Can't send email using relay.plus.net

[#1]

they ask you to fill it out by writing the server name as (using their example for gmail) smtp.gmail.com so should you be writing smtp.relay.plus.net

@DS if you're suggesting that the server name should always start with smtp , then nice try, but I'm afraid that's not the case. The server name is just that, a name for the outgoing mail server, yes many do start with smtp e.g the gmail one. However the Plusnet one is correct as relay.plus.net. As @Townman says there is an alias name smtp.plus.net which resolves to the same actual server. 

[#2]

Hi @Annie 

So what is the state of play here now?

Can you confirm that the email applications on both Win10 and Win11 boxes BOTH send emails without any issues - that is no logon failures and no delays in sending?

If the answer is yes, can you please try to set up the back up software email configuration just ONCE!  If that fails, retest sending with the email application.  If that fails run the SMTP diagnostics.

There is a mailbox hacking prevention measure which after an unspecified number of failures to successfully connect to the SMTP sever, will block all future connection attempts (even with the correct details) for an unspecified period of time.  However for the SMTP diagnostic test, that situation should report "too many password failures".

That is why I want you to attempt the back up software configuration just ONCE, so as to avoid other matters complicating what we are looking at.  If the back up software connection fails and the succeeding mail application test is successful, we can isolate the issue to the back up software email configuration set up.

If that appears to be where the issue is localised, I would suspect the issue is with the special character(s) used in the password.  Though if it is a single hyphen then that's not great!  If might be worth changing the special character to something else as a test.

[#3]

I have been trying to troubleshoot this all morning.

I wasn't getting anywhere so I decided to uninstall the Version 2024 of EaseUs ToDo Backup and put on the 2022 version. I found that the email notifications worked! However, other aspects of the program would not, such as verifying a backup image.

I put back on the 2024 version and I have the notification problem back again as well as the image verification issue, which might have been a recent problem that I have also had without me knowing. This is what I get in the EaseUs logs.

I checked Windows Defender for the Tbservice and this is what I see. I have tried unticking the two Tbservice.exe which are using the public network because I'm on a private network. Still no joy. I wonder whether I should try removing the two altogether and just leave one in place.

Next, I put on the 2023 version which I have already had on the Win 11 PC in the past and again, I have both problems.

I got an email back from EaseUs ToDo to say they have forwarded the report I generated from the program to their tech  team. I'm thinking if they still can't come up with something then I'll have to get up early and try their Live Chat.

@Townman I have still been able to send emails from the Mail app with both email addresses today. The SMTP diagnostic is saying 235 ... authentication succeeded and I have sent an email through the Mail app once more with success.

I am just a bit worried that I have managed to mess something up on my Windows machine when I played with the Workgroup. The 'PIPE failed to transmit data' error bothers me too.

I'm away from my computer for a number of hours now.

[#4]

Hi Annie,

You have done an amazing job here. An excellent diagnostic investigation of a complex and confusing situation. Some of the diagnostics have confused the situation - the failure of the SMTP test diagnostic was a real curved ball as that suggested a fundamental issue signing on to the SMTP server, which would also explain the email application failing.

Reverting to a previous version of the third party product and being able to see the diagnostic test, email and the back up software all work as expected with email is a good place to be. It means that the email side is working as expected.

The later versions of the product not working most certainly points to changes with the new versions being the causes of your symptoms. The fact that the SMTP diagnostics and email still work with a later version installed suggests that the original installation did something to foul up something!!

The error code reported by the back up software is not to be found on the internet, suggesting that it is very specific to the product. The error description references SSL - to me that provokes the question of what do they mean by “SSL”? SMTP on port 587 uses STARTTLS, whereas the deprecated port 465 uses SSL/TLS which is not the same.

Have you tried to get the back up email messaging working without “SSL”?

If it works without, try port 465 with.

