ERROR: Connection dropped by IMAP server.

[#1]

cannot get to my plusnet email either from outlook ( asks me for password )  or from the web ( ERROR: Connection dropped by IMAP server. )
what is going on...

[#2]

Not sure, just tried logging in to webmail as yourself (to the default mailbox, not sure if the issue is with a different mailbox?) and it went through fine. If it is one of the additional boxes please let us know and we'll test the details of that too.

[#3]

clearly i'm not the only one having these problems...
it's now going in although still seem to get password requests everynow and then, so would guess running slowly still
i would appreciate that you DO NOT logon to my email to 'check' in future...

[#4]

Quote from: bluewhale

i would appreciate that you DO NOT logon to my email to 'check' in future...

It's a standard test, apologies though. I'll add a note to your account asking that nobody does so.

[#5]

where did you get my password from to test this? is it properly secure?

[#6]

The passwords are only visible to more senior members of the support team.
Every time they access a password that event is recorded so there is always an audit trail of who looked at passwords and when.
Or so i've been told

[#7]

Yes, that is the case.

[#8]

personally i think that is a very weak form of security
once someone has my password they then have full access on a perm basis don't they?
a better model is to have a security token system that allows access on a one shot basis
what was more annoying is that this was done to my account when it was quite obviously a plusnet issue
i know email is to some extent insecure being sent via plain text, but really...
anyway is it noted/now impossible for anyone to get my password/access?

[#9]

@bluewhale, we'd be fairly limited with what we could do from a support perspective without certain people having access to your password! There's little we can do from a practical/CRM perspective to make it completely impossible for everybody to see your password I'm afraid.

[#10]

sorry but like i say having worked in this sort of area best practice is to have a token system that allows access on a one off basis and not to expose passwords
the fact that your systems are setup so that you need to know my password is a fault and not a reason...

[#11]

If we were unable to view customers passwords, you would probably see tens of thousands of our customers offline.
The role our staff perform, it is absolutely imperative that they are able to access someone's password so that they can check that a customer is entering their password correctly.

[#12]

Quote from: bluewhale

sorry but like i say having worked in this sort of area best practice is to have a token system that allows access on a one off basis...

And exactly how would that prevent this?

Quote from: bluewhale

once someone has my password they then have full access on a perm basis don't they?

I'm with James on this one. Not being able to get access to a customer's password would make providing technical support an absolute nightmare. I've worked for more than one ISP over the years (as has James) and the approach has been fairly consistent across the board.

[#13]

i stand by what i said, i guess i come from an industry where they take personal security/privacy more seriously, but...
in any case it was obviously not a local issue as others were having similar issues
so i think pulling the trigger of logging and and viewing my personal email should be a last resort and not what it seems to be a first resort