topic Re: Can't download emails to thunderbird in Email

Can't download emails to thunderbird

Purvez — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 08:51:23 GMT

I have an old free-online email address which I've been using for decades. Thunderbird has been downloading messages from my email account at free-online until 2 days ago. Now I get the message 'Host contacted. Sending login information '. This stays on there for almost 1 minute and then disappears without any error messages and nothing is downloaded.

I can see emails exist via Webmail. I spoke to Plusnet yesterday and they said if I could login via webmail then that proved that everything was working ok at their end. They did not support any Email Clients and therefore couldn't help further.

I have Gmail accounts set up on the same Thunderbird client and both of those connect and download without issues.

The lady who I spoke to yesterday said that they were moving email services to Greenbee over the next few months. I'm wondering if as part of that preparation the emails have stopped downloading.

I would like to know if anyone else is having similar issues and if there is a resolution that someone would be able to provide.

Thanks

Re: Can't download emails to thunderbird

jab1 — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 09:30:11 GMT

@Purvez I have seen numerous ex-'free-online' customers with similar issues, which, although there has been no official announcement, seems to be associated with PN 'rationalising' email platforms. Hopefully, the right people will pick this up, but as it is the weekend, don't expect a rapid response.

As to 'moving email services to Greenbee' - that is confusing, as I understand that was the platform the now-defunct John Lewis Broadband used for their email provision.

We need some clarity here.

Re: Can't download emails to thunderbird

Dan_the_Van — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 09:35:37 GMT

@Purvez welcome to the forum

Are you on or off plusnet work?

I use both Thunderbird and Outlook 365

These are the settings I use for IMAP

Incoming - imap.free-online.net port 993 encryption SSL/TLS

Outgoing - relay.free-online.net port 587 encryption STARTTLS

If you client does not support STARTTLS use port 465 and SSL/TLS

For POP incoming - mail.free-online.net port 995 encryption SSL/TLS

Username (authentication) configured on BOTH incoming and outgoing servers
Default mailbox accountname
Secondary mailbox accountname+mailboxname

Not sure the story about moving is Greenbee is accurate, but I suspect there maybe some truth in the mail services moving.

EDIT: the mail service moving would be for all not just free-online

Re: Can't download emails to thunderbird

Townman — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 10:57:03 GMT

Connected to my on going work to redefine email server connection issues testing, here are some useful diagnostics...

Brand: Free-Online - encryption supported: Yes

IMAP: imap.free-online.net port: 993
curl.exe -v imaps://imap.free-online.net -u userID:password
POP3: mail.free-online.net port: 995
curl.exe -v pop3s://mail.free-online.net -u userID:password
SMTP: relay.free-online.net port: 587
curl.exe -v smtp://relay.free-online.net:587 -u userID:password --ssl-reqd

The above cURL commands should be copied and pasted into a terminal / CMD window. Modify the command to user your email account userID and password. This should deliver a go / no-go connectivity report.

Only paste the end of the output if you share any of it. Some of the outputs include your public IP address and your encrypted userID and password ... which are readily de-crypted.

Re: Can't download emails to thunderbird

Purvez — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 11:43:12 GMT

Another thought is, would anyone know what, if any, logs are created by thunderbird and where they might be located? I'm currently on Ubuntu 18.04 and thunderbird version is 102.11.0

Re: Can't download emails to thunderbird

Purvez — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 11:52:03 GMT

Hi all thanks very much for your prompt responses. Being new to the forum I'm still finding my way around how things work.

I'll respond individually next.

Re: Can't download emails to thunderbird

Dan_the_Van — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 11:53:19 GMT

@Purvez

The cULR command will work in linux, you just need to drop the .exe, but I expect you might know that?

the output for the curl command should helpful as it should report a bad password or IP Address issues

Re: Can't download emails to thunderbird

Purvez — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 11:54:01 GMT

Oh well at least I'm not alone. 🙄☺️

Hope they DO pick it up and resolve it. Currently I'm responding via Webmail so my responses are not in Thunderbird. Gets messy.

Re: Can't download emails to thunderbird

jab1 — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 11:55:55 GMT

@Purvez wrote:
Another thought is, would anyone know what, if any, logs are created by thunderbird and where they might be located? I'm currently on Ubuntu 18.04 and thunderbird version is 102.11.0

So far as I can see from my TB installation (on Zorin OS 17.3) , TB has no logging.

As a point of interest, that is a very old TB release.

Re: Can't download emails to thunderbird

Purvez — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 11:59:42 GMT

Is there somewhere I can read up on how to use this forum? In particular can I answer an individual post and my answer appears underneath to show a 'continuing' conversation or do all posts appear in sequence only?