[#5]

@Townman 

Thanks for your message. I have tried all configurations of email ports with and without the tick without success using the Plusnet servers. I'm currently back using the 2024 version of the program. It is so strange because it was previously working with both 2023 and 2024 beforehand. I never had the 2022 version on my PC before I troubleshooted.

Just checked again to see if I can use the Gmail mail servers which I can. If all else fails then I can go on with this as a workaround.

However, and this is a biggie, I now see the program is playing up in so many different ways.

• I have discovered that I cannot verify a backup image.
• Email not working on the Plusnet server.
• Had an error saying 'PIPE failed to transmit data'.
• Then a backup failed with the error 'Invalid data' which their website suggests 'Long destination path, the path you set is out of system limitation, please specify a short path and try again.' BTW, this path is not especially long and I've been backing up with longer paths before. And in any case, similar backups went through OK after this.
• They provide an image explorer program (a bit like Windows Explorer but for their backup files) and I get that program freezing when I drill down to certain folders in the backip images.

Unfortunately, EaseUs didn't email me last night as they promised so I am going to get up early tomorrow and see if I can take part in their live chat as their program has gone terribly wrong on this PC for no reason that I can see.

A final thought, when I was closing down my other PC yesterday, I saw a message saying something like Monitor Cisco was still open and I think it referenced the other machine. Is it possible that I have managed to screw up some network settings or something as it seems like I'm having trouble sending data to various places? Is there an easy way to check? It's worth noting that the backups I've been performing have actually been to external hard drives plugged into the motherboard of the PC so I see no reason for this.

I do not understand networking but I did do a Network reset on the Windows 11 machine which made no difference.

I looked in the router and I don't see any other devices using the same IP address.

Could I have messed up something with Telnet? I was new to this - could I have typed something wrong to make things worse? Is that even possible? Sorry I'm so green.

[#6]

Just to reassure @Annie I loaded the latest version of Easeus backup on Win 11 running on a VM. I use Force9 settings.

Tried all SMTP options but nothing would pass the email test. Changing the setting to my usual  email host all configurations worked including port 25 which is the software default.

[#7]

@Champnet Thank you for that very interesting piece of information. That is extremely useful to know.

[#8]

@Champnet 

"Tried all SMTP options but nothing would pass the email test."

For clarity, the email test failed with using the F9 SMTP server, however did the application send any emails successfully?  I want to rule out the possibility that it is only the test function which fails.

"my usual  email host"

Is that some other provider, not being Plusnet?

@Annie 

There is only one sure way to know exactly what is going on here - run Wireshark to capture the sign-on dialogue sent to the SMTP server.  Such will be tedious.  I am left with the suspicion that the application is not sending the logon details cleanly - it works with the 2022 version but not 2023 or 2024 versions, so something got changed.

Can you please try using your email address instead of your Plusnet Account name in the sign on dialogue.  You might want to run a SMTP diagnostic test using that swap.

Also for reassurance, you will not have done any local damage with the telnet session to Plusnet's servers.

[#9]

@Townman  Being a prior force 9 customer I used  relay.force9.net - email test failed. Usual email host is Ecohost.

[#10]

So this is where I'm at now. EaseUs sent me a file called Email.dll overnight and told me to place it into one of the program folders. However, I'm now coming up against an issue even trying to do this.

After following all the advice on this webpage (https://www.easeus.com/computer-instruction/action-cant-be-completed-because-file-open.html) I cannot overcome this.

This is what File Locksmith shows me. I'm able to end the tasks and TrayProcess.exe which is to do with the backup program stays shut but the other processes come right back even after restarting Explorer in Task Manager.

So I can't even implement their suggested fix it seems.

@Townman I was wondering whether I could have inadvertently made changes to my Windows 11 PC by doing some of the diagnostics if I typed something incorrectly.

In addition, I am wondering whether something has happened to Windows Explorer. There's a bit of a back story to this. I got this PC in October and loaded on almost all of my programs when I began to find, all of a sudden, I couldn't rename a folder containing an EaseUs ToDo backup file or disconnect the USB external hard drive without restarting Windows Explorer in Task Manager. It came around the time of the Windows 23H2 update but also when I had initially brought my PC back from an EaseUs ToDo backup to overcome another problem so I don't really know what was responsible for the issue.

