topic Re: Unable to add account to Thunderbird. in Email

Unable to add account to Thunderbird.

Scotty12 — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 19:26:29 GMT

Good afternoon,

Been trying all day to get an account added to Thunderbird without any success. I am receiving emails but unable to send. As far as I can see all the details are correct and have attached a screenshot of thunderbird settiings.

I get the error 'Login to server relay.plus.net with username simonscott@********.co.uk failed'
With the option of Retry / Enter New Password / Cancel
The password is correct and I can also send if I use webmail if that makes any difference.

I hope someone can help me?

Regards,

Simon...

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Personal information removed from a public forum (to an area that staff can see).

Re: Unable to add account to Thunderbird.

Windings — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 15:58:35 GMT

@Scotty12 Hi there, In the username section, just try entering simonscott instead of the full email address and re-try to login.

Not sure if it will work as some of our email services require the full email address as the username but some others dont.

My knowledge is limited on third party email clients so maybe one of the superusers can provide further help once they picked up on this thread.

All the best

Re: Unable to add account to Thunderbird.

Scotty12 — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 16:50:18 GMT

Thanks for the reply and suggestion. The whole email address does need to be inserted in that field.
Interestingly, I have been pllaying about with it on my mobile. If I am connected to my WiFi (Virgin). It will not send anything, if I disconnect from WiFi and use mobile data, everything is OK!

Re: Unable to add account to Thunderbird.

MisterW — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 17:00:18 GMT

If I am connected to my WiFi (Virgin). It will not send anything, if I disconnect from WiFi and use mobile data, everything is OK!

Sounds like your Virgin allocated IP has been marked with a poor reputation and the mail server is rejecting the connection. It will have given a corresponding error code but I'm afarid most email clients are VERY poor at reporting the 'real' reason for failure, rather they just assume a username/password error is the reason.

If it is a poor reputation they it will likely resolve itself in 24hrs or so...

Re: Unable to add account to Thunderbird.

Scotty12 — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 17:22:42 GMT

Thanks MisterW,
That makes sense. Guess I'll leave it until tomorrow and see what happens. Will advise back...

Re: Unable to add account to Thunderbird.

Townman — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 00:45:20 GMT

@Windings wrote:

@Scotty12 Hi there, In the username section, just try entering simonscott instead of the full email address and re-try to login.

Not sure if it will work as some of our email services require the full email address as the username but some others dont.

@Windings

Hi Joe,

That certainly used to be the case (see here https://community.plus.net/t5/Email/How-to-change-your-outgoing-server-on-a-mail-client/m-p/1606155#M26518) - the core services would only work using the <account-name> or <account-name>+<mailbox-name>.

Of more recent times, all of the services accept the native email address as the logon ID. In fact the Plusnet mail service will accept a hosted domain email address as the logon ID.

Re: Unable to add account to Thunderbird.

Scotty12 — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 11:56:37 GMT

OK, it's still the same today and I cannot even set up my email on my laptop now with any email client as the outgoing server just fails.
I appreciate that it's not a PlusNet fault, but where do I go from here? Do I have to contact Virgin and ask for their help to release the IP address?

Many thanks,

Simon..

Re: Unable to add account to Thunderbird.

Townman — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 12:02:13 GMT

Best advice (which does not mean it will be welcome advice) is to note the current IP address (whatsmyipaddress) switch the router off for at least two hours, switch it back on and then look to see if a different address has been allocated. This might be most pragmatic to do when you go to bed.

Re: Unable to add account to Thunderbird.

Scotty12 — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 12:06:01 GMT

Any advice is always welcome 😁

I'll have to do that this evening as my wife uses the internet for work and too many things connected to it to get me up in the morning! 😂

Many thanks again,

Simon...

Re: Unable to add account to Thunderbird.

Scotty12 — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 09:24:05 GMT

Unfortunately still the same this morning!

Just to check that I am using everything correctly, I have a Totalise Email address and I am using the following:

Outgoing Server
Server Name: relay.plus.net

Port: 587

Connection Security: STARTTLS

Authentication Method: Normal Password

Other than that, I am at a complete loss!

Re: Unable to add account to Thunderbird.

Townman — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 09:55:10 GMT

OK to recap, without changing the settings does this work over a mobile network?

If yes, there is no problem with the settings or the Plusnet service.

Did you check the IP address before and after the extended shutdown? If they are the same, then you need to take this issue to VM. Running the following SMTP diagnostic will show explicitly what is the error condition being encountered.

Test SMTP authentication

Email programs often report username / password error for issues not actually related to those being wrong, but for other connectivity issues. Such can be very frustrating when you are convinced that they are correct. Testing SMTP authentication through a command line interface can deliver a more precise error message. The following describes how to do this using TELNET.

This is not difficult, but you need the following resources which might be unfamiliar...

