Emails no longer sending from client (Thunderbird or iPhone) but OK via Webmail

[#1]

Hello everyone. Apologies for my first post being a problem that I've just had pop up with my email!

I'm no longer a Plusnet broadband customer but have kept my *@*.plus.com mailbox from when I was a customer for many, many years. I access my mail via IMAP using Thunderbird on my desktop and the mail clients on iPhone and iPad, which hasn't been a problem until recently.

I last successfully sent an email from my desktop on Monday 26th February just before 10pm. The next day, I tried to send an email from my desktop just before 2pm and got a 'Login to server relay.plus.net with username *** failed.' A few clicks of the 'Retry' button gives me 'Sending of the message failed. An error occurred while sending mail. The mail server responded: Polite people say HELO first. Please verify that your email address is correct in your account settings and try again.'

I get similar errors when trying to send emails from my iPhone. Everything seems to work OK using Webmail, though I'd prefer to use my normal email client for work emails, spell-checker, contacts etc. I had not changed any settings and they have been confirmed by Plusnet Support, who have been helpful but cannot shed any more light on the problem.

Is there something that has changed with the relay.plus.net server or my account that I need to investigate further?

Thanks in advance for any guidance from the community.

Mankee.

[#2]

There are a number of reasons why access to the SMTP server may fail, problem is that email clients are not good at giving the real reason! Perhaps you could enable SMTP debug in thunderbird  https://michalzuber.wordpress.com/2023/02/04/debugging-smtp-connection-in-thunderbird/and post the log.

That should give the real reason. It's likely an IP reputation problem

[#3]

@MisterW Your link is slightly 'wrong' - the 'and' has got included in it. 😉

[#4]

Thanks John, it's a bit late to edit it now though..

[#5]

Thanks for your guidance MisterW and jab1. I've just enabled SMTP debug in Thunderbird following your helpful guide, tried to send a mail and... guess what? That's right! Email sent no issues and my iPhone email also sends fine. Hopefully it was just a little blip with the server, but if I do encounter any problems, I'll post up any logs that might help. Thanks again!

[#6]

Two possibilities…

1. You were connecting via an IP address which had a bad reputation and somehow that IP address has been changed (or lost its poor reputation)

2. Access had been blocked due to too many failed login attempts

[#7]

It worked again but for how long?

[#8]

@sjmartin60 Have you posted in an unrelated topic?

[#9]

First post in SIX years!!!

[#10]

Hadn't noticed that, @Townman  - obviously what I would call a 'less than useful contribution' -  to put it politely.

[#11]

I don't think so Jab1, problem sending emails via Thunderbird 119

[#12]

@sjmartin60 TB119 does not exist - the latest version is 115 and in any case your post read as unrelated.