Mail sending ONLY problems

Question

Just installed a new macintosh - 20" dual 2 core iMac - love it. Problem:
Set up pop email account and it seems my ISP (excite.com) is rejecting the email traffic I send due to mis-matched info in the header. I included the reject message at the end of this note. Question: Does the macintosh automatically route an email through a mac.com server on its way to the smtp outgoing mail server? That seems to be my problem...or I have it all wrong - not sure!! Any help appreciated...
Date: Sun Oct 29 19:04:34 2006
From: Mail Delivery Subsystem <[email protected]>
[ Add to Address Book | Block Address | Report as Spam | This is not Bulk Mail ]
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: Returned mail: see transcript for details
The original message was received at Sun, 29 Oct 2006 16:04:32 -0800 (PST)
from mail23-ce1 [10.13.11.50]
----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<[email protected]>
(reason: 554 <[email protected]>: Sender address rejected: The mailserver used does not match the excite.com domain Error: WS-13)
----- Transcript of session follows -----
... while talking to xmxatip.excite.com.:
DATA
<<< 554 <[email protected]>: Sender address rejected: The mailserver used does not match the excite.com domain Error: WS-13
554 5.0.0 Service unavailable
<<< 554 Error: no valid recipients
<div class="jive-quote">RSET
<<< 421 xprdmx30.nwk.excite.com Error: too many errors
Forwarded Message:
Forwarded Message:
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: from mail23-ce1 (mail23-ce1 [10.13.11.50])
by smtpout.mac.com (Xserve/8.12.11/smtpout05/MantshX 4.0) with ESMTP id k9U04WL5009210
for <[email protected]>; Sun, 29 Oct 2006 16:04:32 -0800 (PST)
Received: from mac.com (smtpin45-en2 [10.13.9.113])
by ms23.mac.com (iPlanet Messaging Server 5.2 HotFix 2.08 (built Sep 22 2005))
with ESMTP id <[email protected]> for [email protected]

Answer 1

OK.
Receiving mail from these "excite-able" servers works.
Sending mail does take more detailed precision.
Reconfigured "many times". How many times?
Probably about 5 - each time I made a tweak that I thought might work !!
But you say that Mail.app shows it "Sent", no errors?
YES - I would not know there was a problem if I did not send myself an email and never get it...
What about the bounce msg you attached?
Where does that appear?
Only in webMail ('interent based mail >>application'...whatever that means?)
WebMail
And there's nothing in any of your setup where you >>see "mac.com"?
Yes, mac.com is a server shown - but not selected
That's sort of an indication that you've somehow set up >>your mail to send through the apple dot-mac.com >>arrangement that might have been a promotional feature >>with your new Mac.
That was my thought - is it possible? How would I correct?
As long as your setup to adelphia works within Mail, use >>that configuration and modify IT to match the Excite >>settings.
Did not know that was possible - I will do - any hints on how?
Too bad Excite doesn't have an interactive help page. >>But they're free, right?
Email support is almost as putzy as the AppleDiscussions >>sometimes (just kidding)
Not free for "pop" access - I am re-thinking that now...grin!