smtp send receive errors with outlook

[#1]

I have been using outlook 16 (version 2403) to access my totalise email for years via smtp.plus.net

no settngs have been changed but In the last few weeks I am constantly getting the "enter your  user name and password for this server" messages when accessing smtp.plus.net and seeing error "800cccof" in the send receive dialogue (see attached) and  have had a few message regarding trust certificates not being valid for the smtp server.

If I ignore the message maybe an hour or so later outlooks access's the smtp server and grabs the mail - sometimes it is fine all day sometimes it errors every time outlook tries to poll the server.

The default is for my outlook implementation is to poll every 30 mins or so.

The other SMTP servers linked to outlook for my other pop email accounts are working fine. I have tried resetting the credentials to no avail but of course sometimes they work so I suspect an error at the smtp server side.

I also access this smtp server via gmail and that access seems fine because even if I am getting the issue with Outlook, at the same time if I go to gmail and initiate an email from my totalise account via the smtp.plus.net server the interaction with gmail works without error.

I've tried all the ususal reboot/restart/use a different IPS tried via VPN too all variations give the same issues.

so has anyone else seen this, are there any other users out there that use different port settings maybe or doe anyone have any other suggestions?

[#2]

There are a multitude of causes of this error.

You do not indicate which 'Outlook' product is in use here, nor the manner of connection to the internet - all of those things can have a bearing on the cause of the issue.  Have you Googled the error code?  Note that it ends ZERO-f not OH-f.

See for example How to fix error 0x800ccc0f in Outlook 2010/2013 (stellarinfo.com) it could be a damaged OST file - which is nothing to do with the Plusnet email service.

[#3]

Having done some more digging here the problem is NOT with outlook but with the smtp outgoing mail service at the plus.net side.

My symptoms are:

Until recenly everything worked and had dome for years - everything being - sending and receiving mail via outlook, sending and receiving via a redirect in Gmail and sending and recieving on an imap client app on my phone.

Recently I started to see errors in outlook when sending mail and got some "certificate authenitcation" messages too - I clicked through these saying "trust anyway" when I had looked at the certificate details as they were all referenced to plus.net servers but don't have an exact record of the messages.

Having done some more testing I can calrify thtat the exact issues are that I can not send mail from outlook, or via my mobile app, the Gmail redirect somehonw still works (via smtp.plus.net port 25 - same settings as elsewhere).

So I can send from Gmail or if I login to webmail everything works fine but any other service that tries to send via smtp.plus.net on port 25 fails to authenticate - I have tried various other common ports too but no change.

If I telnet to smtp.plus.net 25 and issue EHLP plus.net I get a response:

250-avasout-peh-003 hello [81.110.242.33], pleased to meet you
250-HELP
250-AUTH LOGIN PLAIN
250-SIZE 104857600
250-PIPELINING
250-8BITMIME
250-STARTTLS
250 OK

so it looks like the server is alive but if I try and AUTH with my credentials I get:

535 ...authentication rejected

So my conclusion is that something has change with a certificate at the         smtp.plus.net   server that is preventing authentication - I have tried various combinations of encryption and SSL/TLS STARTTLS etc to no avail.

So anyone else having the problem with totalise email accounts?

How can I report to plus.net as this community group seemed the only support option

[#4]

When you have entered your credentials for authentication, where they both base64 encoded?

[#5]

---

@graemewa wrote:

I have been using outlook 16 (version 2403) to access my totalise email for years via smtp.plus.net

---

There is a fine detail in here which I might have scanned over ... that is NOT the correct server name for the SMTP service.

Whilst it will work perfectly fine WITHOUT encryption, with encryption selected you will encounter certificate validation issues.

Use the PUBLISHED server name - relay.plus.net

[#6]

Yep I've tried plain and base 64 encoded - I'll add some more details to me reply to the next post

[#7]

thanks for your reply.

