Bouncing emails

[#1]

My main email address on a domain hosted at Plusnet/Force9 seems now to be blacklisted/regarded as spam. An email from this address fails to send (using outlook) and I get the error message "Task 'address@domain.co.uk - Sending' reported error (0x800CCC78): 'Cannot send the message. Verify the email address in your account properties. The server responded: 550 <address@domain.co.uk> sender domain rejected (blacklisted by local policy)'

How do I get out of this situation please?  This email has been in use for 20+ years and nothing seems to have changed on my side. Is this just a random blacklisting or something else? Many thanks

[#2]

First step is for you to lookup the black list status of your domain - see Email Blacklist Check - IP Blacklist Check - See if your server is blacklisted

[#3]

This has been happening to me since last night also. I contacted Plusnet via Twitter, but have had no response yet.

[#4]

Thanks very much - but its not on the blacklist list!!

[#5]

That error code covers a multitude of sins as described here - Email Send Error - Microsoft Q&A

Can you please run the email server connection diagnostics (link below) and report back.

[#6]

Thanks for the guidance. I think i have been able to follow the instructions hopefully. Running terminal gave:-

PS C:\Users\john> curl.exe -v imaps://imap.force9.net -u XXXX@xxxx.co.uk
Enter host password for user 'XXXX@xxxx.co.uk':
* Host imap.force9.net:993 was resolved.
* IPv6: (none)
* IPv4: 91.204.208.196
* Trying 91.204.208.196:993...
* schannel: disabled automatic use of client certificate
* schannel: next InitializeSecurityContext failed: CRYPT_E_NO_REVOCATION_CHECK (0x80092012) - The revocation function was unable to check revocation for the certificate.
* closing connection #0
curl: (35) schannel: next InitializeSecurityContext failed: CRYPT_E_NO_REVOCATION_CHECK (0x80092012) - The revocation function was unable to check revocation for the certificate.
PS C:\Users\john> curl.exe -v pop3s://mail.force9.net -u XXXX@xxxx.co.uk

I have anonymized the output but am unable to understand what it means please? Thanks for your help

[#7]

Hi John,

This looks like a server side issue with the security certificates.  Would I be correct that you are trying to authenticate using your hosted domain name email address?

Just need to rule out a suspicion / narrow the scope of the issue.  Can you please try again using...

• you@youraccount.force9.co.uk
• youraccount
• youraccount+mailboxname

Also run the original command removing the "s" in the "imaps://" prefix - that tests an unencrypted connection.  If that is successfully, it points firmly to an obscure certificate issue.

[#8]

Mine seems to have recovered now.

[#9]

I tried with the email address id and omitting the s from imaps:-

PS C:\Users\john> curl.exe -v imap://imap.force9.net -u xxxx@xxxx.co.uk
Enter host password for user 'xxxx@xxxx.co.uk':
* Host imap.force9.net:143 was resolved.
* IPv6: (none)
* IPv4: 91.204.208.196
* Trying 91.204.208.196:143...
* Connected to imap.force9.net (91.204.208.196) port 143
< * OK IMAP4 ready
> A001 CAPABILITY
< * CAPABILITY IMAP4 IMAP4rev1 UIDPLUS AUTH=PLAIN STARTTLS
< A001 OK completed
> A002 AUTHENTICATE PLAIN
< +
> AGpvaG5AY3JlZXIuY28udWsAQjBsbDBja3Mh
< A002 NO Login failed.
* closing connection #0
curl: (67) Login denied

I'll work my way through the other options you indicated. Thanks

[#10]

I will add this to the odd ball list!

[#11]

I tried with the three other logon credential options you suggested and got a very similar response to each other and the very first one using just the email address.

Thanks for your help

[#12]

For clarity, can you logon to the account using webmail?

Can you send using webmail?

What platform are you on?

Are you on network or off network?

From what you have reported...

• You cannot send (that implied that you were logged on the the mailbox)
• The IMAP diagnostic with encryption fails due to server name mis match
• The IMAP diagnostic without encryption fails for not clear reason

I fear we might have become confused along the way here; you initially reported an issue with SENDING and I asked you to run the diagnostic tests which verify connections to all three servers IMAP and POP3 (inbound) and SMTP (outbound).  You reported the IMAP results where I became focussed on the certificate error which echoes an issue reported elsewhere.

