email not working

[#1]

Wonder if theres anyone can help with this?

I have an old @freenetname email ony account that has worked pretty well for the last 20 plus years. Then as of Monday morning....nothing. Nothing through via my tablets email client and when I try to sign in direct from a browser there is nothing showing in inbox, sent etc. Ive had to swop a few things onto my gmail address but some of course require verification from the original address. A chat with a pleasant but unknowing guy at plus net suggested only that there maybe to much in the account or a security compromise. Either way he wasnt sure how long it would take to sort. In the meantime i'm stuck with very limited email access.

Any Suggestions gratefully recieved!

[#2]

I'm getting the same on my Globalnet account, on Mac, e mail stopped working Monday for no apparent reason. Been bounced back and fore between Apple and Plusnet but sill no resolution

[#3]

A warm welcome to both of you.  The following might be of assistance...

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.

[#4]

Hi Townman great to get a reply! I wish I could try your suggestion but my attempts to login via a browser leave me waiting for several minutes before I get either fetch failed or timed out. I then have a screen that displays  only headings but no detail ( no messages displayed). It is unresponsive So I'm  unable to access settings etc. Bizarrely I did get a batch of emails through this morning. Don't suppose you have any more suggestions?

FYI it's a freenetname mail only account which after madasafish is now at plusnet

[#5]

Well that's good news, it does mean that your email address is not subject to a security concern password change.  Though Plusnet has taken over all of the brands, the legacy email systems remain distinct and therefore one needs to discern their when offering support advice.

As to webmail performance, try this...

Slow webmail

There is a known gremlin in the third party Round Cube webmail program which can cause delays in listing emails - see the end user mitigation post at the top of the Email board here. It somewhat appears that any sorting or filtering on a large mailbox cripples the performance of RC webmail, where as the 'basic' webmail program (Squirrel Mail) is not affected. Using Squirrel Mail can be an effective way of accessing a mail box which is running slow with RC.

There is no necessity to restrict your access to your Plusnet email via the Plusnet Webmail interface. Virtually every IT device comes with an in-built email program which can be configured to access your Plusnet email service. See the setting up an email client guide.

[#6]

Thanks again Townman. Tried your suggestion to no avail. The only time I've managed to get a plusnet rep on the phone  he suggested either security issue or full inbox and said he was sending an internal request to open it back up. Almost a week later and no movement. But yes I agree with you that occasional access suggests security is not the issue. If there's any way of expiditing the reopening of the account that may help? Thanks again

[#7]

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@chisnell wrote:

Then as of Monday morning....nothing. Nothing through via my tablets email client and when I try to sign in direct from a browser there is nothing showing in inbox, sent etc.

A chat with a pleasant but unknowing guy at plus net suggested only that there maybe to much in the account or a security compromise.

Rereading your original post...

When you report that there is "nothing showing" do you mean that the inbox is really empty or that its content is not populated?

Are the devices configured as IMAP or POP3?

Webmail - exactly what happens?  Have you tried the squirrel mail interface?

Try logging into the mailbox using this third party webmail client - https://mail2web.com/

[#8]

Hi Townman

Ok have just tried mail2web and after a couple of goes I got in and could see all recent emails so good to know that tip

Your other points

All the navigation icons are present and in the bottom right is a number indicating the email in the inbox but the main fields are no populated.

My tablet has outlook for android and is pop3 but I was given to understand that the old freenetname wouldn't delete from the home server - and it doesn't for me!

I tried the select none trick earlier but nothing happens

While on mail2web I deleted a few pages of emails and since then my outlook account has received a couple of emails so maybe I need to sit down for an hour and delete some more

Some great tips which have got me back in so thanks

[#9]

That rather sounds as though your mailbox might be full.  I believe that the freenetname  accounts did not have very large email storage allowances and they simply stop accepting email when they are full.  Those service come from a time when people only had one computing device on which to read their emails and POP3 was vogue so large amounts of storage on a server was not much of a requirement.

The decision on if "freenetname wouldn't delete from the home server" is nothing to do with the service provider, but everything to do with how YOUR email client is configured.  If it is POP3 then by default it will delete from the server.  If you have changed the settings to leave on the server, then from your view of the mailbox, via your POP3 client, you are not likely to be sure what is held both locally and on the server verses that which is only held locally.

If you wish to access a mailbox from multiple devices, it is less confusing if all devices use IMAP (webmail is an IMAP client).  Use of IMAP alongside a smaller mailbox does require the user to consider proactive archiving of emails to local storage (as opposed to wholesale deletion).

It sounds as though you now have access to the mailbox and are able to start to manage the situation.  When you have got things sorted, please do consider hitting the big green button against whichever post lead you to fixing your problem.