Move to Greenby and pop email

[#1]

I get you, I'll do further checks on that.

[#2]

I also get "Whoops! Something went wrong" when I log into Greenby itself, but the error message disappears and I'm logged in.
I just wonder if there's something about my account that just isn't connecting properly when I log in.

[#3]

@ClaireS 

FYI - I have reproduced the mailbox password change failure issue on a test account.

[#4]

I think that's good news - any clues what's causing it and how I can fix it?

[#5]

Nothing you can do - it is an issue with Greenby's delivery platform.  The issue needs to be reported to them - it is their service which is broken and it they who need to fix it.

Plusnet will have done an alert, but reports from users are always helpful to demonstrate the scope of the issues.

[#6]

I was afraid you'd say that.
Greenby's support ticket process is useless. The moment they say "I'm transferring you to an agent, they will be with you shortly" all support comes to an end.
I had one agent join the chat yesterday, he asked one question then left the chat and again it's gone silent.
I'm really not sure what to do next. Greenby has no telephone support number so I am just stuck.
If Plusnet can put any pressure on them to resolve it that would be great. Or provide me with a contact for a "real" person.
I have just over 3 weeks of this "free trial" left before I have to pay £15 to keep my emails, but there is no sign that I'll be able to access them before that point. I don't know where to turn.

[#7]

I've raised this through for you, and I hope you can now speak to someone, be it live chat or on the phone.

[#8]

Thanks so much Tony. I'm assuming it's down to your intervention, but after 7 days a "real human" has joined the chat and advised me that the issue preventing me from changing passwords has now been resolved.
(I think it could be that because my original passwords were 1 character short of the Greenby "at least 8 character" rule, it must have rejected them all).

So, I've changed my passwords and now I'm downloading 7 days worth of mail on 5 mailboxes 🥴.

I thought it might be helpful to give the absolute details for what now works for my POP3 account, in case anyone has had a similar problem.

First - even if you can see Webmail via your main Greenby account (where it lists all your mailboxes and you click View Webmail) try to go into Webmail directly via webmail.greenby.com.

If you can access this, then you should be good, but if not, go back to the main Greenby website and click the three dots at the right hand side of the mailbox you need and click "Change Password". If this works, happy days and move onto the next bit. If not, raise a support ticket to say that the Change Password function is not working (and pray that they actually fix it for you).

Once you have your shiny new password, change your settings as follows:

Incoming Mail Server: mail.free-online.net
Username: your full email address (not domain+user as before)
Port: 110
SSL: off

I have to say, I haven't yet attempted outgoing mail yet, as my third party SMTP account still works, but I'll probably try that next.

Thank you for all your help Tony. This has been beyond frustrating, but your help to finally get a human involved was invaluable.

[#9]

I am so sorry that you've been waiting so long to get this resolved, but I'm pleased your there now. 

[#10]

---

@ClaireS wrote:
(I think it could be that because my original passwords were 1 character short of the Greenby "at least 8 character" rule, it must have rejected them all).

Once you have your shiny new password, change your settings as follows:

Incoming Mail Server: mail.free-online.net
Username: your full email address (not domain+user as before)
Port: 110
SSL: off

---

Do you have a reference for the "at least 8 character" rule?  I saw nothing on the change password dialogue except for unexplained changing of the strength colour.  Plusnet's rules were clear - a minimum of 8 characters with at least oner character out of Upper Case Letters, Lower Case Letters, Digits and selected special characters.  I have not seen similar for Greenby.

There were at least two issues surrounding changing passwords (a) the password its self and (b) the something has gone wrong result.  I have good reason to suspect that (b) only occurred on a Greenby session which as been logged on for a long time.

EDIT: PS - those server settings are not wise, they should be Port 995 with SSL/TLS for Free-Online.

[#11]

Hi there.
Only because when I tried to submit the password that was my 7 character previous password in Plusnet, it said "Password must be at least 8 characters".

Greenby support said they'd fixed the issue preventing password reset, and it was happening after just rebooting my phone and logging into a fresh Greenby session, as well as when I'd been logged in a while.
As soon as they said they fixed it, it worked fine - subject to the min 8 character rule.
My sub-8 character free-online passwords had been there for donkeys' years, as I'd never needed to do anything new with them.

[#12]

Re the password rules; I got the following reply from the Greenby Bot:

Thanks! That address is on Free-Online, which has already been fully migrated to Greenby.

Here are the password rules for your Greenby account:

• Minimum length: 10 characters
• Must include at least 3 of the following 4 types: lowercase letters, uppercase letters, numbers, symbols
• No spaces at the beginning or end
• Avoid using your email address or obvious sequences (e.g., password123)

How interesting that length is increasing already!

And on asking how soon I should update my alpha only password (which was working fine):

You don’t need to change it immediately. Existing passwords continue to work after migration. You’ll only need to update your password when you next choose to change it (for example, via a reset) or if we specifically prompt you to update it for security reasons.

If you decide to change it now, use the “Forgot Login Details” link on greenby.com and set a new password that meets the rules I shared.

[#13]

And on the subject of SSL/TLS whilst getting an Outlook client set  I asked:

Can you please explain the need to "Ensure SSL/STARTTLS is off" which is surprising.

And the reply:

Totally understand why that feels surprising.

For these legacy Plusnet/Free-Online mail platforms, the supported setup is:

• IMAP 143 / POP3 110 / SMTP 25
• No SSL/TLS or STARTTLS This matches the original service design and ensures continuity without changing existing customer configurations. Your client warning is Outlook encouraging encryption in general, but for this service those encrypted variants aren’t offered on those ports, so attempting SSL/TLS/STARTTLS typically causes:
• Repeated password prompts (because the handshake fails before auth)
• “Cannot connect to server” errors
• SMTP errors if the client tries STARTTLS automatically

Key points:

• Your traffic is authenticated (username/password), but the connection itself isn’t encrypted. This is why Outlook flags it.
• Keeping SSL/STARTTLS off aligns with the official settings for Free-Online/Plusnet mailboxes and avoids the failures you saw.
• If you enable any encryption toggles in Outlook 2007 for these accounts, it will break connectivity.

If you ever see Outlook try to “Upgrade to a secure connection” or switch ports (e.g., 993/995/587), set it back to:

• IMAP 143, None
• SMTP 25, None
• “My outgoing server requires authentication” enabled, using the same credentials as incoming

[#14]

Maybe I just mis-remembered the minimum number in the message and it was 10 minimum. It was a stressful few days 😁.

[#15]

@David51 

Do not believe all that AI tells you.  There’s no inherent intelligence within it artificial or otherwise.  It’s simply regurgitating whatever someone some where wrote, with no assurance that it’s correct.

The Plus.com / Force9 / Free-online brands have supported TLS/SSL and STARTTLS for a long time.  Port 25 might work, but it’s never been the design specification.

The statement on non-encryption for the other brands is correct, but the response make no discernment across the brands: it incorrectly lumps them all together in a single statement 

@plusnettony  -  can feedback please be offered with the request that more accurate / appropriate responses be provided.