Unable to SEND emails since switch to EE

[#1]

My PlusNet friend has been unable to SEND any emails from his PlusNet email account via his iPhone or MS Outlook since switching his broadband service from PlusNet to EE this week. He CAN send email directly from the Greenby webmail site (he was migrated many months ago) but not via his iPhone or Outlook (no configuration changes made).

Error message received on his phone (screenshots attached) is: "Cannot Connect to the Outgoing Mail Server for "SMTP:username@relay,plus,net" with a message under saying "Mail can try to repair these settings" and a choice of Cancel or Repair. If Repair is chosen, a new message appears: "Cannot Send Mail. The connection to the outgoing server "relay.plus.net" failed. Additional Outgoing Mail Servers can be configured for Mail accounts in Settings>Apps>Mail>Accounts. Operation timed out"

We have turned the router on and off, and tried adjusting port settings (incoming 110, 995 etc.; outgoing 587, 25 etc.) without any joy. Is there anything that needs tweaking post migration from Plusnet to EE for broadband service? Anything else which we could try?

We spoke to PlusNet support who (understandably) said that Greenby manage all email related issues, but Greenby support simply responds with an AI generated response indicating the device must have an issue. But nothing has changed on either the iPhone or laptop since last week when everything was fine and emails could be sent without issue.

Any help much appreciated! Thanks.

[#2]

I think this is a standard problem i.e. you can't use relay.plus.net after you've left Plusnet broadband. Using Greenby webmail works because it uses a Greenby server. I'm sure @MisterW will be happy to explain and suggest an approved solution.

[#3]

@andypearson 

@abitpedantic is correct. 

The concept of the migration of email to Greenby is that all connections are routed via a 'proxy'. This has knowledge of whether an account has migrated or not and routes the actual connection accordingly. That is , to the Plusnet servers for non-migrated accounts and the Greenby ones for migrated ones. Unfortunately due to some issues the outgoing server relay.plus.net is temporarily still routed to the Plusnet server for ALL accounts. This means that anyone using this servere must still have a Plusnet account with valid credentials. Since your Plusnet account has closed due to the transfer to EE , your credentials are no longer valid.

Effectively to continue to send mail at the moment, you need to connect directly to the Greenby smtp server where your credentials will still be valid. Change your outgoing server from relay.plus.net to mail.plusnet.enmail.co . You may get a certificate error warning, if you do , then accept the mismatch and you should be able to continue.

Post back if you still have problems.

[#4 · Accepted solution]

I am assuming this is a Plusnet email in the format : <name>@<account>.plus.com

Try replacing Plusnet hosted SMTP relay.plus.net with Greenby SMTP : mail.enmail.co or relay.force9.net
the 2 SMTP above have valid Certificates.

@MisterW is quite right mail.plusnet.enmail.co does not have a valid Certificate & this can result in rejection for use of  SSL/TLS or STARTTLS where the mail client / app does not allow Certificate errors to be ignored.

[#5]

There might be an additional issue at hand here, Port blocking.

Historically we used SMTP relay.plus.net via Port 25.  Now many ISPs block Port 25 to reduce SPAM/SCAM emails.

If Port 25 is blocked via EE and access to the SMTP server fails,  ( as opposed to the user/password are rejected )
try changing SMTP Port 25 to 587

[#6]

@MisterW 

So, 3 suggestions have been made (mail.plusnet.enmail.co, mail.enmail.co, relay.force9.net). Is there any difference between them? I don't suppose any have DKIM implemented currently, and we know the consequences of that?

[#7]

So, 3 suggestions have been made (mail.plusnet.enmail.co, mail.enmail.co, relay.force9.net). Is there any difference between them?

I'm not entirely sure, apart from as @PhilipHeyes said, relay.force9.net has a valid SSL certificate. It is correctly routed via the Greenby proxy as relay.plus.net should be, once the temporary situation is resolved.

I don't suppose any have DKIM implemented currently,

I don't have any information to the contrary !

[#8]

Thanks so much @PhilipHeyes (and @MisterW ) for your speedy and helpful replies - hugely appreciated.

Changing the outgoing mail server from relay.plus.net to mail.plusnet.enmail.co within MS Outlook has worked a treat. However, we are having some difficulty applying the same change on the iPhone (see attached screenshot). When changing this setting, the message displayed is "Cannot Verify Server Identity. The identity of "mail.plusnet.enmail.co" cannot be verified by Settings". Any idea why this may be?

[#9]

Any idea why this may be?

Yes, its the certificate mismatch I referred to. Try using relay.force9.net instead, as that has a valid certificate 

[#10]

Also change the Username to  john@<accountname>.plus.com  i.e. use the email address of the mailbox  Greenby servers likely will reject the old <accountname>+john format  & can reject an email alias too.

Also change the SMTP port from 25 to 587  to avoid finding Port 25 traffic blocked by ISPs & mobile providers.

[#11]

@PhilipHeyes , @MisterW it's taken a few days to try out your suggestions re. iPhone server settings, but using relay.force9.net has worked and everything is now fixed and working.

Once again, huge appreciation for your invaluable help!

[#12]

@andypearson 

You say "everything is now fixed and working" but are you able to send emails successfully to gmail and icloud addresses using relay.force9.net?

[#13]

Ah, interesting - that hasn't been tried (yet). Is the ability to send to iCloud & Gmail addresses problematic through the Force9 server?

[#14]

I don't know but I'm looking forward to hearing from you when you do try. It's certainly a problem with mail.enmail.co.