Apologies if I'm not addressing individuals properly. Hopefully you know who you are from the context.

Re: Can't download emails to thunderbird

Purvez — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 12:02:51 GMT

Thanks for the cURL commands suggestion. I'll try that a bit later and report back. Currently away from the computer.

I'm only using POP with no authentication. The lady ran through the settings yesterday and said they were fine.

Re: Can't download emails to thunderbird

jab1 — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 12:06:01 GMT

@Purvez Posts appear in sequence. If you are replying to a post not directly above, then you can quote that post in your reply by clicking the quote icon above the reply window.

If you want to 'reply' to an individual, you can use the '@' key on your keyboard, which will bring up a list of all respondents, just click the one you want to 'name'

Re: Can't download emails to thunderbird

Purvez — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 12:05:48 GMT

@Dan I don't know what you mean by on or off work Plusnet. Mine is a residential broadband connection (not full fibre).

Re: Can't download emails to thunderbird

Dan_the_Van — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 12:13:49 GMT

@Purvez

Bit of a typo I was meaning on or off plusnet network, happens to use all see who you tagged

EDIT: Corrected who I tagged

Re: Can't download emails to thunderbird

jab1 — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 12:13:50 GMT

@Dan_the_Van Was that aimed at @Purvez ? 😉

Re: Can't download emails to thunderbird

Purvez — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 12:18:44 GMT

Ok here's the full cURL command for POP with output. I've only blanked out the User and Password details. Both of which ARE correct as I use them in Webmail which works.

curl -v pop3s://mail.free-online.net -u ???:???
* Rebuilt URL to: pop3s://mail.free-online.net/
* Trying 217.46.26.45...
* TCP_NODELAY set
* Connected to mail.free-online.net (217.46.26.45) port 995 (#0)
* successfully set certificate verify locations:
* CAfile: /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
CApath: /etc/ssl/certs
* TLSv1.3 (OUT), TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Server hello (2):
* TLSv1.2 (IN), TLS handshake, Certificate (11):
* TLSv1.2 (IN), TLS handshake, Server finished (14):
* TLSv1.2 (OUT), TLS handshake, Client key exchange (16):
* TLSv1.2 (OUT), TLS change cipher, Client hello (1):
* TLSv1.2 (OUT), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* TLSv1.2 (IN), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* SSL connection using TLSv1.2 / AES256-GCM-SHA384
* Server certificate:
* subject: jurisdictionC=GB; businessCategory=Private Organization; serialNumber=03279013; C=GB; L=Sheffield; O=Plusnet plc; CN=mail.plus.net
* start date: Aug 19 00:00:00 2024 GMT
* expire date: Aug 18 23:59:59 2025 GMT
* subjectAltName: host "mail.free-online.net" matched cert's "mail.free-online.net"
* issuer: C=US; O=DigiCert Inc; CN=GeoTrust EV RSA CA G2
* SSL certificate verify ok.
< +OK POP3 perditon ready on mail.free-online.net 0002a1a8
> CAPA
< +OK Capability list follows, mate
< UIDL
< USER
< .
> USER ????
< +OK USER ???? set, mate
> PASS ????
< -ERR failed: Connection Negotiation Failure
* Access denied. -
* Closing connection 0
* TLSv1.2 (OUT), TLS alert, Client hello (1):
curl: (67) Access denied. -

Hope this helps.

Re: Can't download emails to thunderbird

Townman — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 12:19:06 GMT

@Purvez wrote:

I'm only using POP with no authentication.

You cannot use the inbound servers without authentication.

Did you mean without encryption?

The diagnostics I am drafting will use the best available options for the brand; offering pre-built commands for all options is not viable.

Re: Can't download emails to thunderbird

Purvez — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 12:23:39 GMT

Attached are my Setting for the free-online account in Thunderbird.

Re: Can't download emails to thunderbird

Dan_the_Van — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 12:24:50 GMT

@Purvez

what happens of you use this command

curl -v pop3://mail.free-online.net -u userID:password

This will use port 110

Re: Can't download emails to thunderbird

Townman — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 12:31:59 GMT

Ref screen shot - Server is .NET not .co.uk

As Dan suggests, try the not encrypted option. The negotiation error is odd.

On a successful connection (to Plusnet on POP3), following the > PASS response I see...

< +OK logged in. > LIST < +OK POP3 clients that break here, they violate STD53. 1 1526 2 27126 3 2207

... up to item 3283.

Please try the IMAP diagnostic.