Freenetname email frozen/intermittent

[#1]

Just to confirm:

I am on the plusnet network.

I use the generic 'Freenetname' login.

[#2]

I have run the imap and the POP3 curl protocols again - at least this time they have asked for my password, but both have the lines

URL rejected: Malformed input to a URL function

Both have then connected with mail.freenetname.co.uk, but eventually come up with "Authentication failed, closing connection.

The password I am using is the same one I use to login on Plusnet Webmail and Thunderbird.

[#3]

Well, something just happened! Thunderbird has suddenly (as of 5 minutes ago) downloaded all the emails outstanding from 1100 on the 29th to today's latest.

I did nothing, so something has changed 'up' line. Any thoughts?

[#4]

As per the other threads, I have this on escalation ... and the issues have now been mitigated.