topic Re: Can only send PN emails on WiFi. in Email

Can only send PN emails on WiFi.

kayeb — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 16:05:17 GMT

I appreciate this had been covered before so I’m sorry for raising it again but I can’t seem to get my PN outward email working. I’m still with PN.

I’m receiving emails ok, but can only send them on my iPhone on the PN WiFi.
When I try to send emails while away from home on the 4 or 5g I get the error message “Cannot send email, the user name or password for xxx is incorrect”
My host is set as relay.plus.net
The user is set as my domain name
The use SSL is toggled
Authentication is set as password
Server port is 587

All these settings are exactly the same as they have been for ages. I’ve not changed my password. I did try changing the server port to 465 but that didn’t make any difference so I’ve changed it back to 587.

I have just returned from 2 weeks in Canada where I sent emails & looking at other similar threads this seems to be a factor & possibly some sort of block had been put on my email account.
If I have to I’ll phone PN customer services but the last time I phoned to ask when I was bring migrated the CSA told me I’d already been migrated. I haven’t, as I’ve never had a Greenby email & I tried logging into Greenby with a multitude of combinations none of which were recognised.
I do have domain name & webspace with PN so I believe I’m going to be one of the last stragglers to be migrated.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thank you.

Re: Can only send PN emails on WiFi.

PhilipHeyes — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 16:29:47 GMT

SMTP Port 587 is used with STARTTLS or NONE

SMTP Port 485 is always used with SSL/TLS

For Username the email address of the mail box is the recommended option.

Re: Can only send PN emails on WiFi.

PhilipHeyes — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 17:07:30 GMT

Correction to the port number :

SMTP Port 465 is always used with SSL/TLS

Re: Can only send PN emails on WiFi.

kayeb — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:27:14 GMT

Thank you for your reply, I’ve tried both the 465 & the 587 & neither will allow me to send on non WiFi.

My account settings won’t allow me to save the full email address under outgoing settings, just the domain name.

Re: Can only send PN emails on WiFi.

PhilipHeyes — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:40:49 GMT

Try with Apple Relay disabled, is that blocking your access over mobile data ?

Not being able to use the email address as Username hints the email address being used does not correspond to a mail box.

I have seen this before where from the past Plusnet customers have had a Catch All Enabled on their <account>@<account>.plus.com default email and have just used E.g. james.bond@<account>.plus,com
dispute there not being an real mail box of this name.

In the brave new world of Greenby the SMTP credentials will only be permitted to send emails where the From: email address matches the name of the email box or is a current alias of that mail box.

Re: Can only send PN emails on WiFi.

kayeb — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:52:56 GMT

Don’t want to sound thick, but where will I find the Apple relay please?
I can send emails on the WiFi, just not on mobile data. Mobile date is working fine & I’m receiving emails on mobile data too.
I knew about with Greenby it’s got to be the full email address in the settings, my husband encountered that.
I appreciate your help though, if all else fails I can still send my emails when I’m home on WiFi & also in PN webmail.

Re: Can only send PN emails on WiFi.

PhilipHeyes — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:59:07 GMT

You have the iPhone not me !

Are you quite sure the SMTP server is not set to Port 25 ?
To prevent spam sending, Port 25 is often blocked by ISP & mobile operators.

Re: Can only send PN emails on WiFi.

kayeb — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 19:08:30 GMT

Yup, definitely not 25, SMTP down as 587.

Re: Can only send PN emails on WiFi.

Townman — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 22:14:55 GMT

You need to configure the outbound service as follows…

server: relay.plus.net

port: 587

encryption: STARTTLS

user name / password - the same as the incoming server.

Being able to send on network (wifi connected) but not when connecting over a mobile network points to one issue - you do not have valid credentials on the outbound server. On network no credentials or invalid credentials will not inhibit the ability to send.

Apple interferences have no bearing here.

Re: Can only send PN emails on WiFi.

kayeb — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 06:44:17 GMT

Thank you for the reply Townman.
I have re input my PN password into the outgoing mail settings on my iPhone, just to be sure it hadn’t magically been changed. (Proved my p/w credentials by separately using it to log into my PN webmail)
I’m also definitely using the 587 port.
I’m on the SSL authentication setting on my iPhone 16e. I did google the difference between SSL & STARTSLLS settings as I couldn’t see where I could particularly input the STARTSSLS rather than the SSL, & my search results suggested that Apple iPhones settings amalgamated both those security.
“Use SSL: Toggle this On. (Apple Mail typically consolidates SSL, TLS, and STARTTLS; enabling this enforces the encrypted connection protocol)”

I spent quite a bit of time last night looking at similar community posts, & something that has cropped up a few times is that this error occurs after using the phone abroad (which I did on my recent holiday) & PN think the mail a/c has been hacked & do something to the account settings on the server because of a perceived dodgy IP address. I only realised we had a problem after returning home & trying to reply to a couple of emails out of range of the WiFi at the bottom of the garden.

Re: Can only send PN emails on WiFi.

PhilipHeyes — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 09:33:45 GMT

PN think the mail a/c has been hacked

Do you have an email from Plusnet indicating this,
or indicating the email password needs to be reset to unlock the SMTP server ?

Re: Can only send PN emails on WiFi.

kayeb — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 15:37:54 GMT

An update;

Thank all for your replies. I have made no changes as all seemed to bd correct but it just wasn’t working. However:

I’m sat at the hairdressers & sent an email on the 5G (no WiFi here), & it magically worked

So the solution seems to be if the outward emails aren’t working on mobile data on the iPhone go & get your highlights done & it’ll fix it 😃

Re: Can only send PN emails on WiFi.

kayeb — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 17:32:02 GMT

Just an addendum, I think what has probably happened is me using the phone in Canada alerted PN to put some sort of restriction on that has now, 2 weeks on (for some reason) been lifted. Maybe a PN techie looked at this forum & made a tweak, I really don’t know. But it’s definitely working now.
Thank you for your input though, it’s hard for us non techies.