System.Net.Mail: Mail sent via Network delivery throws exception “Command not implemented/supported”

One of the customer reported that whenever he tries to send e-mail by using System.Net.Mail API they get the following error “System.Net.Mail.SmtpException error message: Command not implemented. The server response was: Command not Supported”

I had a look at the application. They built a Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 based application and tried to send e-mail by using the System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient class. They use the DeliveryMethod.Network method from the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0. The application receive the following System.Net.Mail.SmtpException error message: Command not implemented. The server response was: Command not Supported.

During the investigation, we found that this problem occurs because the remote SMTP server does not support the SMTP extended Hello (EHLO) command. The exception occurs when the remote SMTP server returns the 502 reply code and the System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient class expects the 500 reply code.

To overcome this issue, Microsoft released a hot fix downloaded from https://code.msdn.microsoft.com/KB913616/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=789. Also you can refer the detailed Knowledge base article regarding this issue and hot fix.

Comments

• Anonymous
  March 18, 2010
  Rockie Deva, You deserve this credit, for the blogpost. Nearly 4+ years before i contacted Microsoft and reported this issue (http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/netfxnetcom/thread/44b8ff79-2ec6-4d2f-830e-78adf38592b6). No one concerned (AV Vendor) about that, but obtained some update regarding this from Microsoft. I removed System.Net.Mail from my project and worked with WebDAV, worked. After 4 years, i just got a chance to look at the post, tried the resolution, it worked. Yo, it worked as expected. This is an clear indiciation of how MS repsects and assist them. I would say, good work guys!!

• Anonymous
  March 19, 2010
  Thanks for your update, Lordwolf!! Happy it helped you to move ahead!!