Unable to send emails with attachments (via Outlook 2010)

[#1]

Everything's been working fine - I haven't changed any settings - but this morning my Outlook 2010 decided it wasn't going to send emails with attachments, whatever the size. I made a quick call to Plusnet (quick in the sense that by the time my call was answered I had very little time for it before I had to start work!), where the advisor said that it must be a Microsoft problem.

As someone who's not extremely techy, I've been tearing my hair out trying various solutions found by looking up error codes 0x8004210B and 0x800CCC0F (it varies as to which comes up), to no avail.

And if I can receive OK, and can send emails without attachments, couldn't that mean it's a problem with Plusnet's SMTP server? 

Any advice welcome!

[#2]

It would appear to be a Plusnet problem not Microsoft.

I am having a similar problem sending attachments using Mozilla Thunderbird with a 1 and 1 email account accessed using my ISP Plusnet. The problem does not occur if I access the internet via EE using my mobile phone as a portable WiFi hotspot, thus not using any Plusnet systems.

I use Mozilla Thunderbird for email and have it setup to use three email accounts with 1 and 1 email, plusnet email and also my old sky email which still works even though I am no longer a customer of sky. I mainly use 1 and 1 for email and since Wednesday 31st May I can't send emails with attachments using the 1 and 1 email account and get a time out message when connected to the internet via Plusnet. Email messages without attachments seem to send without problem. The attachments are not large, just 40kb. However I can send emails with attachments using my plusnet or sky email accounts.

The outgoing settings for the 1 and 1 email account are:

Server name: auth.smtp.1and1.co.uk

Port: 587

Authentication method: Normal password

Connection Security: STARTTLS

The settings for the Plusnet and sky email accounts are different.

[#3]

I was going to attach an image showing the error message but sending the message with an attachment using this forum failed so it would appear to be a more general problem than just with sending email attachments.

[#4]

I am having the same issues. Suddenly I cannot send emails with attachments any larger than 1MB. I have switched to sending via another account on the same computer - all fine. It appears to be a plusnet issue

[#5]

1 and 1 is working fine for me, I've just successfully sent (and received) a 5 MB file through the auth.smtp.1and1,co,uk server although I use port 25 and TLS.

[#6]

This is what happens when I try to send an email using 1 and 1 with an attachment via Plusnet. I was only able to post this image via EE internet through my phone as trying to do so via Plusnet fails. The problem seems to be with security of messages with attachments whether it be with emails or even messages with attachments to this very forum.

I was hoping to raise a support ticket with Plusnet but the only option seems to either use online chat or phone, so haven't done so as neither is satisfactory.

Hopefully a member of support staff will read this thread and sort the issue.

[#7]

@jjlothin - Please could you confirm the type of file you're trying to send, the size of the file and also confirm if you experience the same problem when trying via Outlook and via Webmail.

@delta777 - If you're using a non-plusnet email address and a non-plusnet outbound server. The problems you're experiencing are likely not related to us.

@Dan6 - Welcome to the community forums.

Is the email address you're experiencing problems with a plusnet email address? I'm assuming the other email account that worked was not a plusnet email?

Could you also confirm if you have the same problems via a client and via webmail

[#8]

As I have already explained the problem is with Plusnet as the problem only occurs when I connect to the internet via Plusnet, the problem does not occur when I connect to the internet via EE.

You have not addressed the related but similar problem of why an attachment can not be included with a message in this forum.

[#9]

I'm afraid that I'd agree with @HarryB advice on the email issue, as none of the email services you're using are Plusnet it's very unlikely the problem is here and extremely unlikely it's related to the original post about attachments from a Plusnet mail account.

Attachments can be added to this forum, however that is not what this thread was started to query, can you start a separate thread regarding that so this one isn't taken off track.

[#10]

I know that attachments can be added to messages in this forum but I wasn't able to do that this afternoon when connected to the internet via Plusnet. I was only able to include an attachment to a message by connecting to the internet via EE.

I think that you have missed the point that there was probably a single underlying cause of that problem and also the problem of sending of attachements in emails for some accounts.

There has also been another problem of sluggish loading of web pages and security issues with https pages including this site.

These were three symptoms of what was almost certainly a single common problem within Plusnet and it would be silly to create a seperate thread for each symptom. I was hoping that someone in the know would join the dots up and sort out the root cause. Trying to blame the problem on my external email provider and telling the original poster that his problem must be with Microsoft wasn't at all helpful.

As of now I can now send emails with attachments through my external email provider (1 and 1) when connected to the internet via Plusnet. Also the loading of webpages is now fast again.

If the attachment included here, which shows one of the errors I was getting earlier, gets through then the general connectivity problems seem to have been resolved without there being an acknowledgment that there was a problem.

[#11]

Much to my amazement, after my third phone call to Plusnet this morning (not to speak of the hour upon hour of hair-tearing trying everything I could find on Google!), the problem resolved itself.

It's got to have been a Plusnet issue, even though 2 out of the 3 Plusnet people I spoke to said it was probably Microsoft.

The guy I spoke to just before 10 last night said that it would be worth 'refreshing' my account (whatever the hell that means!), as that might fix it, though it would take up to 4 hours to work. I'm assuming that the fact things suddenly started to flow again after 9 this morning was a delayed result of that 'refreshing'.

I have to say, it's extremely frustrating not being able to raise a 'ticket' online anymore: I hadn't realised till this issue came up that this was no longer possible. The age of Plusnet austerity ...:

[#12]

Thanks for letting us know the attachments are working again for you.

[#13]

No problem! Although the whole frustrating episode (who knew how many emails I send need to include attachments?) has not exactly endeared Plusnet to me ...