Unable to access email on phone or through webmail

[#1]

Ive not received any mail on the plusnet email account on my phone for around three weeks - so I thought I better check my webmail. When I try to log onto my webmail I just get this ERROR message 

"Connection dropped by IMAP server.
Query: LOGOUT"

I can log into Plusnet main site OK so following an online suggestion I reset my password which was confirmed - However when I try to log into webmail I still get the same message.

My phone was showing error when trying to connect to my plusnet email account so I have deleted the plusnet mail account from my phone to see if that freed up my webmail but still the same message.

Just in case I had been migrated without my knowing I tried logging onto Greenby with my plusnet details (both the new and old passwords) but not recognised there.

Tried to reinstall plusnet email on my phone and it says user or password not reccognised (I tried both old and new passwords)

So Im stuck with no access to any emails and dont know what else to do - If I cant log onto webmail I cant even free up space if theres a log jam in there.

[#2]

Try www.greenby.com using the same credentials
as are used for the Plusnet Members Centre https://www.plus.net/manage_my_mail/

[#3]

Thanks for the reply - I can log onto the manage my mail link you sent but the only thing I can see there to change is possibly select smtp mail delivery - should I try this ? Although I’m not sure of my ip address.

[#4]

So here I am - cant log onto my webmail - not migrated and I cant do anything that would let me see my mail on the "manage my mail" page.

Any suggestions of how I might get to see the mail that may have been sent to my plusnet email account over the last three weeks ? Or do I just give up and hope nothing important is in there ?

Ive started changing all my contacts linked to my plusnet email to a gmail account now but it takes time as theres a lot !

[#5]

@Boris27 do you have access to a Windows, Linux or MacOS machine that would be able to run the email diagnostics here https://community.plus.net/t5/Email/Diagnosing-email-server-connectivity-issues-the-guide/m-p/200795...

[#6]

OK thanks  - Im pretty computer savvy and can get to terminal on my mac but Ill have to reread the link to work out exactly what I need to type into terminal as it confused me a bit - 

[#7]

Ok so Ive run the diagnostic tool that you kindly sent the link for. It seems to connect to the server but comes back with access denied. This would normally indicate a user name or password problem but Im sure of the user name and the user name and password combination sign me into the Plusnet general site fine. Ive also tried with previous passwords for my account and still no luck - it looks to me that somehow my webmail password has changed - could this indicate the account has been compromised ? This is what returned (I've removed my password)

* Host mail.callnetuk.com:143 was resolved.
* IPv6: (none)
* IPv4: 212.159.8.230, 212.159.9.230
* Trying 212.159.8.230:143...
* Connected to mail.callnetuk.com (212.159.8.230) port 143
< * OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 UIDPLUS CHILDREN NAMESPACE THREAD=ORDEREDSUBJECT THREAD=REFERENCES SORT QUOTA IDLE ACL ACL2=UNION] Courier-IMAP ready. Copyright 1998-2011 Double Precision, Inc. See COPYING for distribution information.
> A001 CAPABILITY
< * CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 UIDPLUS CHILDREN NAMESPACE THREAD=ORDEREDSUBJECT THREAD=REFERENCES SORT QUOTA IDLE ACL ACL2=UNION
< A001 OK CAPABILITY completed
> A002 LOGIN yates27 **********
< A002 NO Login failed.
* Access denied.
* Closing connection
curl: (67) Access denied.

[#8]

So Ive found the problem with the Curl diagnostic. I was only inputing my user name - when I input my whole email address HEY PRESTO I manage to get a list of folders 😀  Now what can I do with this information? My email and password seem to be working in the diagnostic but I still cant log into webmail with this user name and password.

* Connected to mail.callnetuk.com (212.159.8.230) port 143
< * OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 UIDPLUS CHILDREN NAMESPACE THREAD=ORDEREDSUBJECT THREAD=REFERENCES SORT QUOTA IDLE ACL ACL2=UNION] Courier-IMAP ready. Copyright 1998-2011 Double Precision, Inc. See COPYING for distribution information.
> A001 CAPABILITY
< * CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 UIDPLUS CHILDREN NAMESPACE THREAD=ORDEREDSUBJECT THREAD=REFERENCES SORT QUOTA IDLE ACL ACL2=UNION
< A001 OK CAPABILITY completed
> A002 LOGIN tony@<deleted>.plus.com *********
< A002 OK LOGIN Ok.
> A003 LIST "" *
< * LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "Archive"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "Archive"
< * LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "Junk"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "Junk"
< * LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "Notes"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "Notes"
< * LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "Deleted Messages"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "Deleted Messages"
< * LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "Sent Messages"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "Sent Messages"
< * LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "Trash"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "Trash"
< * LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "Spam"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "Spam"
< * LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "Drafts"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "Drafts"
< * LIST (\Unmarked \HasNoChildren) "." "INBOX"
* LIST (\Unmarked \HasNoChildren) "." "INBOX"
< A003 OK LIST completed
* Connection #0 to host mail.callnetuk.com left intact
TonysMao15Green:~ <deleted>-MBP15-Blue$

Moderator's note:
Personal information removed (to an area staff can see) as per Forum rules.