I have tried all the various snmp outgoing server settings listed on the various forums

snmp.plus.net (port 25) is what is configured in my gmail settings and I can still send via gmail from my @totalise.co.uk address with these settings (they have been static for several years) - from outlook or a mobile app these settings fail with authenication issues

I tried relay.plus.net too and same issue.

I installed thunderbird as a clean install and used the following settings for outgoing mail

relay.plus.net port 587 & STARTTLS

when I try to send a mail I get a rejection "Login to account "smtp" failed

If I try from Outlook via relay.plus.net - it also fails but I initially get a certificate warning saying the cert can't be verified.

I then tried via openssl to see if I could authenticate that way from the cmd line using 

openssl s_client -starttls smtp -4 -connect relay.plus.net:587 -ign_eof

I get a connection but also a verification error:SSL handshake has read 3941 bytes and written 448 bytes
Verification error: unable to get local issuer certificate

and then 

Verify return code: 20 (unable to get local issuer certificate)

nevertheless if I issue an EHLO relay.plus.net I get I get good 250 reponses:

250-avasout-ptp-002 hello [81.110.242.33], pleased to meet you
250-HELP
250-AUTH LOGIN PLAIN
250-SIZE 104857600
250-PIPELINING
250-8BITMIME
250 OK

if I then try an AUTH LOGIN (or AUTH PLAIN) using my base 64 encoded user and pass the username is accepted but then at the password entry I get kicked out with:

535 ...authentication rejected
closed

I can pick up mail from my account with all the various tools mentioned so I knwo the password is OK

I have come to the conclusion there must be something wrong with the totalise snmp configuration at the plusnet end - happy to consider any other options but I get the feeling I can't be the only one. 

Any further thoughts?

I have attached screenshots of what I have described above for the openssl session and the thunderbird info

[#8]

Are you on a Plusnet ISP connection?

Can you login to the mailbox using webmail and SEND successfully?

Have you changed the password on the mailbox recently?

Looking here - https://community.plus.net/t5/Email/How-to-change-your-outgoing-server-on-a-mail-client/m-p/1606155#... - the SMTP server for totalise accounts is mail.totalise.co.uk ...

There have been cases where after changing the password on legacy (free) email accounts that users cannot then connect to the SMTP server where a user name and password is mandatory (as in an off network connection).  After a deal of back and forth on here, it was clarified that this was a systems error.  I do not know the scope of the resolution, be that a general fix or one requiring a case by case intervention.

Can you please check webmail and try the other SMTP server mentioned in the linked thread.

[#9]

Hi 

In response to your Q's

Are you on a Plusnet ISP connection? No - Virgin Media - I have been on Virgin media for 10 years and the service worked with the setting I have in outlook for the last 10 year no problem - I have tried switching to a VPN in case it is a routing problem from Virgn media 

Can you login to the mailbox using webmail and SEND successfully? Yes and I can send via webmail, and I have a redirect on Gmail via smpt.plus.net port 25 and that works too. It is an issue with the outgoing mail server from any client that I have tried - the clients I have tested are outlook V16, Thunderbird, the Samsung Android Mail App, Outlook for Android, and I have also tried sending and authenticating via OPENSSL and TELNET to no avail.

Have you changed the password on the mailbox recently? No and as per above I can login to webmail and I can receive my mail from all the clients mentioned so that suggests to me the account credentials are good.

Looking here - https://community.plus.net/t5/Email/How-to-change-your-outgoing-server-on-a-mail-client/m-p/1606155#... - the SMTP server for totalise accounts is mail.totalise.co.uk ...

I have tried the following SMTP servers and port combinations:

mail.totalise.co.uk 25 mail.totalise.co.uk  587 mail.totalise.co.uk 465

mail.plus.net 25 mail.plus.net 587 mail.plus.net 456

relay.plus.net 25 relay.plus.net 587 relay.plus.net 456

smtp.plus.net 25 smtp.plus.net 587 smtp.plus.net 456

None work

I have used snmp.plus.net for years without a problem until recently

The problems all started at the same time that I started to see certificate errors