BT Internet 553 error - this is what we know at the moment
24 March, 2008
Some people with BT broadband will find that they are no longer able to send mail using third party portable email addresses. This is because BT in their infinite wisdom have implemented a new security policy (on the quiet) which means you can only send email from POP3 or SMTP mail servers with a portable email address if you have validated the email address with them first.
We were first alerted to this by one of our very IT savvy clients who had followed it up with them and was told of the new email validation system. We did a bit of Googling and we’ll share what we’ve discovered so far.
Ignoring the obvious problem (it’s BT), the issue seems to be that they have various brands and packages (and we have no idea at this moment in time if business broadband accounts are affected). Most people don’t seem to know what they have signed up for (and don’t waste your life asking BT – they still phone us to offer us business broadband and we’ve had it for three years). According to Phil Gyford there are currently BT Yahoo, BT Connect, BT Openworld and BT Total Broadband. Phil provides an excellent account of his frustrations trying to sort out his mum’s email based on the instructions given to him by BT.
Shortly afterwards we spotted this posted on ecademy
Still nothing listed on the BT press releases or on our favourite source of IT updates – The Register
We’ve since found information on yahoo answers which might help you make sense of the instructions BT are sending out – as Phil points out in his blog the screen you see is not the screen they think you see…
Update: More information here on the BT users forum This article has some useful external links and also a few choice words about BT’s customer service.
The important point to get across here is this: Don’t shout at your web developers/hosting providers. We received no clue that BT were going to do this (in fact I’d be amazed if anyone in BT knew they were going to either as one of our friends called and was told that the problem was down to a system outage, the operative on the end of the phone denied all knowledge of the new email validation policy). Whilst we will be happy to give advice, the problem lies completely in the hands of BT – prepare to lose at least three or four chargeable hours tomorrow – and if their level of compensation is anything to go by from our recent day long outage you might be lucky to get a fiver. One way to get them to dig deeper is to phone head office and ask to be put through to the MD’s PA – that does tend to get their attention.
We’ll be evaluating alternative service providers and preparing to provide advice for our clients if required. It’s not the fact that BT have finally woken up to the issue of spammers, it’s the fact that they think they can implement a change which affects hundreds of consumers and causes no end of grief for their web service providers without any prior notification.
A short term (though not very practical) solution is to use webmail if available. We will update this blog as more information becomes available.
Rachael posted this in Business, News
Comments
#2 
Bt say that this is not their fault yet they have done a pointless upgrade with yahoo they have blocked all my email accounts yet say “not us” one interesting point which they would not discus. I don’t use their SMTP server to sent I use my own on my website yet they (BT) blocked all my email! Not happy and told they so yesterday as some of my email accounts are used remotely and by none technical people so we have to be able to resolve this issue from 150 miles away!!!
#3 
I just dont know what to do with problem,Im not computer savvy guy being in my 70s,every was working great,until BT messed it up sending almost every day Error 553,cant send out any messages on Incredimail(which I love and use 99% of the time),no problem with Hotmail,windows etc.They caused this problem so why cant they in a simple way rectify the matter,I also use another laptop,on Windows XP pro,and that works fine,but on this laptop,traffice just sits in the ‘Outbox,and there it sits.but Im writing this on Vista,and I bet it never gets sent.
Iv thought of giving BT the elbow and go and use Tesconet.
Iv tred downloading the help sections and that also fails.
is there any help for a Silver Surfer.
Best wishes to all.
#4 
I have had a quick google for you Michael – and the phrase I’m seeing frequently is ‘When incredimail goes wrong it goes REALLY wrong’
However – it looks like since we wrote this blog originally BT have got their act together and MAY have updated their instructions which you can find at http://bt.custhelp.com/ (Search for 553 error). If you go through the step by step on that page it should tell you how to validate your ‘from’ email address.
Hope that helps a bit!
#5
Thank you Racheal,
Thats most kind of you,indeed I will try that shortly since I have to dash out to a concert shortly,and I will try to sort it out tomorrow,if I still have difficulty,I will ask my son,hes very good with Computers.
Once again thanks,I do like incredimail,and in the past few years have not had any problems.
Best wishes.
Michael.
#6
Re Error 553.
Dear Rachael,
Thanks again,a miracle has happened,after sending BT and a letter expressing my feelings to there Error 553,I got a nice letter back from their help team,and the next day a young man somewhere,helped me,he took control of my computer,and after circa 20mins,it was fixed,just like that,Id struggled with their instructions and just kept coming to a blank end.
Infact Im writing to you now on the said,problem laptop.
Thanks once and best wishes.
Michael Simpson………..so a stronge worded letter helps in the end.
#1
2 years, 2 months ago Steve said …
BT have blocked my PRIMARY ACCOUNT (for 10 days). It usually runs on BT Broadband, so everything is supplied by BT; userID and password is required to access the mail server.
If you read the information BT have supplied, and try to use it on a PRIMARY account, you can NEVER verify that account, because you would have to delete it in order to “add” it for verification. Pretty stupiid, eh?
BT claim it is “for our security” to verify our PRIMARY accounts. To verify a PRIMARY account you have to login with a user ID and password as usual, and then (I think, because it is impossible for me to “add” my own account to get a vrification message) use the SAME username and password to verify the username and password I have already used.
BT have created a thoroughly illogical loop. It does not improve security, it merely blocks the users that they KNOW are valid!
Steve – annoyed