Sending Email from Mexico

In a bid to clamp down on email spam, Telmex and other major internet companies running WiFi spots in Mexico have shut down access to Port 25—the port most commonly used for sending email when you are using an email client like Outlook, Windows Mail, Thunderbird or Entourage.

This means that when you attempt to use your email over a public WiFi connection in Mexico, you might find that you can receive messages (which arrive on Port 110), but any messages waiting to be sent from your outbox just stay there.

If you access your email using a web browser such as Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, or Hotmail  (instead of a mail program), you won’t be at all affected by this issue.

If you live in Mexico and use internet service at home, you can apply to have the block on Port 25 removed by contacting your internet service provider.

The “port 25 issue”, which became a nuisance for travelers a few years ago, has been mitigated substantially by the advent of more advanced email programs (especially on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets) which configure themselves automatically to send and receive email.

However, if you find that you are unable to send email from your computer (the messages stay in your outbox after clicking send & receive) when you arrive in Mexico, then you have two options:

1. If your email account is accessible via a web-page in addition to being accessible through an email program, you may use the web-browser access to send email.

2. The second option is to ask the company that hosts your email service to open an alternative Port on the mail server so that you can send email through that, instead.  For example, instead of Port 25, it could be Port 125 (or whatever).  Then, you simply go into the advanced settings of your email program, and replace “25” with whatever alternative number your email service provider gives you.

If you travel to Mexico on business and your email service is provided by your company, you may want to ask your company’s IT manager about providing an alternative Port number for your use if you find your can’t send messages from your connections in Mexico.

You can learn more about Internet, email, telephones, and communications generally on the Mexperience guide to Communications in Mexico, part of our Mexico Essentials section.