topic Re: Can't login to account or webmail in Email

Can't login to account or webmail

breslaw — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 15:24:28 GMT

Yesterday (4.1.2026) I started getting occasional "Login to server mail.plus.net with username [Removed] failed" error messages from Thunderbird on my PC. After a while, they went away, and normal service was resumed.

Today, the service was fine until about midday, when the error messages started coming thick and fast. They also appeared on my mobile where I use gmail as the agent.

So I tried to login to my PN account via my PC, and got "Oops. Your username or password is incorrect". I tried webmail and got the same problem. Login to the forum however (same username and pwd) works fine.

I called tech support who couldn't see any issues, but said they would investigate. It kind of feels like a login server issue - I'm assuming that webmail and accounts share a login server, and the forum has its own.

Any idea what might be happening?

Thanks.

Moderators Note: Personal information removed

Re: Can't login to account or webmail

MisterW — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 14:42:01 GMT

See this thread https://community.plus.net/t5/Email/Greenby-Webmail-Flakey/td-p/2033851

It should be fixed now.

Re: Can't login to account or webmail

breslaw — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 15:49:48 GMT

"It should be fixed now."

It's not.

Re: Can't login to account or webmail

MisterW — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 15:58:55 GMT

In that case it seems like you may have a different problem.

Re: Can't login to account or webmail

breslaw — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 16:39:24 GMT

I've called tech support again because they previously promised to send an SMS confirming the situation, but didn't.

This time the agent said that even though I cannot login to my account, or receive any emails, or use webmail. I will have to wait 10 days for this issue to be addressed!! So I moaned a bit, and was told I could reset my password. How?? It sends a reset link by email!!

This is insane.

But at the end of the call, he did mention a DNS issue that is current. Could this be the problem?

Re: Can't login to account or webmail

MisterW — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 16:51:30 GMT

I think you've suffered/suffering from two/three problems.

The email one should be fixed , are you still seeing a problem ?

There's a separate problem which seems to be affecting the Plusnet member centre, its VERY slow and intermittent.

There also seems to be a problem with the Plusnet DNS servers which, if you are using them by default, will be causing all sorts of issues

Re: Can't login to account or webmail

breslaw — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 17:08:02 GMT

"The email one should be fixed , are you still seeing a problem ?"

Yes, I cannot get email via any of my 3 routes - Thunderbird on PC; gmail client on mobile; PN webmail. All 3 routes fail to authenticate with PN.

"There's a separate problem which seems to be affecting the Plusnet member centre, its VERY slow and intermittent."

This is the same as the problem above - failure to authenticate. As I said in my first post, this appeared yesterday intermittently; then it was okay yesterday evening and this morning; then it reappeared at around midday today and has remained.

"There also seems to be a problem with the Plusnet DNS servers which, if you are using them by default, will be causing all sorts of issues"

Is there any workaround for this?

Re: Can't login to account or webmail

MisterW — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 17:12:24 GMT

Is there any workaround for this?

The DNS problem and workaround are being discussed here https://community.plus.net/t5/Broadband/Do-we-have-another-Plusnet-DNS-problem/m-p/2034003#M374139

Re: Can't login to account or webmail

breslaw — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 20:07:11 GMT

I'm not sure how changing my DNS server could affect my problem. For example, on my mobile, if I switch off wi-fi and use mobile data, then logging in to PN webmail won't have anything to do with PN's DNS servers. But I still get "login failed".

Re: Can't login to account or webmail

breslaw — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 21:33:16 GMT

And another point. I use a Plusnet Hub One router, which I don't think permits the DNS settings to be changed. Could someone enlighten me about this?

Thank you.

Re: Can't login to account or webmail

Dan_the_Van — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 08:24:23 GMT

@breslaw

Hopefully everything is working as expected now, it is not possible to change the Hub One DNS settings.

Your current option would be make DNS changes directly on a device or maybe tether a PC to your mobile phone.

Re: Can't login to account or webmail

breslaw — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 09:34:42 GMT

"Hopefully everything is working as expected now"

Not for me!

If there should be a power cut or I need to switch off my router for some reason, then I'd now be without broadband as well, because of this authentication issue.

Ping fails on both of the PN DNS servers.

Is it possible to reset authentication, or can I change my password (ie re-authenticate) without an email link?

Re: Can't login to account or webmail

Dan_the_Van — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 10:03:21 GMT

Ping fails on both of the PN DNS servers

This is expected, all four plusnet dns servers to not respond to a ping.

Note:- ping to webmail.greenby.com or webmail.plus.net will also timeout.

Does your internet connection work at all? Can you ping anything using it's name example www.bbc.co.uk or www.google.co.uk

If you have migrated can you login into my greenby https://greenby.com/

Re: Can't login to account or webmail

breslaw — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 10:17:50 GMT

Broadband is fine. Ping is fine (eg to bbc). Login to this forum is fine. All other authentication to PN fails. And no, I have not changed my password. Started receiving authentication error messages from my mail client on Sunday afternoon which resolved itself. Then everything was okay until midday yesterday, when authentication failure started again and didn't resolve itself.

Re: Can't login to account or webmail

breslaw — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 19:36:39 GMT

After PN failed twice to call me with some kind of information about what might be wrong, I called Tech Support again. This agent said that I could reset my password without losing router connectivity if the authentication problem did not resolve itself. This was despite him (honestly) having no idea why resetting my password might fix things.

So, using my mobile to receive the link, I reset my password to exactly the same as it was. And the problem went away.

Re: Can't login to account or webmail

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 23:03:39 GMT

"Does your internet connection work at all? Can you ping anything using it's name example www.bbc.co.uk or www.google.co.uk"

This tests DNS resolution and an element of end-to-end connectivity.

Re: Can't login to account or webmail

pwberry — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 18:48:04 GMT

For what it's worth....
I've been going in downwards spirals over the past three days, with things stopping working one-by-one. First my phone client stopped working (authentication error), then Greenby webmail disappeared from the portal on my phone, then on other devices, then the portal login stopped working altogether (login not recognised); couldn't raise a ticket as I couldn't lot on - the general help-and-support page just hung. Hadn't changed anything. Sigh, just another normal start to the week with Greenby.
So changed my login details from xyz@metronet.co.uk to just xyz. And lo and behold everything now works.
Might be worth a try.