Intermittent "Cannot connect to POP server mail.force9.net" (but can connect to mail.plus.net)

[#1]

Has anyone else been having intermittent problems downloading mail by POP from mail.force9.net? Sometimes Windows Live Mail can connect and download immediately, but other times (like right now) it times out. I can connect to mail.plus.net to access a different email address.

I can't see anything on the plusnet.service.status news group, so I wonder if Plusnet aren't aware of the problem yet...

Webmail to my Force9 account works fine.

[#2]

My Outlook struggles but eventually completes its send and receive operation.

[#3]

Me too! My connections to mail.force9.net started timing out at about 6pm yesterday (19th) and it has continued the morning. It does occasionally connect ok.  None over the previous 4 weeks.

[#4]

Well, I'm glad it's not just me.

I started having problems last night when, trying to access through Outlook, I had a "connect error 10060" message and the thing wouldn't connect. Looking at it this morning I thought I had narrowed it down to Avast; it connected without problem when I uninstalled Avast but had the same error message when I re-installed. As I use Malwarebytes Premium anyway I decided to just simply uninstall Avast and leave it.

But half an hour later I'm now getting the "Outlook cannot connect to your incoming (POP3) email server" message. Web mail works as does the email app on my IPhone but as I use Outlook extensively for my home business this is bloody inconvenient!

[#5]

It seems only POP access has problems: imap.force9.net seems ok, but mail.force9.net still having problems.

I think Webmail will use IMAP.

[#6]

Is there a way of escalating this a problem so that Plusnet are aware of it. There's still nothing on the Usenet newsgroup so I presume they aren't aware of it.

[#7]

I cannot find how to raise a ticket.

I cannot even find how to start a chat session.

They are *really* making it difficult to contact them about a problem these days.

I do not want to go through reams of useless questions first.

[#8]

Eventally found the route to chat - they claim to have done something for me. Time will tell. Recommend you do the same.

[#9]

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@uncleadolph wrote:

But half an hour later I'm now getting the "Outlook cannot connect to your incoming (POP3) email server" message. Web mail works as does the email app on my IPhone but as I use Outlook extensively for my home business this is bloody inconvenient!

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And herein is the rub - Outlook reports problems but the iPhone does not.

I have seen this on occasions and not just with the Plusnet email service ... which has to suggest that this is potentially an Outlook problem, not a mail service problem.  If it were a mail service problem, then one would expect to see the issue across all devices accessing the same email service.

Notes:

1. If you are accessing email from multiple devices, making one of them POP3 is likely to lead to confusion across devices.  Much better to make all of them IMAP and configure SENT / DRAFTS / TRASH to use the IMAP server folders such that all devices have the same view of email content.
2. If you are using the service for BUSINESS then I trust you are using a BUSINESS grade internet service, other wise you are in breach of the T&Cs...

https://www.plus.net/help/legal/terms/

2.1.3. use the services for personal use in the UK (so don't use the services to run your own business, but a couple of work emails or occasional home working are okay) and in accordance with our Acceptable Use Policy;

[#10]

After my chat with support at 6pm yesterday, I have had no timeouts since. So seems that whatever they did was a success.

[#11]

...if they actually did anything... do not see how they could have done anything at their end which made it start working with Outlook, when it was already working with your iPhone (presumably over the same internet connection?).

[#12]

@Townman: Are you confusing me with someone else? I have never used Outlook or an iPhone.

My connection has worked flawlessly to a POP3 client on another (unchanged) platform entirely since I chatted to support. I was sceptical they had done anything, but all can say is that my frequent timeouts vanished afterwards.

[#13]

Not intentionally. Now you've pointed it out I realised that I'd not noticed the reference to outlook / iPhone was a post from an interloper!!!!

[#14]

Now the converse situation has arisen. My account on Force 9 is fine: I have been able to access mail.force9.net by POP without any problem for several days. But another account on PlusNet is showing the same symptoms as I previously saw with Force 9, so I cannot access mail.plus.net by POP.

Do Plusnet know about this problem? I've seen nothing on the Usenet server, though I have seen an unrelated posting about something else (I forget what) so they are still posting to Usenet.

How do I report faults to Plusnet such that they actually get seen and logged?