Mail refuses to acknowledge the real outgoing SMTP settings - no work mail

Question

I am having trouble sending mail from my work email.
When I press "send" I get the message that I cannot send the message due to "SMTP authentication turned on in your email client".
My mail preferences clearly state that I have NOT turned on outgoing smtp authentication.
When I then open the message in the Outbox I cannot send it until I've manually pressed "Get mail" and then try to send it again.
- Do you know how to make it work again, or why Mail behaves this way?
Other notes: I can use the same address without problems on a PC and cell phone.
I recently changed from checking for new mail every 5 minutes to checking manually.

Answer 1

It looks like this outgoing server uses a form of authentication known as “POP before SMTP” or “SMTP after POP”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POPbeforeSMTP
The way to set up that outgoing server in Mail would be setting Authentication to None in Preferences > Accounts > Account Information > Outgoing Mail Server > Server Settings, and either telling Mail to regularly check for new mail in Preferences > General (e.g. every 5 or 15 minutes), or manually checking for new mail before sending.
If that outgoing server works that way and you’ve stopped checking for mail regularly then, well, it should be no surprise that you have to check for new mail manually in order to be able to send...