Issues with receiving/sending emails via Thunderbird & VPN
Good afternoon,
I recently moved to China and I have to go through a VPN for most of the web surfing. However wether the VPN is on or off I can't send emails via Thunderbird (Error message saying that it can't connect to SMTP) and receiving them is so-so.
I contacted the VPN support system, their recommandation was to get the fastest server, which I did and it did not change anything.
I am assuming the issue lies with Thunderbird because on my mobile phone I go through the Gmail app and it works whenever the VPN is connected.
Is there any port setting or other setting I should change on Thunderbird to make it work ?
I never had issues with receiving/sending emails with Thunderbird prior to that.
Thanks in advance,
Full error message :
L’envoi du message a échoué. Le message n’a pas pu être envoyé car la connexion au serveur sortant (SMTP) « smtp.gmail.com » a échoué. Le serveur est peut-être indisponible ou refuse les connexions SMTP. Veuillez vérifier que les paramètres de votre serveur sortant (SMTP) sont corrects et essayez à nouveau.
All Replies (6)
That error message clearly points at a connectivity problem. VPN services in China are not fool-proof. Getting one that just works is a never-ending task in itself. The Chinese government actively finds and implements ways of blocking the VPN services themselves.
I only have this issue with Thunderbird though, it works well with the other websites/apps, so there might be something I am missing from the Thunderbird settings.
Like I said for instance with Gmail app on the phone it goes smoothly. I'd still like to have access to Thunderbird though because it's way more comfortable :)
The gmail andriod app is a glorified web page, very similar to what you get if you log into the gmail web site.
Gmail have a very long history of refusing connection for locations that are not familiar to you. So moving from say Sydney to Chengdu will garner a refusal to connect and a security alert email. Likewise if your VPN is not consistent with it's drop off IP address then this becomes an ongoing issue.
Finally as Stans indicates, the Chinese government operates what is generally referred to as the great firewall of China and in doing so actively implements VPN blocking. Just as the block all access to Google services.
I would suggest you change your location in Google services to the same general location as the exit point in your VPN and see if that helps but it might just be that the firewall in China is blocking all access to the relevant SMTP port used by Google as they want all emails to be sent using Chinese services for obvious reasons. As google only offer a single port, Your vpn might offer some sort of port translation to avoid that. You would need to ask them, it is beyiond the scopt of this forum.
Thank you for your help !
Need the VPN install please
Hector Zepeda said
Need the VPN install please
I do not understand this comment in the context of this topic.