topic Re: free-online pop3 server not working since Monday night (April 7th) in Email

free-online pop3 server not working since Monday night (April 7th)

cosbald — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 14:41:18 GMT

I use emclient as my mail server. Last email received from pop3 was Monday evening.

Since then I just get an error message

"Unable to read data from the transport connection: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond..".

Free-online was having similar problems 3 weeks ago but this seemed to resolve itself after a couple of days.

Support merely raised a problem ticket and then subsequently told me the settings they thought I should be using and then closed the ticket. This is not a lot of help.

I would have hoped they could test whether the service is functioning as expected

Re: free-online pop3 server not working since Monday night (April 7th)

Townman — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 17:36:15 GMT

The service is functioning as expected with most email clients. There are issues with the behaviour of the eM Client which are under investigation. In the meantime, use Outlook, Thunderbird or Webmail.

The setting you were provided with will very likely be correct - what eM Client then does with them ... !!!

EDIT: I forgot to mention that the eM Client works fine ("as expected") on macOS ... !!!

Re: free-online pop3 server not working since Monday night (April 7th)

starchild — Sun, 13 Apr 2025 21:08:34 GMT

Hi @Townman - any news on em client issues? I too have also not been able to retrieve emails since Monday the 7th April. I had a similar problem a month ago but it was resolved by using port 110 instead of 995. This time round nothing I've tried works.

Re: free-online pop3 server not working since Monday night (April 7th)

Townman — Sun, 13 Apr 2025 21:45:12 GMT

It's the weekend, so it's reasonable to not expect an update.

As advised late Friday the issue is very obscure and only.appears to be manifest with eM Client on Windows. The issue has not been seen with other clients or indeed this client on other environments.

Using the unencrypted or encrypted port is not relevant here. eMail Client is doing something different (wrong) compared to how other clients behave. That needs to be understood and potentially mitigated.

Re: free-online pop3 server not working since Monday night (April 7th)

pwberry — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 10:26:29 GMT

I'm getting this (or an equivalent) issue with Metronet and Gmail. I have Gmail setup using pop3 to keep a robust (I thought!) backup of my incoming Metronet emails, leaving a copy on the server when they're downloaded. This stopped working on Monday evening sometime, nothing downloaded since then beyond four apparently random emails. Thunderbird (IMAP) working fine, along with webmail.

Re: free-online pop3 server not working since Monday night (April 7th)

Townman — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 10:45:41 GMT

Which email client on what platform are you using POP3 to the free-online account?

This issue appears to be client / platform dependent.

Re: free-online pop3 server not working since Monday night (April 7th)

K5Hall — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 15:38:50 GMT

Had the same issue with free-online and Plusnet support.

Said they were not there help with other email clients.

Weren't interested when I told them Outlook and POP3 didn't work.

They even raised a ticket for me on the site which I could see but not respond to - useless.

If they provide an email service they should support it.

Managed to get Outlook working with IMAP settings but eM Client does not work with IMAP or POP3.

I did notice on the settings page they have allegedly changed the ports which I tried to no effect.

With eM Client and emails it seems we are on our own.

Re: free-online pop3 server not working since Monday night (April 7th)

Townman — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 15:49:37 GMT

If most other clients work but the eM Client does not, one has to ask what is wrong with the eM Client. It must be doing something it ought not to do.

Re: free-online pop3 server not working since Monday night (April 7th)

starchild — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 19:10:34 GMT

Equally, one has to ask - if eM Client has been working fine and hasn't received an update, then what did Plusnet change on Monday the 7th to make it stop working...

Re: free-online pop3 server not working since Monday night (April 7th)

K5Hall — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 21:08:25 GMT

I totally agree.

eM Client has not changed yet emails have - typical supplier - blame the user rather than try to understand that it was them that made the change.

Also why isn't POP3 working with Outlook.. This is a well established email client so Plusnet are you going to just pass the buck and blame Microsoft, the easy way out.

Had eM Client for years without any issue.

I know they are trying to get rid of emails and perhaps this is the way.

Re: free-online pop3 server not working since Monday night (April 7th)

starchild — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 21:42:14 GMT

Well, I've also tried Thunderbird now and that doesn't work either - it cannot log into the server.

Plusnet have definitely messed up big time. As I am a "legacy" account using Free-online, I suspect that it's these accounts which have been affected.

How do we raise a trouble ticket? I need to have a Plusnet person work on this, not community members.

