Outlook issues since recent service issue

[#1]

Right... as some of you may know there was email issues listed on the service status page 4 days ago...

My outlook came up with an issue signing in and sending/receiving emails... I kept getting the username and password box pop up...

Now this happened a few months back and again when I checked there was an issue on the service status. Previously it just resolved itself when they fixed the issue...

No such luck this time, and as my "webmail" works the technical support don't want to know and are blaming it on outlook.

I don't believe it's outlook as I tried adding a hotmail account I have and that all worked perfectly fine and I could send/receive...

They did tell me my "settings" don't match what they list but I've tried the ones listed online and that doesn't resolve it either...

I am using POP as the setup with the following (these previously have worked for years)

Outgoing server - pop3.plus.net

Port - 995

Incoming - smtp.plus.net

Port - 465 (as smtp auth is on and not STARTTLS but SSL/TLS)

I am an old "force9" customer so they suggested the following:

Outgoing - mail.force9.net

Port - 995

Incoming - relay.force9.net

Port - 465

This didn't work... I have also tried those settings but replacing "force9" with "plus" on both what they said and my existing...

I have also tried clearing the email cache as this was suggested.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[#2]

Welcome to the forums.

Either you've misunderstood the instructions or you've written your post wrong.  The settings should be...

• Incoming
  • IMAP: imap.plus.net port 993 encryption TLS/SSL
  • POP3 mail.plus.net port 995 encryption TLS/SSL
• Outgoing
  • SMTP: relay.plus.net port 587 encryption STARTTLS
  • Authentication required - use the same as the incoming server

Even if you have simply mixed these up when documenting the issue, smtp.plus.net with encryption will generate a security certificate issue.

Outlook invariably makes a hash of guessing server settings.

Also note that the user name should be you Plusnet account name* - not the email address (albeit the email address tends to work in many cases).

* AccountName for the default mailbox or AccountName+MailboxName for secondary email addresses.

[#3]

@Townman  The OP may be using an old F9 email account.

I only use IMAP :

• Incoming
  • IMAP: imap.force9.net port 993
• Outgoing
  • SMTP: relay.force9.net port 587 

[#4]

I'm not really sure what you're getting at with me misunderstanding instructions or making an error writing my post...

My settings prior to trying to alter I screenshot as

Incoming Mail.
Username: ____.f9.co.uk

Password: ***********

Server: pop3.plus.net
Port: 995

The box for "this server requires an encrypted connection (SSL/TLS) was checked

Outgoing Mail.

Server smtp.plus.net
Port: 465
Encryption Method: SSL/TLS
Server Timeouts: 2mi

The box "My outgoing (SMTP) server requires authentication was checked

These are the exact settings that had been working for years but now refuse to.

The settings I tried to use were the ones documented on the email set up guide on plusnet... They were also verbally told to me and suggested to try the force9 change if plus.net did not work...

[#5]

In your original post you have the incoming / outgoing the wrong way around,

EDIT: You are not the first and will not be the last who have tried🙄 to use the servers the wrong way around! 

[#6]

@Townman apologies, it was late and I was getting extremely frustrated at the issue...

It's just infuriating that the issue began when plusnet had documented issues and has not resolved itself and plusnet will not help

[#7]

Use the force9 variant - I had believed that they are interchangeable, but having just ran some telnet connection tests they are not.

There is another angle on this - force9 email address - that somewhat suggests that you might not be using Plusnet as your ISP ... in which case, there might be other considerations.  Do you know which server is not connecting POP3 or SMTP?  If you are with some other ISP and it is the SMTP server, then it could be other issues and not the server settings...

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
535 Too many SMTP auth failures. Please try again later.

[#8]

after typing

telnet relay.plus.net 587

results

220 avasout-peh-002 smtp relay.plus.net

Connection to host lost.