[#9]

@Boris27 

This would normally indicate a user name or password problem but Im sure of the user name and the user name and password combination sign me into the Plusnet general site fine.

From your test it seems that your email is a callnetuk one, is that correct ?

I'm not entirely sure about callnetuk as its a not very common legacy brand.  Can you try the diagnostics using the full email address as the username.

Also the password for the email account MAY not be the same as the one for your Plusnet account. However, how you change the callnetuk one , I've no idea.

edit: seems our posts crossed and you've made some progress.

If its a plusnet mail , then you should be selecting Plusnet in the diagnostics and it should then connect to imap.plus.net & relay.plus.net

[#10]

My email is a plusnet one.

[#11]

Then you should be selecting Plusnet in the diagnostics and it should then connect to imap.plus.net for incoming & relay.plus.net for the outgoing tests.

[#12]

Really sorry MisterW - Im very grateful for your help please bare with me -  Im obviously not doing something right on the diagnostic tool - whatever I do I keep getting callnet in the curl command - when I type in my email and select plusnet as my provider the resultant curl command should be available as a paste from clipboard is that correct ?

In the directions when it says "For your convenience after selecting the email brand, the relevant cURL commands will be copied to your clipboard, AFTER acknowleding the prompt." Im not sure what is meant by acknowledging the prompt as I dont see any prompt.

Also email format instructions are;    you@youraccount.branddomain.tld      so my email address is me@myaccount.plus.com do I replace plus.com with plus.tld

Why is my email address and password seemingly allowing login to callnet and getting a folder list ?

[#13]

@Boris27 

In the directions when it says "For your convenience after selecting the email brand, the relevant cURL commands will be copied to your clipboard, AFTER acknowleding the prompt." Im not sure what is meant by acknowledging the prompt as I dont see any prompt.

Some browsers dont work quite as well as others

I've generated the commands you need

curl -v imaps://imap.plus.net -u username
curl -v smtp://relay.plus.net:587 -u username --ssl-reqd

Replace username with your actual email address e.g mailbox@accountname.plus.com

Why is my email address and password seemingly allowing login to callnet and getting a folder list ?

I suspect that both callnet & plusnet use the same incoming server, the outgoing ones are different and that really the one we need to test i.e the command using relay.plus.net

[#14]

Thanks MiisterW - that worked and gave this result for incoming server which once again looks like my password has not been reccognised. I tried with every old password I have used over the years as well.

TonysMao15Green:~ tonyyates-MBP15-Blue$ curl -v imaps://imap.plus.net -u tony@<deleted>.plus.com
Enter host password for user 'tony@<deleted>.plus.com':
* Host imap.plus.net:993 was resolved.
* IPv6: (none)
* IPv4: 91.204.208.26
* Trying 91.204.208.26:993...
* Connected to imap.plus.net (91.204.208.26) port 993
* (304) (OUT), TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
* CAfile: /etc/ssl/cert.pem
* CApath: none
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Server hello (2):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Unknown (8):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Certificate (11):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, CERT verify (15):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* (304) (OUT), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* SSL connection using TLSv1.3 / AEAD-AES256-GCM-SHA384 / [blank] / UNDEF
* Server certificate:
* subject: jurisdictionCountryName=GB; businessCategory=Private Organization; serialNumber=03279013; C=GB; L=Sheffield; O=Plusnet plc; CN=mail.plus.net
* start date: Aug 15 00:00:00 2025 GMT
* expire date: Aug 14 23:59:59 2026 GMT
* subjectAltName: host "imap.plus.net" matched cert's "imap.plus.net"
* issuer: C=US; O=DigiCert Inc; CN=GeoTrust EV RSA CA G2
* SSL certificate verify ok.
< * OK IMAP4 ready
> A001 CAPABILITY
< * CAPABILITY IMAP4 IMAP4rev1 UIDPLUS AUTH=PLAIN
< A001 OK completed
> A002 AUTHENTICATE PLAIN
< +
> <deleted>
< A002 NO [AUTHENTICATIONFAILED] Authentication failed.
* Closing connection
curl: (67) Login denied

Moderator's note:
Personal information removed (to an area staff can see) as per Forum rules.

[#15]

Firstly, edit your post to remove your full email address, its a public forum

and redact the lines after the A002 authenticate plain

I'll add another reply shortly...