Cox adds authenticated smtp, email working seemlessly between wifi and 3g

Question

I had a problem, but it just went away. Background: I have Cox high speed internet at home (in Tucson), and Cox would not let any email go out to any smtp server (authenticated or not, ssl, didn't matter) other than their own. Which meant when my iphone was on wifi at home I HAD to use smtp.west.cox.net, but as soon as I left my email wouldn't send because I was no longer on cox over the air. So I could either optimize for home or road - either set my smtp server priority for cox, or set it for authenticated gmail, or cwmx.com, or whatever. It was sort of messy at best with a list of smtp servers and trying to get the right one into the priority slot (is that game?). BUT, my life has recently changed, although it's a sad thing when an adult prances around saying "cox has authenticated smtp now, yay!" But they do, and it works from anywhere. So what I have now on my iphone is my 3 email accounts, and just a single solitary smtp server - cox. Obviously you need to be a cox subscriber, and you need to know your cox user name, but the steps are here:
http://support.cox.com/knowledgecenter/cox_hsikb_defcontent_view.asp?sprt_cid=1689d919-54ca-496a-b081-cc3617a7d7 f3&sprtver=5
I hope this helps someone who is dealing with smt pcraziness and cox.

Answer 1

Thanks for this! I had figured out the problem on my wife's iPhone due to the outbound smtp servers not being on the cox network when on the ATT EDGE, and wanted to let Apple fix it for us by having another option on the mail account settings: If I'm on WiFi - try smtp.cox.net for outbound email, if I'm on EDGE, use ATT's outbound email.
Glad to see the Authenticated SMTP for Cox and will try that later tonight.
I don't think I'll do the prancing , but my wife will be grateful for this!