[#9]

I tried typing EHLO followed by the server and got

telnet [-a][-e escape char][-f log file][-l user][-t term][host [port]]
 -a      Attempt automatic logon. Same as -l option except uses
         the currently logged on user's name.
 -e      Escape character to enter telnet client prompt.
 -f      File name for client side logging
 -l      Specifies the user name to log in with on the remote system.
         Requires that the remote system support the TELNET ENVIRON option.
 -t      Specifies terminal type.
         Supported term types are vt100, vt52, ansi and vtnt only.
 host    Specifies the hostname or IP address of the remote computer
         to connect to.
 port    Specifies a port number or service name.

---

I'm sorry but I'm ok with computers but when command prompt gets involved I've had very little exposure...

Am I supposed to enter my details in some format to allow login to test?

I tried ;

telnet pop3.plus.net 995 (and 587)

With 995 this goes to a black screen with a flashing underscore but when I try typing it doesn't respond. If I hit enter a few times it returns to the beginning

on 587 it says it cannot open connection to host, on port 587 connection failed

telnet pop3.force9.net 995 (and 587)

telnet smtp.plus.net 465

I just don't appear to get any results

[#10]

Thanks for your post @hocking24 and welcome to our Community Forums.

I'm really sorry to see you're having issues with your e-mails via Outlook.

I've checked your account and there's no issues I can see, so it's very likely down to a setting within Outlook. Appreciate the problem began for you after the brief outage a few days ago, but this may be co-incidence. 

Have you tried removing the e-mail account from Outlook and re-adding? I'd note that as it appears you're using POP3 not IMAP, you'll need to make sure you back up your e-mails, otherwise you may likely lose them. 

When re-setting up the e-mail account, can you try using the details explained Here?

Let me know how it goes. 

[#11]

@Gandalf 

I have tried removing and re-adding the email...

When I try to it just constantly asks to confirm password with a pop up box and fails.

I managed to re-add one of the 2 emails to outlook (outlook crashed and saved what I'd tried adding)

But the other "mailbox" I cannot re-add...

I have literally tried everything...

Telnet will not connect to your server either when I've tried that...

I cannot see how this is just a coincidence as this happened a few months back when you had email issues... but that time it re-connected after a day or two... this time no such luck...
How can I go from using certain settings for YEARS to all of a sudden them needing to change? Unless something has changed that is beyond my control (i.e. your end)

I am pulling my hair out as this is actually my mothers email (I am named on the account) and as she doesn't understand even the simplest part of this, I have to resolve it.
She has important emails expected any time and without using a clunky out dated webmail cannot access her emails.

[#12]

---

@hocking24 wrote:

How can I go from using certain settings for YEARS to all of a sudden them needing to change? Unless something has changed that is beyond my control (i.e. your end)

---

Everything that's changed is not by definition the fault of Plusnet.

For example I recently found after a re-installation of Microsoft Office I had problems setting Outlook. This was due to Outlook updates making the process of entering the settings for my email account details  more difficult than previously. 

[#13]

I appreciate this, however when I've contacted technical support, the first time they just said "outlook is nothing to do with us" and that was the end of their input...
The second time the person said "oh this happens with outlook sometimes, I'll reset your account and it should work after 24hours"

But beyond that they've not suggested anything other than trying those standard settings as stated on their "email set up" which refuse to work... and telnet doesn't recognise them or connect to them either (not that I know how to use it, but following the instructions it says cannot connect)

Moderator's note by Dick (Strat): Full quote of preceding post removed as per Forum rules.

[#14]

@hocking24  Can you ping relay.force9.net ?

It will time out but will show you which server, if any, it's trying to connect to.

c:\ping relay.force9.net

Pinging relay.force9.net [212.159.9.104] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

[#15]

Pinging relay.force9.net [212.159.8.104] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 212.159.8.104:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

Pinging pop3.plus.net [217.46.26.28] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 217.46.26.28:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

Pinging mail.plus.net [217.46.26.48] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 217.46.26.48:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

C:\Users\Hocking>ping relay.plus.net

Pinging relay.plus.net [212.159.8.107] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 212.159.8.107:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),