The IMAP text without encryption is thou also failing - which is confusing!

Can you please try using webmail, if you cannot log on there, then consider ...

Reset email password

If you are not able to login to the email address using webmail, then it is likely that your email address has been identified as being compromised and has had its password changed. Where email address passwords have been changed to protect the integrity of the service, the Plusnet account password is left unchanged.

Which ISP are you with, Plusnet or one of the other / legacy vISPs?

Plusnet / Force9 / FreeOnline users can only change the password on the DEFAULT email address by changing the password on the user ACCOUNT through the user portal. You can change the password on a secondary mailbox using the Manage My Mail options in the user portal.

Brightview users (Madasafish / FreeNetName / GlobalNet / IC24 / ICScotland / Dialstart / Totalise) logging into webmail should use their full email address. Use the MAAF user portal to update the password on the default email address (change the account password) and use this MAAF guide to change the password on a secondary mailbox address. If you cannot recall the account password, you will need to contact support ... because the account password change process sends an email to the mailbox you cannot now access.

DO NOT USE THE SAME PASSWORD AGAIN for that would allow the continued exploitation of the account. The new password should be cryptic and not one used before.

Note that changing the account password will change the password used for logging on to the relevant user portal. If your email service is NOT a retained legacy service (one associated with a retired internet service account), then the password required by the router to connect to the internet will be changed too. If the router is a Hub Zero or a Hub One supplied by Plusnet it should update automatically. If not, you will need to log into the router, drop the connection, change the password yourself and reconnect.

On the assumption that the email address password has been compromised, I strongly recommend that wherever you have used that email address / password combination as access credentials to services such as Amazon, Netflix, eBay etc., that you also change the passwords on those service as well.

[#13]

Hi, Thanks for your help.

To answer your questions;-

I have logged on to webmail OK for all my mailboxes and sent OK. Of course the password for the mailboxes are different from the login password to the mail server in Outlook.

I use Windows 11 and Outlook - on a private home network. I'm with Plusnet/Force9

The error message from Outlook has now changed as the mail.plus.net server is now asking for user name and password input - and then rejects the login. The password has not altered however.

Is the next step to reset the password on the mail server?  Thanks for your patience and help!

[#14]

The next step is to rerun the diagnostic across the mailboxes.

The default address needs to account password.

The secondary addresses have their own.

An alarm bell has rung - proper (paid for) Outlook or the free excuse for Outlook?  If the latter you might well be better off switch to a decent email client such as eM Client.  Free Outlook can be a pig to configure.

You do though first need to have confidence that there are no other issues - a successful diagnostic test will do that.

[#15]

Hi,

I ran the diagnostic test again:-

PS C:\Users\john> curl.exe -v imaps://imap.force9.net -u xxxx@xxxxx@f9.co.uk

Enter host password for user xxxx@xxxxx@f9.co.uk:

* Host imap.force9.net:993 was resolved.

* IPv6: (none)

* IPv4: 91.204.208.196

*   Trying 91.204.208.196:993...

* schannel: disabled automatic use of client certificate

* schannel: next InitializeSecurityContext failed: CRYPT_E_NO_REVOCATION_CHECK (0x80092012) - The revocation function was unable to check revocation for the certificate.

* closing connection #0

curl: (35) schannel: next InitializeSecurityContext failed: CRYPT_E_NO_REVOCATION_CHECK (0x80092012) - The revocation function was unable to check revocation for the certificate.

This seems to suggest that the account password I am using is correct?

The outlook version I am using is a genuine paid for microsoft version.

However - we also use two ipads for mail, my wife and I, and I now realise that emails with different mailboxes off the same host domain off separate ipads, now do not appear to be sending. Error message = "Cannot get mail - mail server mail.force9.net is not responding. Verify you have entered the correct account info in mail settings". Network error (POSIX 96)  

This would suggest that the problem is not a software/device dependant issue at our end.?

Sorry to be a nuisance and thanks for your patience