TELNET - this might need installing as an additional option, for Windows see enabling TELNET.
A code64 encoder / decoder such as this.

You can use TELNET to communicate direct with the SMTP server as follows...

Open the code64 encoder in a web browser and leave ready for use in the following steps.

Launch a windows command line window (DOS window) - press windows-key+R - type CMD into the run box - click OK

Enter...

telnet relay.plus.net 587

Press enter. Note if you use one of the other brand email services, use the appropriate SMTP server name for that brand. In response to SMTP server I'm here message, say 'HELLO'...

EHLO relay.plus.net

The SMTP server will then report what it can do after which tell the server you wish to authenticate...

AUTH login

The server should return the following, which is a base64 encoded string that requires your username:

334 VXNlcm5hbWU6

Use the code64 encoder to encode your username and paste it into the telnet window and press enter. For example:

bXl1c2VybmFtZQ==

The server should return the following, which is a base64 encoded string that requires your password:

334 UGFzc3dvcmQ6

Paste the base64 encoded password for the username. For example:

bXlwYXNzd29yZA==

The server will then report success or failure, any failure message should clearly indicate the reason for the failure. If the reason for the failure is not clear, please report back the message.

Close the SMTP / TELNET session by entering

quit

The session should look something similar to the below wherein your input is in bold...

220 avasout03 smtp relay.plus.net
EHLO relay.plus.net
250-avasout03 hello [your IP address], pleased to meet you
250-HELP
250-AUTH LOGIN PLAIN
250-SIZE 104857600
250-PIPELINING
250-8BITMIME
250-STARTTLS
250 OK
AUTH LOGIN
334 VXNlcm5hbWU6
bXl1c2VybmFtZQ==
334 UGFzc3dvcmQ6
bXlwYXNzd29yZA==
235 ... authentication succeeded
quit
221 avasout03 smtp closing connection
Connection to host lost.

Here are some examples of failure responses...

535 ...authentication rejected [as username / password is wrong]
535 ...authentication rejected as source IP has a poor reputation
535 Too many SMTP auth failures. Please try again later.

Re: Unable to add account to Thunderbird.

outcast — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 09:55:19 GMT

I'm completely out of the loop regarding Plusnet related email, so the following is just an observation rather than knowledge !

@Scotty12 is trying to send email using a 'Totalise' email address

In Reply #6 there is a link to this page which in the table shows that the SMTP server for 'Totalise' is 'mail.totalise.co.uk'

@Scotty12 have you tried 'mail.totalise.co.uk' instead of 'relay.plus.net' for the SMTP server ?

Re: Unable to add account to Thunderbird.

Townman — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 09:58:58 GMT

That might be helpful, though both servers are in the same A.B.C.x address space, so could be one and the same.

I think @Scotty12 reported this all working fine if connected over a mobile network.

Re: Unable to add account to Thunderbird.

Scotty12 — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 10:02:52 GMT

@Townman
Yes, if I turn off my Wi-Fi on my mobile it works, if I turn it back on it fails. I realise that this is not a PlusNet problem now and that I shall probably have to speak to Virgin.

IP address has stayed the same. I shall do the test that you also listed as well, many thank for that.

Regards,

Simon..

Re: Unable to add account to Thunderbird.

Scotty12 — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 10:04:34 GMT

@outcast

Lol, me too 😂

I have tried the totalise server settings but it just comes back with an error of 'The server responded: command unrecognised.

Simon...

Re: Unable to add account to Thunderbird.

Scotty12 — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 12:41:36 GMT

@Townman

And there we go.....source IP has a poor reputation!
Now just to fathom out who I need to speak to at Virgin and get this sorted. I have no clue what this all means 😂

Regards,

Simon...

Moderator's note:
Attachment including easily decrypted personal information removed from a public forum (to an area that staff can see).

Re: Unable to add account to Thunderbird.

outcast — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 10:34:43 GMT

@Scotty12 wrote:

Outgoing Server
Server Name: relay.plus.net

Port: 587

Connection Security: STARTTLS

Authentication Method: Normal Password

Another clutching at straws suggestion -

@Scotty12 have you tried using Port:465, and security='SSL/TLS' ?

When my daughter was at uni, her email needed to change from port 587 to 465, to work on the Halls of residence wired network.

Re: Unable to add account to Thunderbird.

Scotty12 — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 10:37:04 GMT

@outcast

Just tried those settings and the program just hangs on sending a message. Thanks for the info though..

Simon.

Re: Unable to add account to Thunderbird.

Dan_the_Van — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 10:40:18 GMT

@outcast

If the IP Address has a poor reputation why would changing the port from 587 to 465 help?

maybe plusnet have reported the IP Address due to multiple logon attempts

Just a thought

Re: Unable to add account to Thunderbird.

outcast — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 10:43:11 GMT

@Dan_the_Van my post overlapped the reply about poor reputation, so probably not.