Re: free-online pop3 server not working since Monday night (April 7th)

Townman — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 22:10:14 GMT

POP3 is working with proper Outlook.

Which version are you using? The issue with providing ZERO detailed objective information about claimed failure circumstances is that it helps no one to assist.

Extensive tests have been conducted with proper Outlook, Thunderbird, K9 and em Client on several environments. The only reproducible failure is eM Client on windows using POP3 … though it works fine on macOS. That suggests very strongly that the product’s behaviour is different in different environments.

As for the free product using the same label “Outlook” even on the best of days, that is an utter can of worms.

Re: free-online pop3 server not working since Monday night (April 7th)

starchild — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 22:49:55 GMT

@Townman - have you had confirmation that successful checks have been carried out for Free-online users? This seems to be the common theme. As I mentioned, I personally have tried Thunderbird for both POP3 and IMAP using the same hostname settings, username, password and ports as my eM Client which were working up until Monday last week and still can't make a successful connection. I've referred to the email configuration settings documented by Plusnet and exhausted every combination of port number, STARTTLS, SSL/TLS, and authentication method too.

Curiously, the same as when a similar issue came and went a month ago, connecting to mail.free-online.net on port 110 with telnet and providing the same username and password is successful and a LIST command returns size information for the emails sitting on the Plusnet servers. Note that port 995 to the same host over telnet just times out.

It would be most helpful if you could let us know the best way to raise an official trouble ticket to have a response from Plusnet.

Re: free-online pop3 server not working since Monday night (April 7th)

Townman — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 07:30:51 GMT

I have POP3 working encrypted using Microsoft 365 Outlook on Win11. The business has it working with Thunderbird and another client (I think K9) environment not confirmed.

I raised the issue with eM client and they reported back successfully testing it on macOS. I tested on Win11 and confirmed that the client functions differently in that environment.

Clearly the POP3 service is working for many clients and works for the eM Client on macOS. I have the eM Client working using IMAP on Win11.

The issue remains open with the business as they try to understand why the eM Client fails but others do not and if that aberration can be mitigated or needs referral to the client vendor.

Re: free-online pop3 server not working since Monday night (April 7th)

Dan_the_Van — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 08:19:11 GMT

@Townman

As with Windows 11 eM Client on Windows 10, IMAP works POP3 does not.

Re: free-online pop3 server not working since Monday night (April 7th)

Townman — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 08:52:47 GMT

@Townman wrote:
The business has it working with Thunderbird and another client (I think K9) environment not confirmed.

Correction: Magic Mail, not K9.

My working settings for Microsoft 365 Outlook:

Inbound

Server: mail.free-online.net
Port: 995
Encryption: SSL/TLS
UserID: Accountname

Outbound

Server: relay.free-online.net
Port: 587
Encryption: STARTTLS
UserID: as inbound

Re: free-online pop3 server not working since Monday night (April 7th)

Townman — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 10:29:14 GMT

Update: A mitigation for the eM Client (in POP3 mode) failure has been implemented and verified. That should stop the eM Client's deviant behaviour preventing POP3 access to the mailbox.

Re: free-online pop3 server not working since Monday night (April 7th)

K5Hall — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 12:26:14 GMT

I wouldn't speak too soon.

eM Client appears to now work. However one of my email boxes refuses to work with the same settings as the rest.

I'll have a try with outlook later - Windows 10 with Office 365 and eM Client - all latest updates.

I tried it earlier after someone said they had a work around and I tried the classic outlook to setup POP3 with no joy.

I even tried with IMAP and no joy yet it recognised GMail with no problem.

Last time it was something to do with the security protocol but latest updates on Plusnet suggest various different ports for POP3 - 995 instead of 110 and 587 instead of 25.

Re: free-online pop3 server not working since Monday night (April 7th)

Townman — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 13:15:36 GMT

Ignore what you read elsewhere - the correct settings for POP3 free-online are those in post #16.

IMAP is on port 993, the other settings being the same.

Re: free-online pop3 server not working since Monday night (April 7th)

pwberry — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 13:22:54 GMT

@Townman I'm just using Gmail, to download my metronet.co.uk emails, pop3, leaving the message on the server. Everything else working fine. About 1% of emails get downloaded, and (worryingly) it looks like the message gets deleted from the server as it's not visible via IMAP/Thunderbird. Hope that's making sense. I'm not a techie.