Accessing my Freenetname mails in Outlook

[#1]

Hi

I have a Freenetname/Madasafish email account.  For years, I've had it, and a couple of other email accounts (gmail, yahoo) added to Outlook.  Recently, delivery of my Freenetname mails to Outlook became sporadic.  In the last few days, it's stopped completely.  I can still access the mails by logging into my Madasfish webmail but I'd really prefer to have all my mails from various accounts in one place. 

In Outlook, I tried several times to sync the freenetname account.  Each time it said that it couldn't make contact with the server.  In the end, I deleted the account from Outlook and tried to re-create it.  At that point, I realised that I don't know what settings I need!

So, the question is "In Outlook, how do I add and configure an account that will receive mails sent to my Freenetname account?

Thanks

[#2]

Hello @howard

Thanks a lot for getting in touch and I'm sorry to hear that you're having issues with your freenetname account. The settings you'd need are as follows:

Incoming server - mail.freenetname.co.uk

Port 110 for POP3, and Port 143 for IMAP.

Outgoing server (SMTP) -smtpmail.freenetname.co.uk

Port 25 or 587.

[#3]

Hi Adam

Thanks.  I tried the IMAP settings first.  They returned error "We were unable to reach your email provider.  Please check your server settings, or try again later." That's the error I've had previously.

I then tried the POP3 settings.  This time I get "TLS negotiation failed with status "InvalidToken".

For both IMAP and POP3 I tried both outgoing SMTP port numbers, with the same result.

Any ideas?

Howard

PS. I just tried setting it up on my phone.  It asks me for POP3 username and password and SMTP username and password.  I'm not prompted for those when I try to set it up via my online Outlook account.

[#4]

Thanks for getting back to me @howard

I've just refreshed and reconfigured the components on our side, give it another go when you can and let me know how you get on.

[#5]

@adam945 I've tried several times over the last couple of days, but still no luck I'm afraid.

[#6]

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@howard wrote:

I then tried the POP3 settings.  This time I get "TLS negotiation failed with status "InvalidToken".

For both IMAP and POP3 I tried both outgoing SMTP port numbers, with the same result.

---

The information provided above is not appropriate for encrypted (TLS) connections.

For encrypted connections you need...

• IMAP Port 993 with SSL/TLS
• POP3 Port 995 with SSL/TLS
• SMTP Port 587 with STARTTLS

You also need to check that the server names are correct - Outlook guesses at server names and invariably gets them wrong.  You need to configure them manually.

[#7]

Hiya @howard, thanks for getting back to us. I would advise to follow @Townman advice and let us know how that goes.

[#8]

Still no luck.  With those port numbers, I no longer get the TLS error, but I get "Unable to reach your email provider..."

In Outlook live, there's no option to select StartTLS.

If I try in the Outlook app on my phone, I do get the StartTLS option, but I'm also asked for a POP3 and SMTP username and password.

I worry that we might be getting into the realms of user error 😟

See attached.

[#9]

Thanks for getting back to us, for the authentication type can you please advise what other options it gives you?

Have you been able to get any success when entering your username and password on Outlook on your phone?

[#10]

@LaurenB Here you go:

On the Outlook app, here are the fields and options (it wouldn’t let me screen grab it because of security policy 😞 )

• Email address: I’ve inserted [my_userid]@freenetname.co.uk
• Display name
• Description
• POP Host Name and Port (POP Incoming Email Server0. Options are:
  1. SSL/TLS
  2. Start Tls,
  3. None
• POP Username: No idea
• POP Password: No idea
• SMTP Host Name and Port (SMTP Outgoing Mail Server).  Options are:
  1. SSL/TLS
  2. Start Tls,
  3. None
• SMTP Username: No idea
• SMTP Password: No idea

On Outlook.live.com, these are the fields and options:

• Display name
• Email address
• Username
• Password
• Choose your connection type:

1. IMAP/SMTP connection settings
2. POP/SMTP connection settings: This is the one I’m selecting
3. SMTP send-only connection settings

• Incoming (POP) server
• Incoming server port (defaults to 995)
• Leave a copy of messages on the server: checked
• Authentication:

1. Basic
2. SPA

• Encryption

1. SSL
2. TLS
3. None

• Outgoing (SMTP) server
• Outgoing server port: defaults to 587
• Use different username and password to send mails: Unchecked

[#11]

The first thing which jumps out is “no idea” to the key bits of data - user name and password.

It is not enough to specify just the email address, you need to supply the user NAME as well which might well be the same as the email address.

[#12]

Ah, I should have mentioned that I'd tried that already. Because it didn't work, I assumed it needed some other user id and password.
Anyway, I started again on my phone. This time, the POP and SMTP server fields auto- filled with plusnet server names, rather than freenetname. Having put in my username and password, it works!

[#13]

Hi @howard 

I’ve taken a look at this for you and as I’ve been typing, it looks like you’ve figured out the issue and sorted it 

The Freenetname (or Madasafish in general) e-mail servers don’t support secure authentication, so you won’t be able to use SSL/TLS or STARTTLS, however you can though use the Plusnet servers which do support this, those settings are Here.

If you select none/basic authentication, you should be able to setup your emails using the details Adam’s given, but I’d recommend using the Plusnet servers.

Let us know if you need any further help.

[#14]

@Anoush @Townman @LaurenB @adam945 Well, "figured it out" is probably putting it a bit strongly, but we got there in the end!  Thanks all.

[#15]

Glad to see that it's sorted @howard

Give us a nudge if you need any further support at all.