Cannot connect to mail.plus.net (POP) from PC outlook 2010

[#1]

I spent an hour this morning trying to fix a problem that I thought I'd created, only to find that it's an issue at Plusnet's end.

I've registered for this forum just so I can say thank you for posting a solution, and to reiterate what previous posters have said: if this isn't in Service Status alerts what's point of the alerts?

Charlotte

[#2]

I get this problem intermittently all the time, and it's a massive pain in the ... er ... derriere.  I actually registered with the forum today, just to add myself to the list of people who've suffered from this, perfectly avoidable, hassle.  The ironic thing, of course, is that I was asked to verify my email address by PlusNet sending me an email ... hello-o-o-o!

So, I'm not an IT guru, and can only repeat the advice of others to change your internet settings to recieve using 212.159.8.81 - it worked for me.  I have no idea what the long-term implications of using that address might be (if any), but again, to echo the sentiments of others: why doesn't PlusNet simply publlish this fix on their Email Status link and save the nation from spending hours trawling through forum posts looking for solutions?

The problem appears to be endemic within PlusNet, so I can feel a change of ISP coming on.

[#3]

Incident (finally) up on Service Status at 15.29 today. Like others, wasted a bit of time trying to sort this myself having forgotten the solution from last time it occurred. Thanks to all who reminded me.

[#4]

It's interesting that they have bowed to pressure and put up a service notice.  However, how stupid not to tell people that there is a pretty simple workaround which costs nobody anything and will save a lot of people a great deal of grief.  Sad .  

[#5]

Using the IP address instead of the DNS name isn't a great long term solution as those IPs later on may stop working if we need to move things around.  It works for somewhere like a forum where the take up will be smaller and be done by people who are more savvy at playing with settings.

You should be able to move back to using the name now instead of the IP addresses now.  Please let us know if you're still seeing problems there.

[#6]

Moderator's note:

There were several threads started regarding this issue so I have locked some leaving this one open to keep everything in one place.

[#7]

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Still not working at this time using relay.plus.net so going back to 212.159.8.81 until we are asked to [try] again.

Note: Using Thunderbird 52.4.0 32-bit email client.

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Full quote of preceding post removed as per Forum rules.

[#8]

@vaper relay.plus.net is the dataset name for the clusters of outgoing servers. The replacement for the incoming POP3 server cluster 212.159.8.81 is mail.plus.net.

[#9]

Thanks for the tech info but it's pretty much wasted on me, I'm afraid.

All I know is that using relay.plus.net in the sever settings does not allow me to download my emails but using 212.159.8.81  does (for the moment, anyway).

[#10]

Where you have 212.159.8.81 in the Thunderbird server settings, does it work if you replace this with mail.plus.net?

It should do, but as you've discovered it doesn't work with relay.plus.net. This is because those servers are used for *sending* messages, not receiving/downloading them.

[#11]

Ok. Using mail.plus.net in the server settings seems to work. I have no idea how I managed to replace it with the wrong server name. I've replaced it so often over the past month I probably pasted in the wrong one at some point.

Many thanks - I'll try not to make that mistake again.

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[#12]

Just to say the POP email issues have NOT been resolved - as far as I'm concerned!
A whole bunch of emails which should have been received on Thursday 26 October seem to have vanished into cyberspace. My webmail accounts are empty and, despite a PM message from Plusnet saying it was "being investigated", so far nothing more.
As a long-time user of Plusnet, any previous enthusiasm to recommend this ISP to others, has now been consigned to cyberspace along with those missing e-mails.

[#13]

Moderator's note:

Above post merged from Plusnet Feedback.

[#14]

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@vaper wrote:

Thanks for the tech info but it's pretty much wasted on me, I'm afraid.

All I know is that using relay.plus.net in the sever settings does not allow me to download my emails but using 212.159.8.81  does (for the moment, anyway).

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In an attempt to aid understanding...

• Generically service.plus.net is a network resource name which a DNS service will (on request) convert to a network address
• In the "email space" Plusnet publishes: pop3.plus.net / imap.plus.net / mail.plus.net / relay.plus.net
• relay.plus.net is the OUTBOUND email server resource name - so using it as you were is not going to work
• 212.159.8.81 is but one of the current addresses for mail.plus.net - the INBOUND email server resource name - so will work the same as using the server resource name ... until (if) the server is moved to a different platform

DNS resource name resolution

> mail.plus.net
Server:  dsldevice.lan
Address:  192.168.1.254

Non-authoritative answer:
mail.plus.net   internet address = 212.159.8.81
mail.plus.net   internet address = 212.159.9.81

plus.net        nameserver = ns2.force9.net
plus.net        nameserver = ns1.force9.net

The IP address you were using is but one of the two associated with the resource name - no doubt a few weeks back you got caught be the issue with the .9.81 address and there for used the then "good" address as mitigation ... but never put things back when the service returned to normal.  Now that the issue flipped to the .8.81 address, you became a dead duck.

[#15]

Yes, I think your conclusion is much the same as mine.

Just to confirm, I'm getting emails ok as of this time. Hopefully, this problem is fixed permanently now.