I'm using Outlook 2003 on Windows XP on a Thinkpad T60
notebook. The system also has AVG Anti-Virus and Firewall
installed.

I normally use Outlook with three different e-mail accounts
all hosted by my company web site. Each account uses the
same authenticated smtp server, but uses the username and
password associated with that account to log in.

When I'm traveling I normally send a test e-mail message
from the main account to itself to test the connection and
make sure that I have access to the smtp and pop3 servers.

Two weeks ago I was in China (Shanghai) and had a very
strange e-mail problem. using Outlook I could not send
e-mail to the originating account, but could send to any
other account.

For example, I have three accounts, such as:





Using Outlook I could send from first to second or first to
third, but not from first to first, and also not send from
second to second or third to third. The error message was
something like "not local" or "smtp server disconnected."
These were messages from Outlook (or AVG) and the message
was left in the outbox. I never got the more normal "can't
find smtp server" error message.

To make matters more strange, I could send from
to using Thunderbird.

On the way home we stopped in Toronto for one night and I
had the same problem with Outlook, so I don't think it is
China-specific.

Does anyone have any idea what was going on? I do not
remember having this same problem when I was traveling in
the US with this notebook, or anywhere in the world with
prior computers that used Outlook 2000 (and a different
firewall product.)

Thanks.

--
Vic Roberts
Replace xxx with vdr in e-mail address.