I used to have alerts sent to my pager (ie. [email]1234567890@page.metrocall.com).[/email] My ISP just switched the e-mail so the SMTP e-mail server requires authentication. Alert tests fail with "authentication error" or "server timeout" errors. There's no authentication set-up in the PP e-mail setup. Is it possible to add that as a new feature in upcoming versions? Is there a workaround? Anyone know of a free e-mail account that I can get that doesn't require SMTP authentication? Thank you.

The easiest way to work around this problem, if you're only trying to deliver to a single email address, is to deliver directly to the SMTP server that is used by the destination email address.

To do this, you need to figure out what the delivery server is for the address you're sending to. NSLOOKUP under 2000/XP is a good way for this.

Run NSLOOKUP
enter "set type=mx"
enter the part of the email address after the @ sign (in your case, page.metrocall.com).

This will list a server address - pick the one with the lowest MX preference, and enter that for the SMTP server in Ping Plotter. In your case, this would be popserver3.metrocall.com (or popserver4.metrocall.com).

This should work with most SMTP servers - although some SMTP servers won't accept mail from certain IP address ranges. You'll have to try it out to know for sure.

The big downside to this method is that you'll only be able to send emails to the domain in question - ie: @page.metrocall.com addresses.

Another possiblity is to set up your own email SMTP server on your machine. I sometimes use the argosoft mail server (Freeware) for this. This server will then forward to the proper destination.

Hopefully, one of these ideas will work for you. If not, post back (or email [email]support@pingplotter.com)[/email] and we'll help you come up with something that will work for you.

- Pete

Thanks Pete. popserver3.metrocall.com worked!
Keep up the good work!