outgoing server. I've searched the forum postings ... with no success. 
I'm using Mozilla Thunderbird.
I myself found that: 
BT's standard help page is absolutely useless. It only gives partial information and quickly dumps you into BT's misnamed 'technical help'; beware, it costs you £15 a call and the help don't even know what you are asking them.
Two steps into the help sequence meant to tell you how to set up your non-bt email account, BT provides the curt message, "Sorry, but we can't help with email accounts that we don't provide." Love it.
A forum expert explained that BT uses Yahoo! email to provide its email service. To use a non-BT email address for sending, you have to register the extra email address with Yahoo!. Yahoo! says this reduces spam etc.  http://www.btyahoo.com/verify  
It is complicated but just follow the instructions.

Once you've registered your non-BT email address(es) with Yahoo!, you need the settings for the outgoing email server. Here are the settings I used, in Thunderbird, but most email clients need the same stuff:

Outgoing server (SMTP): I called it "bt outgoing"
Server Name:  mail.btinternet.com
Port: 465
Connection security: SSL/TLS
Authentication method: Normal password
User name: just your user name, for instance, fluffypaws

[the first time you send you will be asked to input your bt internet account password, which in my case is the same as my bt internet Yahoo! password]

Whoo! finally I can send email, with my normal non-bt email address.



3 comments:

  1. You can call at Bt Email Helpline Number Uk for help and assistance and get rid of all problematic situations. Although you can solve all such problems yourself too and make the services smooth, you can call our BT email technical support UK phone number for assistance.

    ReplyDelete
  2. If you are facing any issues related BT Yahoo Email you can contact BT Yahoo Email support
    phone number Toll Free Number +44-808-280-2972 which is available 24/7.

    ReplyDelete
  3. BT Yahoo Email Support provides the instant support to its users and you can get 24x7 support from our team. Also find help for Dell Printer Support.

    ReplyDelete