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iPhone - emails work ok on my Wifi, but not on 3G

chaswick
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Registered: ‎04-08-2007

iPhone - emails work ok on my Wifi, but not on 3G

I am sure this must not be a new problem, so please excuse me if it has bee raised before!
Both my wife and myself have changed from Android to iPhones. Although our Plusnet email accounts work fine on our iPhones when using our Wifi, we can't send or receive emails when out and about on 3G. I previously had no such problems with the same settings on my Android phone. Am I overlooking something simple?
9 REPLIES 9
MisterW
Superuser
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Re: iPhone - emails work ok on my Wifi, but not on 3G

Quote
Although our Plusnet email accounts work fine on our iPhones when using our Wifi, we can't send or receive emails when out and about on 3G
Not sure why receiving shouldn't work but the sending issue is probably because you haven't got authentication correctly configured for the outgoing server. There's a setup guide here http://www.plus.net/support/email/setup/ios-setup.shtml . The iPhone seems to take a lot of convincing NOT to use SSL for authentication and you may have the press the 'Yes' to try without SSL a couple of times to really convince it!

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

chaswick
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Posts: 51
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Registered: ‎04-08-2007

Re: iPhone - emails work ok on my Wifi, but not on 3G

Quote from: MisterW
Quote
Not sure why receiving shouldn't work but the sending issue is probably because you haven't got authentication correctly configured for the outgoing server. There's a setup guide here http://www.plus.net/support/email/setup/ios-setup.shtml . The iPhone seems to take a lot of convincing NOT to use SSL for authentication and you may have the press the 'Yes' to try without SSL a couple of times to really convince it!

Yes, I did have a bit of a problem with the NOT setting for SSL initially, but I solved that. As I have said, emails work with no problems both incoming and outgoing on wifi, but not with 3G. Incidentally, I am on the Vodafone network. Are there any compatibility problems with Vodafone and Plusnet when handling mail?
ReedRichards
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Re: iPhone - emails work ok on my Wifi, but not on 3G

I would have thought you would need to set the outgoing mail (SMTP) port to 587 and enable authentication with your Plusnet user name and password to be more sure of sending emails.  Not sure why receiving does not work.
bobpullen
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Re: iPhone - emails work ok on my Wifi, but not on 3G

FWIW, I've never had any problems using either port 25 or 587 on Vodafone.

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
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ReedRichards
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Registered: ‎14-07-2009

Re: iPhone - emails work ok on my Wifi, but not on 3G

I have no specific experience of Vodafone but in general Port 25 is more likely to be blocked than Port 587.
chaswick
Rising Star
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Registered: ‎04-08-2007

Re: iPhone - emails work ok on my Wifi, but not on 3G

Quote from: chaswick
I am sure this must not be a new problem, so please excuse me if it has bee raised before!
Both my wife and myself have changed from Android to iPhones. Although our Plusnet email accounts work fine on our iPhones when using our Wifi, we can't send or receive emails when out and about on 3G. I previously had no such problems with the same settings on my Android phone. Am I overlooking something simple?

I don't seem to be getting very far with this problem. Perhaps I haven't explained it very well. Emails work fine on both my wife's iPhone 4S and on mine too when connected to Wifi. But when we are on 3G we can't send or receive. The message we get when trying to receive emails on 3G is "Cannot Get Mail. The mail server imap.plus.net is not responding. Verify that you have entered the correct account info in Mail settings". The strange thing is that as soon as we are in range of our Wifi it all works ok. I have just deleted my mail account and reloaded it, but still the same problem.
Earlier I said we were with Vodafone - actually it is with Talkmobile who use the Vodafone network. I have tried to raise this problem with Talkmobile on a Webchat but gave up after one hour as the advisor couldn't understand my problem and we went round in circles for all that time!
I am sure there must be a simple explanation for this. Incidentally, I am on Port 25 on Outgoing Server.
Help! Embarrassed
bobpullen
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Re: iPhone - emails work ok on my Wifi, but not on 3G

Quote from: chaswick
Incidentally, I am on Port 25 on Outgoing Server.

I would suggest trying port 587.
Quote from: chaswick
The message we get when trying to receive emails on 3G is "Cannot Get Mail. The mail server imap.plus.net is not responding.

That said, imap.plus.net will be using port 143.
It could well be that Talkmobile are intercepting the traffic/blocking the ports.
Do you have a laptop you could tether to one of the iPhones so it's using the Talkmobile network? If so, then you could try opening a command prompt on the laptop and try a direct connection to the servers like this:
C:\Windows\System32>telnet imap.plus.net 143
* OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 UIDPLUS CHILDREN NAMESPACE THREAD=ORDEREDSUBJECT THRE
AD=REFERENCES SORT QUOTA IDLE ACL ACL2=UNION] Courier-IMAP ready. Copyright 1998
-2011 Double Precision, Inc.  See COPYING for distribution information.

C:\Windows\System32>telnet relay.plus.net 25
Trying 212.159.9.107...
Connected to relay.plus.net.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 avasout03 smtp relay.plus.net

C:\Windows\System32>telnet relay.plus.net 587
Trying 212.159.9.107...
Connected to relay.plus.net.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 avasout03 smtp relay.plus.net

If you see anything other than the responses above, then something's blocking the connection to the servers.

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
If I've been helpful then please give thanks ⤵

chaswick
Rising Star
Posts: 51
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Registered: ‎04-08-2007

Re: iPhone - emails work ok on my Wifi, but not on 3G

Blimey, Bob. I'll have to get my head round that! I actually have an iMac, not a PC. As a computer novice I think I am going to have difficulties following your instructions, but i'll try when I have the time.
bobpullen
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Re: iPhone - emails work ok on my Wifi, but not on 3G

Applications > Utilities > Terminal on a Mac. The telnet commands are the same.

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
If I've been helpful then please give thanks ⤵