Probs logging on and using Free-online mail account

[#1]

Dear @Gandalf, anyone on staff!

I started having problems sending mail last night – being asked for password (Mail on Mac OS X 10.7.5), which was not recognised. I then tried to send message using webmail, and was told I'd been sending Spam.

Today, I was asked for password to receive mail: not recognised. Tried logging into webmail. Failed. Tried permutations of password in case something had gone wrong. No.

Please help. I tried phoning the helpline but was told there was a large queue.

best wishes,

Silverwhistle

[#2]

Am now getting this when I try to log on to webmail:

ERROR

Unknown user or password incorrect.

Go to the login page

[#3 · Accepted solution]

Am still locked out of my mail account. Please help!

[#4]

Fixed now. And email seems to be sending.

[#5]

Dear forum. I purchased a combined broadband and phone service from john lewis to replace my separate free-online and bt phone service. Both bb services are provided by plusnet. It went live on Friday 5-Nov. They agreed that I would keep my free-online email.

POP3 access to this was lost last Saturday  6-Nov, I was told it was switched off as part of the changeover. They said that a webmail service was set up to replace it.  On Nov-14 I called the plusnet helpline, they said the webmail had been set up incorrectly by JL and said they would put it right. It will not let me log in using https://webmail.plus.net/, username=<just my user name, no @character)> and server=Free-Online. Can someone please confirm that I am entering the correct user name etc, it does not need any qualifiers?

As an aside, the john lewis webmail works fine but it requires the full username@john-lewis.com in the username field. I would prefer to use POP3 but that does not work on either mail.johnlewisbroadband.com or mail.free-online.co.uk (login failure) although SMTP is working to relay.johnlewisbroadband.com.

Sorry to have gone on so long but I am at my wits end and really regret switching. JL telephone support is hopeless as all they tell me is that it has been referred to the admin team. That was 10 days ago and no resolution or even any evidence that it is being looked into. Regards Jeff

System is Linux Mint 19.2 Palemoon 28.14.3 eMatrix 3.1.0 Wine 16 Pegasus Mail 4.4.1 (yes it's old but still good)

[#6]

Thanks for your post @jeffh 

I'm really sorry for the long delay. We've reactivated your account restoring access to your Free-online mailbox. You should now be able to login to webmail.plus.net using your Free-online account details.

If you had any additional mailboxes, could you login to your account itself from Here then go to the Manage tab then Manage My Mail? From there you'll be able to recreate those mailboxes.

Any mail you were sent in the period that your email address(es) were inactive would've bounced back to the sender, but if there's any mail missing which was present before your account was cancelled, could you let me know? We can get those restored for you. 

[#7]

Hey gandalf, I cannot thank you enough, it has been a hard slog to get this far but a real relief that this appears to be sorted. Thank you for your offer to restore lost messages. I am not too worried about any missing incoming mail as I prewarned folk as soon as I knew there was an issue. If I need anything specific I will tag the original query. Regards, Jeff

PS cannot see a 'fixed' button

[#8]

Hey Jeff thanks for the post back.

Awesome, no problem at all I'm happy to see this is sorted now and I'm sorry again for the experience you've had.

Unfortunately the fix button is reserved for the original poster of a topic. 

Let me know if there's anything else you'd need help with.

[#9]

Having problems again: am receiving mail, but can't send – keep being asked for password, which isn't recognised.

Also, when using my webmail to send (as I currently have to) I can't see the contents of my 'Sent' mailbox.

[#10]

Thanks for getting in touch @Silverwhistle 

I'm sorry for the problems. If you're able to send and receive via webmail that points to an issue with how your email client's configured. Have you tried removing and re-adding your mail account on Mac Mail?

With regards to the webmail issues can you try the steps explained in this thread?

[#11]

Have tried to do that and something weird has happened with my Sent box – it appears to be full of Spam messages with Sept 2007 dates, sent to spam@despamchecker,plus.com

i don't understand this.

[#12]

Hey @Silverwhistle, thanks for getting back to us. 

I'd recommend going ahead with the steps Anoush mentioned in his above post, as well as this it might be worth clearing the cache and cookies from the browser your accessing webmail in - probably won't assist much, but it's worth giving a go. 

Thanks. 

[#13]

This is the sort of thing that appeared in my Sent Folder  abt half an hour ago – only now it's coming up as Empty.

Please help.

Do I need to change password?

What appeared in my Sent folder

[#14]

Seems to be back to normal now: can see the actual sent messages and the Spam has gone.

[#15]

That suggests that your email account might have been compromised... here is general guidance on changing email account passwords.

Reset email password

Which ISP are you with, Plusnet or one of the other / legacy vISPs?

If you are not able to login to the email address using webmail, then it is likely that your email address has been identified as being compromised and has had its password changed. Where email address passwords have been changed to protect the integrity of the service, the account password is left unchanged.

Plusnet / Force9 / FreeOnline users can only change the password on the DEFAULT email address by changing the password on the user ACCOUNT through the user portal. You can change the password on a secondary mailbox using the Manage My Mail options in the user portal.

Brightview users (Madasafish / FreeNetName / GlobalNet / IC24 / ICScotland / Dialstart / Totalise) logging into webmail should use their full email address. Use the MAAF user portal to update the password on the default email address (change the account password) and use this MAAF guide to change the password on a secondary mailbox address. If you cannot recall the account password, you will need to contact support ... because the account password change process sends an email to the mailbox you cannot now access.

DO NOT USE THE SAME PASSWORD AGAIN for that would allow the continued exploitation of the account. The new password should be cryptic and not one used before.

Note that changing the account password will change the password used for logging on to the relevant user portal. If your email service is NOT a retained legacy service (one associated with a retired internet service account), then the password required by the router to connect to the internet will be changed too. If the router is a Hub Zero or a Hub One supplied by Plusnet it should update automatically. If not, you will need to log into the router, drop the connection, change the password yourself and reconnect.

On the assumption that the email address password has been compromised, I strongly recommend that wherever you have used that email address / password combination as access credentials to services such as Amazon, Netflix, eBay etc., that you also change the passwords on those service as well.