ok, as per your instructions...I switched to MercuryC and set it up using the same information I would use if I was setting up Outlook express to send and recieve mail from my host.

For comcast, I had to go to their site and check the help files on how to set up outlook express and they gave mail.comcast.net on port 587.  That didn't work, so I tried smtp.comcast.net on port 587 and ... IT WORKS!!!

 Thank you so very much and I hope my response as to the exact fix will help others.

First, I'm sorry.  I'm lost in much of this technical speak.  I have been a webmaster for several years but this is my first time trying to set up a mail server, as well as the first time hosting my own server.

I have installed xampp, which came with mercury mail.  I have upgraded to mercury/32 4.6.  I cannot get it to send mail.

I use dynDNS and my isp is through comcast.  my url at using dyndns is gensite.homedns.org.  I have win2k OS.

Please tell me how to set this up so I can send mail.  I don't know what else you need to know from me, so please, just ask, and please, treat me like I'm stupid, because right now, when it comes to this, I am.

I have tried searching, but I haven't been able to piece together all the different information to make it work.  I keep running into people talking about mercuryE and C and S and I think those are different than mercury/32, but I'm not sure.  Also, please act like I don't know where anything is.  Ex. when you tell me to put in my nameserver...I don't know what my nameserver is exactly or where to enter that information.  Please explain where I can find this information.

I'll be glad to do the legwork, if someone is willing to fully explain this stuff to me.

Thank you so much for the help I hope you will provide.

Jeff

To en/dis-able any of the Mercury modules (S, C, E etc) go to   CONFIGURATION -> PROTOCOL MODULES

As you'll see there, these are the different mail handling modules for Mercury.  MercuryS is the SMTP module, allowing people to connect to your server for sending mail.  MercuryP is the POP3 module, which allows people to connect and retrieve mail.

If you cannot SEND mail, my first guess is your ISP is blocking it.  Many, if not most major ISPs prevent the riffraff (ie: regular users) from sending mail to any server but their own.  This drastically reduces the amount of zombie spam, as compromised machines cannot send spam directly to the receiving server.  In real terms, this means that you're probably not able to send mail to ANY server but the one your ISP gave you.  On the bright side, they won't normally fail to relay mail to the end recipient, so this is not really a hardship.

MercuryC is the relaying SMTP module you'll need to use.  Configuration isn't difficult, you'll enter the same details used for your regular email client.

As for your nameserver, you'll notice that you only need to enter a nameserver if you don't want to use the ones already assigned by Windows, so unless you NEED to override these, don't.