Thanks to everyone for their help.  Setting my old Win2K machine in my basement as my own ISP has been a fun and challenging experience.  I'm learning a lot.

For the record: If you are on a dynamic IP it is best to use MercuryC and use someone else's SMTP server since most dynamic IP's are blocked to prevent potential spam.  

I have googled quite a bit for a solution to this problem but have seen no definitive solutions.  Perhaps there are many answers and I need to find the one for my situation?  Here goes:

When I send an e-mail to my mailing list I get the following error e-mailed back to me for every e-mail that is not on my domain (electricfoster.info): 

Temporary error 249 (temporary MX resolution error) resolving 'netzero.net'.

Here is my configuration:

Windows 2000 SP4
Mercury/32 v4.5

That's all that should be relevant I have installed PHP5, Apache2.2.8, mySQL 5.0.51b, php5.2.6, Filezilla server 0.9.25 but these shouldn't effect the discussion here.

I sit behind a  Belkin Router where I have opened  the following ports to my machine: 21, 25, 80, 110

I use No-IP DUC to resolve my TimeWarner/Roadrunner dynamic IP to a static URL.

All services (i.e. HTTP, FTP & POP3) except SMTP work fine.

I am using MercuryE for SMTP transport. 

In the MercuryE configuration I added the following:

Identify Myself As: www.ElectricFoster.info

Nameserver: ns1.no-ip.com,ns2.no-ip.com,ns3.no-ip.com,ns4.no-ip.com 

When MercuryE starts it gives the following message:

Current name service information:
Hosts file : C:\WINNT\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
Domain :
Nameserver 1 : 255.255.255.255
Nameserver 2 : 255.255.255.255
Nameserver 3 : 255.255.255.255

So I edited the hosts file to read:

127.0.0.1       localhost
216.66.37.13    ns1.no-ip.com
204.16.252.6    ns2.no-ip.com
69.65.5.106     ns3.no-ip.com
72.5.169.6      ns4.no-ip.com

I rebooted and I still received the same message when MercuryE restarted?

This is where I sit.  I think I will switch to MercuryC until I can figure this out.  Any ideas?
 

In the MercuryE configuration, try entering some good resolving nameservers like opendns.com.  Don't rely on the windows resolver.

Set the IP addresses of the name servers in the MercuryE setup.  This will allow MercuryE to connect directly to the DNS host bypassing the flaky Windows DNS
system.  FWIW though, you really need to run a session log to see exactly why the server cannot connect.  If you do not have a fixed IP address they may be rejecting without error.

Worked like a charm!  I switched to IP addresses and the mail in the queue disappeared!  I'll have to send a couple more test messages to confirm but it appears that was the problem.

BTW:  The message in the MercuryE status window read:

Current name service information:
Hosts file : C:\WINNT\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
Domain :
Nameserver 1 : 216.66.37.13
Nameserver 2 : 204.16.252.6
Nameserver 3 : 69.65.5.106

Thanks! 

Now I'm getting errors like the following, but only for e-mails going through the mailing list, and not all of those: 

15:34:07: processing job MO000003
Resolved MX for 'msn.com' to 24.242.28.24
Resolved CN for 'earthlink.net' to 216.175.102.77
Connecting to 24.242.28.24
Connection error.

The session log looks like this:

15:44:49.567: --- Wed Jun 18 15:44:49 2008 ---
15:44:49.567: Connect to '24.242.28.24', timeout 60.
15:45:10.537: 15: Peer connect failure
15:45:10.537: --- Wed Jun 18 15:45:10 2008 ---
15:45:10.537: Connect to '216.175.102.77', timeout 60.
15:45:32.569: 15: Peer connect failure
 

Resolved MX for 'msn.com' to 24.242.28.24

Bad IP address, here's what I get for msn.com, note none start with 24.  What have you set in MercuryE as the ip addresses of the DNS name servers to be used?

Answer Section:
    msn.com, MX, 5, mx1.hotmail.com
    msn.com, MX, 5, mx2.hotmail.com
    msn.com, MX, 5, mx3.hotmail.com
    msn.com, MX, 5, mx4.hotmail.com

Additional Records Section:
    mx1.hotmail.com, A, 65.54.244.136
    mx1.hotmail.com, A, 65.54.245.8
    mx1.hotmail.com, A, 65.54.244.8
    mx2.hotmail.com, A, 65.54.245.40
    mx2.hotmail.com, A, 65.54.244.40
    mx2.hotmail.com, A, 65.54.244.168
    mx3.hotmail.com, A, 65.54.244.200
    mx3.hotmail.com, A, 65.54.245.72
    mx3.hotmail.com, A, 65.54.244.72
    mx4.hotmail.com, A, 65.54.245.104
    mx4.hotmail.com, A, 65.54.244.104
    mx4.hotmail.com, A, 65.54.244.232

 

I set the IP addresses as: 216.66.37.13,204.16.252.6,69.65.5.106,72.5.169.6

These are the no-IP.com DNS name servers.

Could it be that I am getting blocked because I am a part of a dynamic IP pool from Road Runner?

If so, would my only recourse (other than paying through the nose for a static IP) would be to use MercuryC.  I switched to that earlier and it seems to be processing the mail.  

I doubt that you are being blocked since yuo are not even trying the right MX hosts.  It sure looks like the DNS servers are returning the wrong IP addresses.  Have you tried using the IP addresses for the name server provided by RR?

[quote user="TerryJayFoster"]

I set the IP addresses as: 216.66.37.13,204.16.252.6,69.65.5.106,72.5.169.6

These are the no-IP.com DNS name servers.

Could it be that I am getting blocked because I am a part of a dynamic IP pool from Road Runner?

[/quote]

Yes.

[quote] 

If so, would my only recourse (other than paying through the nose for a static IP) would be to use MercuryC.  I switched to that earlier and it seems to be processing the mail.  

[/quote]

EDIT: Missed that the DNS issue had not yet been 'resolved' ([:D]).

Once this has, you will get blocked by some servers for being on a dynamic IP so MercC through your ISP smarthost is probably your best bet.