Another cannot send email

[#1]

Do you really think they did this on purpose?

[#2]

Thanks for the tip. Thunderbird now sends and receives again for me. A bit confusing to be told to "Enter new password" when what is required is to enter OLD password! I probably should have tried that days ago.

[#3]

Thanks for the tip. Thunderbird is now sending and receiving again. I was confused by being told to "Enter new password" when what was required was for me to enter my OLD password!

[#4]

I should also add that I was entering my 'old' password when it asked for a 'new' password all week, but only yesterday did it start working again.

[#5]

Has the issue with 'MS Outlook may give a certificate warning' been fixed yet, as I'm still getting this message every time I refresh the Inbox ?

 

[#6]

That is usually down to the client software incorrectly guessing the server names.

Whilst smpt.plus.net will generally work, the correct name as specified in the security certificate is relay.plus.net

You need to correct the mistaken presumptions used by MS Outlook.

[#7]

@Townman Thanks for your suggestions, as I've now managed to link to the correct servers, so the problem has gone away.

[#8]

Just to confirm that all my email services are working (better than) normally again now, so appears to be fixed. Especially webmail through the browser has improved (much faster) a great deal. Well done PN - just a pity that the copy/paste repeat service message did not really help matters.

Not only that but my domain at "Nominet" has been renewed automatically a few days early - usually this expires each year and I have to make a few phone calls to PN to get the correct department to carry out the renewal. Happy Days! - Is everything rosey for the future of PN email?

[#9]

Hi @Townman 

Good to know PN have resolved the email issue but as of today I still can't send either by Outlook or android email.

Hopefully I'm the only one left with a problem and the techs will have time to check it out.

[#10]

Hi @paul1098

I'm sorry to see you're having issues sending mail from your mail client.

Are you able to receive mail OK? Could I just confirm you're using the settings explained Here?

Let me know how it goes.

[#11]

Hi @Gandalf 

I can receive mail OK it's just sending.

Yes I'm using those settings including the SMTP authentication (as per incoming) as i'm not using Plusnet as ISP.

[#12]

@paul1098 's issue predates the email service outage.  I have asked the mods to re-extract their posts.

Problem with the SMTP server from off Plusnet's network, points to two issues...

1. The account is not permitted to use the SMTP servers (typical of a legacy account which has not been converted to email only properly)
2. The user's ISP's IP address has been black listed

Test SMTP authentication

Email programs often report username / password error for issues not actually related to those being wrong, but for other connectivity issues. Such can be very frustrating when you are convinced that they are correct. Testing SMTP authentication through a command line interface can deliver a more precise error message. The following describes how to do this using TELNET.

This is not difficult, but you need the following resources which might be unfamiliar...

1. TELNET - this might need installing as an additional option, for Windows see enabling TELNET.
2. A code64 encoder / decoder such as this.

You can use TELNET to communicate direct with the SMTP server as follows...

Open the code64 encoder in a web browser and leave ready for use in the following steps.

Launch a windows command line window (DOS window) - press windows-key+R - type CMD into the run box - click OK

Enter...

telnet relay.plus.net 587

Press enter. Note if you use one of the other brand email services, use the appropriate SMTP server name for that brand. In response to SMTP server I'm here message, say 'HELLO'...

EHLO relay.plus.net

The SMTP server will then report what it can do after which tell the server you wish to authenticate...

AUTH login

The server should return the following, which is a base64 encoded string that requires your username:

334 VXNlcm5hbWU6

Use the code64 encoder to encode your username and paste it into the telnet window and press enter. For example:

bXl1c2VybmFtZQ==

The server should return the following, which is a base64 encoded string that requires your password:

334 UGFzc3dvcmQ6

Paste the base64 encoded password for the username. For example:

bXlwYXNzd29yZA==

The server will then report success or failure, any failure message should clearly indicate the reason for the failure. If the reason for the failure is not clear, please report back the message.

Close the SMTP / TELNET session by entering

quit

The session should look something similar to the below wherein your input is in bold...

220 avasout03 smtp relay.plus.net
EHLO relay.plus.net
250-avasout03 hello [your IP address], pleased to meet you
250-HELP
250-AUTH LOGIN PLAIN
250-SIZE 104857600
250-PIPELINING
250-8BITMIME
250-STARTTLS
250 OK
AUTH LOGIN
334 VXNlcm5hbWU6
bXl1c2VybmFtZQ==
334 UGFzc3dvcmQ6
bXlwYXNzd29yZA==
235 ... authentication succeeded
quit
221 avasout03 smtp closing connection
Connection to host lost.

Here are some examples of failure responses...

535 ...authentication rejected [as username / password is wrong]
535 ...authentication rejected as source IP has a poor reputation

[#13]

Hi@Gandalf , @Townman 

Have you managed to find time to look into my sending email issues?

I have another plusnet account at a holiday cottage and I was wondering whether it was worth moving my domain name/email over to that one to see if it's my old email only account that's causing the problems.

Worth a try or do i just need to move my domain to another hosting site?

[#14]

Hi @paul1098 sorry for the delay. 

Which settings in particular are you using to send mail? If it's easier, feel free to private message me a screenshot. 

I don't think that the issue would be down to your mail only account as the email service would work in the same way as a broadband account. Having said that, I've refreshed and reconfigured the mail component which should take effect within half an hour. Try sending an email after then and let us know how it goes.

Moving your domain away from us may be a good idea. With a different registrar/host you may likely get a bigger mailbox and other useful features. If you'd like to go ahead, send me a private message with your domain name and IPSTAG of your new registrar. We'll then create a ticket on your account with confirmation you'd be happy to go ahead before raising a task to our NetOps team to transfer it out. 

[#15]

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@JonoH wrote:

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I've already feedback that it should be easier to find from the H&S pages, even though in an emergency they'll maybe be down.

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The changes have been approved, it should be visible from our top navigation bar as it's own category in the Help section in the next 2 weeks