Can't download emails to thunderbird

[#1]

@Townman 

Thanks very much for the IMAP settings.  Please can you tell me what Authentication method I should be setting:

HAHAHA!! I just tried to download via the POP3 account and it ALL WORKS Again!!  Let's wait to see how long this lasts.

My HUGE thanks to Townman and Everyone else for offering information and advice.  Truly grateful for all the Community assistance here.

I do of course reserve the right to come back here if it stops working again.  😃

[#2]

Can you try the cURL POP3 diagnostic again please.

Unwittingly, you have contributed to the activity of creating new server connectivity test tools ... it will be very interesting to see the difference in the not working / working outputs from the cURL command.

It is one thing to run the commands, see and understand the 'managed' failures, but the real interest arises from the odd-ball outturns such as this.  Understanding the outturns informs the follow-up action required.  Yours was a "cannot think of a logical cause ... therefore lets just hammer the mail component!!!".

As I thought I had mentioned, with the settings I posted, encryption would be TLS/SSL for either of IMAP or POP3.

[#3]

@Dan_the_Van 

Thank you for the feedback.  I will get back to you via PM when I have more to share.  The platform details are way over my head, so I will explore that with you and others as I develop this material further.

Did your password have any characters requiring special considerations?  I am unclear if that is a real issue or a red herring found blindly researching @Purvez 's failure report.

A bit more spit and polish and I think we will have a very useful toolkit for assisting users diagnosing email connectivity issues across the whole brand portfolio.  The 'spit and polish' can come from wherever there's knowledge and experience!

[#4]

@Townman 

I use mainly letters and numbers in my passwords, the only special characters I can think of are # and $. As pointed out I've seen an issue with $.

The advantage of cURL it is available on windows, where telnet isn't 

[#5]

... telnet is there, it just needs enabling:-

Settings -> System -> Optional Features -> (scroll to bottom) More Windows Features -> Opens dialogue to install all of the really interesting stuff!!!

[#6]

@Townman 

Here's the POP3S curl output.

curl -v pop3s://mail.free-online.net -u ???:???
* Rebuilt URL to: pop3s://mail.free-online.net/
*   Trying 217.46.26.35...
* TCP_NODELAY set
* Connected to mail.free-online.net (217.46.26.35) port 995 (#0)
* successfully set certificate verify locations:
*   CAfile: /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
  CApath: /etc/ssl/certs
* TLSv1.3 (OUT), TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Server hello (2):
* TLSv1.2 (IN), TLS handshake, Certificate (11):
* TLSv1.2 (IN), TLS handshake, Server finished (14):
* TLSv1.2 (OUT), TLS handshake, Client key exchange (16):
* TLSv1.2 (OUT), TLS change cipher, Client hello (1):
* TLSv1.2 (OUT), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* TLSv1.2 (IN), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* SSL connection using TLSv1.2 / AES256-GCM-SHA384
* Server certificate:
*  subject: jurisdictionC=GB; businessCategory=Private Organization; serialNumber=03279013; C=GB; L=Sheffield; O=Plusnet plc; CN=mail.plus.net
*  start date: Aug 19 00:00:00 2024 GMT
*  expire date: Aug 18 23:59:59 2025 GMT
*  subjectAltName: host "mail.free-online.net" matched cert's "mail.free-online.net"
*  issuer: C=US; O=DigiCert Inc; CN=GeoTrust EV RSA CA G2
*  SSL certificate verify ok.
< +OK POP3 perditon ready on mail.free-online.net 0002a1a7
> CAPA
< +OK Capability list follows, mate
< UIDL
< USER
< .
> USER ???
< +OK USER  set, mate
> PASS ???
< +OK logged in.
> LIST
< +OK POP3 clients that break here, they violate STD53.

* Connection #0 to host mail.free-online.net left intact

Hope this helps.  This WAAY above my pay grade. 😃

Thanks for continuing to help.

An UPDATE : So far the POP3 connection is working.on Thunderbird.

[#7]

Thank you. Something changed; before you were not seeing a clear confirmation of the logon.

This test report removes doubt / consideration of there being a client side / environment contribution to the failure. I’ll see if tech support have an explanation for what has been seen.

Thank you for your contribution to the community’s knowledge.

[#8]

@Townman 

I'm glad to have been of 'some' assistance in the improvement of knowledge.

The login worked today as well from Thunderbird.  I'll monitor daily but only report back here IF there are further problems.

Thanks to everyone for giving their time, knowledge and advice so freely.

[#9]

@Purvez 

A question about the userID you're using for the curl command is it

1) accountname:password

2) accountname+mailbox:password

3) mailbox@accountname.free-online.co.uk:password

It will help with my understanding of the best option for userID to use

Thanks

[#10]

@Dan_the_Van 

Any of those should work, certainly for Plusnet, Force9 and Free-online, indeed for these a hosted domain email address also works.

This is a timely question as that is the exact detail I am writing up at this very moment ... and need to clarify with the business.  I have done some rework on what I shared yesterday and will have something more for you to look at soon.

[#11]

@Dan_the_Van 

In the curl command I was using accountname:password.  I was just following what Townman and you were instructing me with.

Sorry also meant to say....it's still behaving itself.