Identifying your "Outgoing Mail Server"

You can email memos, schedules and summaries directly to your scheduled providers from EPSKED, the emergency physician scheduling program.
In order to do this, EPSKED needs to know the name of your Outgoing Mail Server, the computer used by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to send your email. Without knowing and entering the correct Outgoing Mail Server name, you cannot send e-mail from EPSKED.

To find the Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP Server) used for your email account:

3) A new web page will be displayed, titled "Here are the results of your search". If results show:

• Nothing at all or the words "Host not found", then you need to go back to step 1 above and correctly reenter your domain name. 
• One or more lines with the words "mail is handled...by", then your Outgoing Mail Server(s) are listed at the end of each of these lines. 
• If something other than the above is shown, then the domain you entered can be used as the SMTP server for your email account 

4) Enter one of the listed Outgoing Mail Server names in EPSKED using the instruction in the  the Once you know the name of your Outgoing Mail Server section below.

Several important notes that may apply to you:

Note: The Outgoing Mail Server determination service linked to above is not under our control. The service does not always function, and it can return a server name that does not work, but will quickly provide the information needed by most EPSKED users. To assist with any problems, we have assembled a  list of Outgoing Mail Server names for some commonly used Internet Service Providers that we have come across or obtained from the Internet, as well as other suggestions for determining Outgoing Mail Server name for your email account. You can view this page at: http://bytebloc.com/SmtpList.html

Note about web based e-mail services: Several of these services do not provide access to their SMTP server and these will most likely not work with EPSKED, though not all have been tested. Included are Hotmail, AOL Mail, Excite Mail, Juno, MailCity, Mail.com, Searchalot Mail. 

Note for Microsoft MSN users: At the time of original EPSKED 4.0 testing, the Microsoft MSN Outgoing Mail Server (smtp.email.msn.com) was available for use with EPSKED. In the summer of 2001, it began returning the following message: 

The link information and further investigation indicates that the msn server now requires a proprietary authentication procedure. This use of a nonstandard authentication procedure intentionally prevents access by the email functions of programs such as EPSKED. For a full explanation of this unfortunate situation, including the full text of Microsoft's explanation of the changes, please see http://www.bytebloc.com/MsnLetter.html.

Once you know the name of your Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP server), you can enter the name in EPSKED by:

1. From the scheduling program Main Menu, select the Options...Email dropdown menu. EPSKED will display the EPSKED Email Manager Information window.
2. In the "Server:" entry area of the "Mail server setup" section in the upper left of that window, enter the name of your Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP server).
3. If your Outgoing Mail Server requires "authentication", check the Required checkbox, and enter the user name (also known as your account name or login name) and password associated with your email account. The user name is usually the part of your email address before the '@' sign. (If you are not sure if authentication is required, leave the box unchecked and continue with these instructions. If authentication is required, EPSKED will usually be able to advise you of this when a test email does not send correctly.) (EPSKED version 4.0.31 or later is required to use the Authentication feature.)
4. Click the "Send test email" button to send yourself an email. If you have not yet entered your own email address, you will be prompted to do so before the test email is sent.

EPSKED will automatically connect to the Internet on most computer systems. If EPSKED does not connect, you will need to manually connect to the Internet before sending email messages. 

• If the test email sent by EPSKED is received in your email program, you have successfully configured EPSKED to send email message.
• If you are experience any problems, and you are sure that your Outgoing Mail Server name is correct, and please check that your computer system is functioning correctly by following the instructions immediately below. 
• In the unlikely event that you experience continued problems after following these instructions, please contact us at support@bytebloc.com. Please note any error messages, and include a description of what happens what you expected to happen. We will sent further instructions for operating the EPSKED Email Manager in a "debug" mode which may help resolve any persistent difficulties.
  

If you feel sure you have the correct Outgoing Mail Server entered and EPSKED is still unable to send email, you can use the following procedure to determine whether the problem is with your system or with EPSKED.

1. Click the Windows Start button, then select the Run... option.
2. In the textbox in the Run window that appears, type "telnet" (without quotes) in the box, then click the OK button.
3. In the Telnet window that appears, click the Connect dropdown menu, then select Remote System...
4. In the Connect window that appears, type the Outgoing Mail Server name you are using as the Host Name and 25 as Port, then click the Connect button.
5. Read the resultant message. An error message indicates that sending mail is not functioning properly on your system. If instead you see something like: 220 yourmailserver.yourdomain ESMTP Server is glad to see you! then your mail service is operational and EPSKED is having problems communicating with your system. Please contact technical  support by email at support@bytebloc.com for assistance if this is the case. You can send a copy of the entire session transcript by clicking the "Edit...Copy All" dropdown menu and pasting it into your email message.
6. Type in "quit" and click the Enter button on the Connect to close the mail server and end the session without the necessity of timing out.