July 26, 2005 7:30 AM PDT

Mac OS X 10.4.2 (#9): Mail 2.0.2: Inability to send mail, password problems, potential solutions; more

by CNET staff

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Mail 2.0.2: Inability to send mail, password problems, potential solutions We continue to cover some significant issues with Mail.app 2.0.2 (the new release included with Mac OS X 10.4.2) -- particularly and inability to send mail through SMTP servers and repeated requests for passwords that have been entered several times.

In some cases these issues can be solved by switching the SMTP port through which you access your ISP's sendmail server.

In order to change this setting, use the following process:

Launch Mail.app
Under the "Mail" menu, select "Preferences"
Click "Server Settings" under to the "Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP)" heading
Set the SMTP port to the one specified by your ISP (for users of Comcast [and some other ISPs], try port 25)
Back in the Mail.app preference window, click the "Advanced" tab
Set the appropriate port number (for users of Comcast [and some other ISPs] try 110)

Note that you may also need to turn off SSL (secure socket layer) in both of these areas (for the SMTP server and the incoming server).

MacFixIt reader Nate Goldshlag is one user who had success with this workaround:

"I also was having problems sending through Comcast, constantly getting asked for my password. I had Mail configured for SSL on port 465, password authentication, which is what they say you need if you are outside their network. If you change the SMTP settings to SSL port 25 no authentication it works fine, at least from within Comcast. I have not had a chance to test out the 465 password authentication from outside Comcast. Their tech support admits that 465 password will not always work from within Comcast."

FireWire Drives will not unmount For the past several days we've been covering an issue where FireWire (IEEE 1394) drives spontaneously unmount under Mac OS X 10.4.2 (no longer accessible until unplugged, and re-connected).

Now MacFixIt reader Stan Goldberg reports a different issue affecting FireWire drives, where the devices refuse to unmount.

Stan writes:

"I'm having the opposite problem with firewire drives. When I try to unmount them by dragging them to the trash I keep getting the drive is in use and can't be ejected. These drives are connected to the internal firewire 800 bus. I get the same problem when drives are connected to a FireWire 800 PCI card. A client of mine reports the same problem with not being able to eject Firelite drives connected to a Powerbook running Mac OS X 10.4.2."

John Martinetto corroborates:

"My FireWire drive continues to give me problems unmounting. No problem getting mounted, but I can't seem to get it to eject or unmount from the desktop. Usually I wait a few minutes, then just turn it off, but I get the Device Removal message...

"Also, my USB thumb-drive behaves in the same way, just not as often.

Other FireWire device problems Meanwhile, MacFixIt reader Craig reports issues with a FireWire device other than a hard drive under Mac OS X 10.4.2:

"I don't think the 10.4.2 firewire problems only affect hard drives. Last week I was shooting with a Leaf Valeo 22 (Professional 22 megapixel digital camera back). It is powered through the firewire bus (when tehtered to the computer using a capture software). Anyway, the camera frequently disconnected itself after a capture is made (each capture raw file is 40MB). Several times, it even caused a kernel panic

"I have shot with this camera a lot over the last few years, and have never had this problem with this frequency. I tried several different digital backs, as well as replaced the 15 foot firewire cable multiple times. The problem finally eased (although was NOT eliminated) by a brand new cable."

Similar issues? Please let us know.

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