If you're using a typical residential broadband ISP, outbound SMTP may also be blocked by your provider as a mechanism to minimize mail abuse (spam). In such a case, you will need to configure your MTA (sendmail or whatever) to forward all mail through your ISP's official outbound mail server. You can check this by issuing the command: telnet mx1.hotmail.com smtp (Note the second 'smtp' argument there.) If you see something like the following, then type "quit" (no quotes) and hit enter/return: Trying 65.55.92.152... Connected to mx1.hotmail.com. Escape character is '^]'. 220 snt0-mc2-f42.Snt0.hotmail.com Sending unsolicited commercial or bulk e-mail to Microsoft's computer network is prohibited. Other restrictions are found at http://privacy.msn.com/Anti-spam/. Violations will result in use of equipment located in California and other states. Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:54:58 -0800 If it doesn't do anything after "Trying 65.55.92.152..." or gives you a connection refused, your ISP is blocking SMTP. If your telnet appears hung, type control-] (right square bracket) to get to the telnet prompt, then type "quit" (no quotes) and enter/return. Devin