Unable to send emails from a Virgin connection + Escalation path

[#1]

Hi All,

Does anyone know the contact details of Plusnet's head of IT?  My issuse of not being able to send emails is now costing my wife money (see the topic "Unable to send emails") and I want to escalate it to whoever has some clout in this organisation.

Thanks for any replies

Mike

[#2]

Ho Folks, I have the same problem of not being able to send email with slightly different symptoms. It happened suddenly on November 12th and despite being on to Plusnet support several times, it is still not fixed.

I use Virgin for high speed internet access and access email on plusnet via SMTP, (Windows live mail client) and have done so for several years, when suddenly it stops being able to send and I get continual password challenges for Relay.plus.net.  It happened accross 6 email addresses on the same domain, so it is not a set up problem (been through that umpteem times with support) so it must be an account/server problem.

Yes I do have a plusnet account, but that is for backup and everything works hunky dory on that. Also, webmail works fine.

Proof of the problem is that I have another domain with Plusnet so I activated that, set up  a couple email addesses and they worked fine - this, again, points to an account/server problem, which Plusnet seem unable to fix.

My wife runs a small business on the email addresses and this is now impacting her business since she needs to keep all business emails on her client, not server side.

So, any ideas: does anyone have the contact details of plusnets Technical Manager as I want it fixed and not a work around. It worked and then it didn't, so something has changed - Reactions from support range from "We don't support Oulook" - yes you do, its a Pop3/SMTP client, to "You will have to use webmail then".  Eventually I managed to talk to a support manager who said it would be fixed within 24 hours. that was 2 days ago.

'Pulling my hair out' of Aylesbury

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Post moved from https://community.plus.net/t5/Email/Unable-to-send-emails/m-p/1592099#M25681 to keep support in one place..

[#3]

Dear All

I think I am seeing different symptoms of the same problem: fundamentally I can receive emails via POP on my domain, but relay.plus.net SMTP server keeps giving me User Name/Password challenges when trying to send.  (I come in over Virginmedia).   This happened simultaneously to 6 email addresses on the evening of November 12th .  Yet, I can send emails perfectly OK from another domain that I have with Plusnet.

Phone-in support seem to have hit a skill brick wall and 2nd/3rd line support seem to be non-existant.

I have posted this in the email thread, but then saw this thread and thought it might be relevant.

Kind regards

Mike

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Post moved from https://community.plus.net/t5/Email/False-rejection-of-valid-sender-domain/m-p/1592185#M25686 to keep support in one place.

[#4]

Moderator's note:

Several posts from various threads moved to one thread to keep support in one place.

[#5]

Is authentication set?
Needed for sending e mails from non PN server -in SMTP settings.
"Outgoing server requires authentication"

[#6]

Hi Gel,

yes it is set, and was set for several years when it woked fine.  If you look at the post again, it suddenly stopped on 6 email addresses for the same reason on the 12th of November.   The set up is fine, and exactly the same as that on the email address on another domain that works perfectly.  As far as I can see, it is account/server based but Plusnet refuse to accept the fact staring them in their face and do something. Plus, it work fine when I get the plusnet modem out and connect up over the PTSN landline.

This exact problem occured just over a year ago and they fixed it then after some escalation to 2nd/3rd line support.

Regards

Mike

[#7]

To the moderator Mav

What was the reason for adding in 2 post from me that were done in 2007.  This seems to add nothing to the existing problem.  Further, my post regarding non-existing domain problem was to add to the knowledge base in that thread.  Moving it here seems unnecessary.

Regards

Mike

[#8]

@madswitcher

Sorry about the slight brainstorm regarding the 2007 posts. I have now removed them from this thread.

The other post you mentioned was also moved as it seemed pertinent to your on-going issues and, rather have support shared over more than one thread, it is best to keep things together.

I hope that helps.

[#9]

Try here:
https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Email/Possible-problems-sending-email/td-p/3679447

[#10]

Are you using port 25 or 587?

[#11]

Hi again Gel,

As far as I can see, the problem you sent a URL about is purely for Viginmedia/NTLworld SMTP servers and not to external relay servers such as Relay.plus.net. The request to send from my client is reaching the Plusnet relay server, which is then sending me a Username/password challenge.  If I could not reach the plusnet relay server, I would get a different error message.  This points to it being an account-based problem

Further, as I stated in my earlier email, I have another plusnet domain that works perfectly ok with exactly the same settings including the same server and same port, indicating that this is an account based problem.

I have tried port 25 which gives the above UN/PW challenge continually.  I have also tried port 587 which does does nothing - no response.

Again, 6 emails accounts suddenly drop out, and all on the same domain. Another domain of mine with a test account set up works perfectly ok.  Something must have changed at the plusnet server side.

I am racking my brain about when it happened before: i am sure it was when plusnet locked my account because, up until then, I was getting free email services fom them and they then wanted me to pay.  I then got a bona fide plusnet account  and everthing worked well up until November 12th just gone.

As I said earlier, does anyone have the contact details of someone in plusnet with some clout to get this solved?

Regards

Mike

[#12]

Hi again guys

it would appear that I am not the only one having this problem as shown in this thread:

https://community.plus.net/t5/Email/Unable-to-send-emails/td-p/1590875/page/2

They seem to be having the same symptoms in the same manner

Mike

[#13]

Hi Mike.

Are you able to send mail via http://webmail.plus.net when on your Virgin Media supplied connection? Have you tried sending mail via your mail client via different connection altogether? This will narrow down where the issue may lie.

Failing that, mind sending me a PM with a screenshot of the settings you're using to send mail?

[#14]

Hi Gandalf,

This problem occurs on all 6 email accounts of my Hastings1066.plus.com domain.

I can quite happily send and receive using Webmail on the same accounts - all 6 of them. 

I have also generated a test account on my Hastings1066 domain and it gives the same result of UN/PW challenge when trying to send as the other 6 do.

I also have another domain, Hastings1603, from which I can send and receive over my Virgin link using the same client.  This has exactly the same configuration details as the Hastings1066 domain (servers etc.) and I can send and receive perfectly ok from a test account that I have set up on it .  The fact that the relay.plus.net is sending me a UN/PW challenge, means that the request to send is reaching the relay server, but it is blocking it. Again, this all points to a domain block of some form on my Hastings1066 account for some reason.

When I use my PSTN plusnet modem link everything works hunky dory, but that is relatively too slow compared to my Virgin 380Mb link and I only use it if Virgin is down, which is it has never been. 🙂

As I have pointed out several times, this happened suddenly on November 12 to all the Hastings1066 email accounts and the probability of all 6 being suddenly wrongly set up after 8 to 9 years of working fine is considerably low. It appears to me that something has changed with the permissions on the relay server to do with my hastings1066 account.  What other explanations can be logically deduced from the facts shown?

Kind regards

Mike

[#15]

Thanks for the detail Mike.

I've raised a task with our operational engineers and I'll update you when I know more.