When I try to connect to IU through an outside ISP, why do my IMAP mail messages bounce?

If you access your Indiana University email account while using an off-campus Internet service provider (ISP), you may configure your email program's outgoing mail server (SMTP) setting to use either your ISP's outgoing mail server, or IU's server. For background information, see At IU, if I use an outside ISP, what should I know about my outgoing mail server?

Note: This document assumes that all your attempts to send email are bouncing. If only some of your email is bouncing, that is most likely not the result of the problem described here.

If your mail consistently bounces, follow the instructions below that best describe your situation:

• If you specify IU's SMTP servers, and do not use VPN, the most likely reason your outgoing mail bounces is that you have not configured your client to use authentication and SSL to connect to the IU mail relay servers. For information on how to change those settings, see Instructions for changing mail settings to meet UITS requirements.
  
  
• If you specify your ISP's SMTP servers, and do not use VPN, there may be a problem in your configuration; contact your ISP for help.
  
  
• If you specify your ISP's SMTP servers, and are connected to IU's VPN service, you need to reconfigure your client to use IU's SMTP servers. VPN puts you on the IU network, even though you're connecting through an off-campus ISP, so you cannot use any other SMTP server to send mail.

  As an alternative, you may also disconnect from VPN.

• If you specify IU's SMTP, and are connected to IU's VPN service, double-check all the SMTP settings, not just the authentication and SSL settings. Email should not be consistently bouncing in this situation, and a simple configuration error may be at fault (such as misspelling mail-relay.iu.edu, forgetting the hyphen, or using .com instead of .edu).

  If you do not find any configuration errors, contact your campus Support Center. Consultants can help re-check the settings for errors you may have missed, or diagnose whether this is an actual outage with the IU mail servers.

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