topic Re: Unable to connect to imap email servers in Email

Unable to connect to imap email servers

highside57PN — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 18:28:54 GMT

From about 5pm today I became unable to connect to the PlusNet IMAP email servers. This applies both via Outlook on my laptop and via Mail on the iPhone. Message is "unable to connect to Imap sever". I am also unable to connect to PlusNet Webmail. My family on POP are also unable to connect.

I am aware we are due to move to Greenby at some point but as yet we have not received any notification of this happening.

Is anybody aware of a general problem with email or is this specific to us?

Re: Unable to connect to imap email servers

Artron — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 18:43:10 GMT

Same here.

Re: Unable to connect to imap email servers

mycelium — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 18:43:30 GMT

Same for me too

Re: Unable to connect to imap email servers

Fes — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 18:48:36 GMT

I'm getting the same message on Webmail. Last time my mail app was able to sync was 17:08. Can't log on on web. Also gives error 'site can't be reached' page/or invalid request, no data was saved' error message.

Re: Unable to connect to imap email servers

jab1 — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 18:53:37 GMT

Are you all with Plusnet (i.e your account is xxx@plus.net) or some other 'brand'? I've just checked and have no issues.

Re: Unable to connect to imap email servers

flam — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 18:56:51 GMT

Same here.

Error:Cannot connect to the server.......

Re: Unable to connect to imap email servers

Artron — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 18:57:49 GMT

My account's a PlusNet one, yes.

Re: Unable to connect to imap email servers

jab1 — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 19:01:09 GMT

Cheers, @Artron . I'll flag this to someone who may have more of a clue.

FWIW, I have no issue - on a PN account.

@Townman ?

Re: Unable to connect to imap email servers

flam — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 19:02:36 GMT

Freenetname/Madasafish here.

Connecting to mail.plus.ne

Port 993

Encryption SSL/TLS

Re: Unable to connect to imap email servers

Townman — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 19:07:53 GMT

Check the sever connection diagnostic link below. It provides the correct connection details for specific brands. Plus.net is not the correct servers for MAAF accounts.

Re: Unable to connect to imap email servers

Fes — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 19:13:32 GMT

I'm dialstart/madasafish. I've changed nothing and am using the correct details to log on for my 'brand'....and the correct webmail site ( https://webmail.plus.net/ etc)

Re: Unable to connect to imap email servers

mycelium — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 19:09:08 GMT

I'm with plusnet email

Re: Unable to connect to imap email servers

Artron — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 19:33:39 GMT

The SMTP cURL command says:

535 ...authentication rejected
* Closing connection 0
curl: (67) Login denied

The POP3 and IMAP cURL commands give the same final line:

curl: (67) Login denied

I'm specifying the same password I've been using for a couple of months. This password continues to let me log into the Member Centre on the plus.net website.

When I try to log into webmail.plus.net, it pauses for about a minute, then gives the error "Connection to storage server failed".

My email client similarly times out with a failure after about a minute.

Re: Unable to connect to imap email servers

AndyK2 — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 19:36:42 GMT

Same here. Unable to log into imap server. Webmail (squirrelmail) times out with "ERROR: Connection dropped by IMAP server". From the inbox it looks like the last successful imap contact was about 08:03 this morning.

Re: Unable to connect to imap email servers

Artron — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 19:37:36 GMT

I've also just tried rebooting my router to get a different dynamic IP address, just in case that was the problem. It's made no difference.

Re: Unable to connect to imap email servers

jab1 — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 19:40:08 GMT

@Artron That would make no difference - it is a mail server issue.

Re: Unable to connect to imap email servers

Artron — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 19:43:52 GMT

@jab1 The diagnostic instructions Townman linked to have this example:

535 ...authentication rejected as source IP has a poor reputation

I didn't think it was very likely to sort the problem, but it seemed worth a quick try.

Re: Unable to connect to imap email servers

jab1 — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 19:46:43 GMT

@Artron thanks. Are you at home, using your PN connection? If so, that response looks suspect to me.

Re: Unable to connect to imap email servers

Townman — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 20:05:48 GMT

@Artron

Thats a helpful diagnostic. Would I be correct that you are not a Plusnet ISP connection?

You have a compromised IP address. Nothing wrong with the Plusnet service. You are not going to get anywhere until you acquire a clean IP address.

All of that said, this thread is about connection to the IMAP server failing. Your issue is with the SMTP server - that is something entirely different.

Re: Unable to connect to imap email servers

Artron — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 20:05:02 GMT

@jab1 Yes, I'm at home on my PlusNet connection.

But you're right - I was blindly pasting in the "callnetuk.com" variants of the cURL commands. If I switch to a different browser, it copies the correct commands to my clipboard and tells me that it's done so. So let's try those 😀

Using this command

$ curl -v pop3s://mail.plus.net -u ...

I now get a minute of inactivity followed by:

* server response timeout
* Closing connection 0
* TLSv1.2 (OUT), TLS header, Unknown (21):
* TLSv1.2 (OUT), TLS alert, close notify (256):
curl: (28) server response timeout

The SMTP variant

$ curl -v smtp://relay.plus.net:587 -u ... --ssl-reqd

now goes straight in, prints its help message about contacting the postmaster, then says:

214 end of HELP info
* Connection #0 to host relay.plus.net left intact

The IMAP variant gets to the LOGIN command, then pauses for about 30 seconds, then says:

* TLSv1.2 (OUT), TLS header, Unknown (21):
* TLSv1.2 (OUT), TLS alert, decode error (562):
* OpenSSL SSL_read: error:0A000126:SSL routines::unexpected eof while reading, errno 0
* Closing connection 0
curl: (56) OpenSSL SSL_read: error:0A000126:SSL routines::unexpected eof while reading, errno 0

Perhaps that means my cURL is out of date, but I installed it only half an hour ago.