In the end I decided to do a clean install of Windows 11 (a new steep learning curve for me) and get all my programs on. I stopped for December and picked this up again in January. I got almost all the way to the end of this when I noticed EaseUs ToDo wasn't sending the emails.

You may recall in an earlier post, I got the message Invalid Data during an attempted backup task. Apparently, the EaseUs website states this error is to do with a 'Long destination path, the path you set is out of system limitation'. I'm not convinced that it is because subsequent backups have gone through. However, when I brought over my Firefox profile to the new machine I was met with a similar long path issue during the copy process. It was only the storage folder so it wasn't important but I note that I had no issues copying from the old PC to my NAS drive in the first place, just to the Win 11 machine.

It seems strange that this long path thing has cropped up twice now and the issue to do with a file or folder still being open also again. I realise that this is moving away from the topic and is probably a place for another forum elsewhere but I thought I'd mention how I'm getting on in view of the helpful replies I've been having here.

I didn't go on the Live Chat this morning because I thought I'd try the Email.dll file solution first. I'll try to speak directly with EaseUs tomorrow.

[#11]

Hi Annie,

You need to check to see if this is a folder access or lock issue or a file lock issue.

Can you create a new file in that folder?  Just right click, select new and create a .txt file.

If that is successful, then the file you are trying to replace must be locked by the application (or some hidden bit of it).  You will need to stop the application in its entirety - you might need to use task manager to kill it off.  If you cannot kill it off, you'll need to do a restart and then replace the file.

EDIT PS: Have you used the Power Toys File Locksmith tool?  Install Power Toys, then in File Explorer SHIFT+Right-Click on the file name.

If you cannot create a new file, then the issue is at the folder level - access permissions might need review.

As for the long path name issue, see here File name too long for destination folder - Microsoft Community especially the last post.

[#12]

---

@Annie wrote:

So this is where I'm at now. EaseUs sent me a file called Email.dll overnight and told me to place it into one of the program folders. However, I'm now coming up against an issue even trying to do this.

Try renaming existing email.dll, I.E email.dll.old, then add new file.

[#13]

@Champnet thanks for the tip. It worked. Funny thing is I had actually saved the original Email.dll file elsewhere and called it old just in case I needed it again but I'd left the original in the folder. Renaming it allowed me to put the replacement in there.

Sadly the email notification issue wasn't fixed with this new file though. Groan!

@Townman I created a new folder inside the bin folder but was not able to save a .txt test file into it. Instead this is what I got.

Here's the permissions screen for the main bin folder.

I believe I'm logged in as the Administrator called Chelsea. Is it usual to get this message? This came up before I tried to save that Email.dll into the bin folder before the rename above. Pressing Continue allowed me to move to the next step although it then failed of course. Does this indicate that I'm logged in as the Administrator?

EaseUs never told me I'd have to jump through these hoops to get the dll file into the folder so I'm wondering whether a permissions problem is still the culprit.

EDIT: I misread your instructions @Townman and created a folder within the bin folder. I have managed to paste a test .txt file into the bin folder and deleted it too.

[#14]

Yes I downloaded Power Toys File Locksmith and posted a screenshot above.

[#15]

Screenshot where please? Though you have since got the new file installed it does fit really matter.

State of play remains that email works with the mail applications but not the backup software. Did you try using the email address as the login credentials?

What is the special character(s) in the password? I’m clutching at straws here!!!

I have another idea to look at, but I’m not hopeful. You need to demonstrate to the product vendor that you known the email credentials, can get their 2022 product working but not 2023/24 versions.

However working with a different mail provider but not Plusnet remains perplexing! I fear this will need a wireshark capture. You give the impression of being fairly IT savvy - you might care to take a look at wire shark!!?