According to http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/e2k3/e2k3/_cdoex_error_codes_for_exchange_2000_server.asp the error 0x80040217L means that the transport was unable to log on to the server. Does your SMTP server require authentication? You can find the list of all configuration items, including user name and password at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cdosys/html/_cdosys_schema_configuration.asp

>message: OLE IDispatch exception code 0 from ?: The message could not be sent to the SMTP server. The transport error code was 0x80040217. The server response was not available
>
>or
>
>message 2 if I use "" instead: OLE IDispatch exception code 0 from CDO.Message.1: The transport failed to connect to the server.
>..
>
>Both on .send()

--sb--