No email this morning 10 November

[#1]

For what it's worth...

We have two PC's sitting side by side, one running Thunderbird, the other with eM Client, both using an old Madasafish email only account.

A couple of days ago only the Thunderbird PC would receive email, now the eM Client is the only one working (slowly at times). Webmail was working but now won't and Bluemail on Android works occasionally.

What a mess.

[#2]

...and back to square one. The message is now "Sending of password for user  ... did not succeed. Mail server mail.madasafish.com responded: Login failed.

I can now access Webmail, however the only items visible are all from Plusnet Support dating back to 2019. There is nothing from any other sender and there should be.

[#3]

My email appears to be working normally all through yesterday and today.  On Friday, using the IP address instead of the outgoing server name was my workaround but I was able to go back using server names yesterday. One difference though was that I was previously using smtp.plus.net but I was getting SSL certificate warnings on starting Outlook, and I found that the certificate was now only valid for relay.plus.net (the canonical server name) so I changed that in my mail account setting and no other problems since.

But I wouldn't be too quick to drop all the blame on Plusnet here... I've been speaking to some colleagues in the US and it seems that a few ISP email services have been suffering outages and intermittent service over exactly the same time period: Comcast and Xfinity have both been mentioned and the suspicion is that the servers have been under attack - it may be that there's something common in the configuration of the servers in all these ISPs that has made them targets - if that's the case then it's a good reason for NOT explaining what the problem is.

That said, the fault status messages could still have been more honest/accurate in terms of managing customer's expectations: Simply acknowledging that some customers were still experiencing a lack of email service and work was ongoing would be better than implying everything was back to normal and things might just be a bit slow - seeing the same message on the service status page since Thursday morning was not helping.

[#4]

Hi @Townman

Thought everything was fixed as I could send emails from my outlook and android mail by Saturday. This was when I was staying in a holiday cottage that had a plusnet router.

Now back home and lo and behold the fault has returned - can't send whether it's via outlook on laptop or my android email app. so wondering whether it's to do with my BT router?

Cheers

Paul

[#5]

Hi Paul,

Is home on the Plusnet network or some other ISP?

If some other ISP have you set the SMTP server to use authentication?

[#6]

"But I wouldn't be too quick to drop all the blame on Plusnet here... I've been speaking to some colleagues in the US and it seems that a few ISP email services have been suffering outages and intermittent service over exactly the same time period: Comcast and Xfinity have both been mentioned and the suspicion is that the servers have been under attack - it may be that there's something common in the configuration of the servers in all these ISPs that has made them targets - if that's the case then it's a good reason for NOT explaining what the problem is."

Indeed, a major UK conveyancing company server has come under attack recently, leaving many of their clients stuck in mid house move.

[#7]

Hi @Townman 

Home is BT network ISP & router

Yes set SMTP server to use authentication - same settings as incoming mail server.

[#8]

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@mcintoshuk wrote:

But I wouldn't be too quick to drop all the blame on Plusnet here... I've been speaking to some colleagues in the US and it seems that a few ISP email services have been suffering outages and intermittent service over exactly the same time period: Comcast and Xfinity have both been mentioned and the suspicion is that the servers have been under attack - it may be that there's something common in the configuration of the servers in all these ISPs that has made them targets - if that's the case then it's a good reason for NOT explaining what the problem is.

Be very careful relying on hearsay and drawing any conclusions whatsoever from it. Xfinity is Comcast (it's their TV and ISP division) and whilst the cause for their recent outage has not yet been publicised it affected practically all their services, including customers Internet access, and so doesn't look like it had much in common with Plusnet's email issues (and, for what it's worth, knowledgeable discussion is not actually suspecting Xfinity's outage as being the result of an attack).

[#9]

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@paul1098 wrote:

Hi @Townman 

Home is BT network ISP & router

Yes set SMTP server to use authentication - same settings as incoming mail server.

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In which case, I would suspect that the BT IP address has been black listed.  Typically any error event between a client and teh SMTP server is reported as a password failure, rather than the actual issue.  The following SMTP test method will deliver the exact error condition.  It is not as difficult as it looks!!

Test SMTP authentication

Email programs often report username / password error for issues not actually related to those being wrong, but for other connectivity issues. Such can be very frustrating when you are convinced that they are correct. Testing SMTP authentication through a command line interface can deliver a more precise error message. The following describes how to do this using TELNET.

This is not difficult, but you need the following resources which might be unfamiliar...

1. TELNET - this might need installing as an additional option, for Windows see enabling TELNET.
2. A code64 encoder / decoder such as this.

You can use TELNET to communicate direct with the SMTP server as follows...

Open the code64 encoder in a web browser and leave ready for use in the following steps.

Launch a windows command line window (DOS window) - press windows-key+R - type CMD into the run box - click OK

Enter...

telnet relay.plus.net 587

Press enter. Note if you use one of the other brand email services, use the appropriate SMTP server name for that brand. In response to SMTP server I'm here message, say 'HELLO'...

EHLO relay.plus.net

The SMTP server will then report what it can do after which tell the server you wish to authenticate...

AUTH login

The server should return the following, which is a base64 encoded string that requires your username:

334 VXNlcm5hbWU6

Use the code64 encoder to encode your username and paste it into the telnet window and press enter. For example:

bXl1c2VybmFtZQ==

The server should return the following, which is a base64 encoded string that requires your password:

334 UGFzc3dvcmQ6

Paste the base64 encoded password for the username. For example:

bXlwYXNzd29yZA==

The server will then report success or failure, any failure message should clearly indicate the reason for the failure. If the reason for the failure is not clear, please report back the message.

Close the SMTP / TELNET session by entering

quit

The session should look something similar to the below wherein your input is in bold...

220 avasout03 smtp relay.plus.net
EHLO relay.plus.net
250-avasout03 hello [your IP address], pleased to meet you
250-HELP
250-AUTH LOGIN PLAIN
250-SIZE 104857600
250-PIPELINING
250-8BITMIME
250-STARTTLS
250 OK
AUTH LOGIN
334 VXNlcm5hbWU6
bXl1c2VybmFtZQ==
334 UGFzc3dvcmQ6
bXlwYXNzd29yZA==
235 ... authentication succeeded
quit
221 avasout03 smtp closing connection
Connection to host lost.

Here are some examples of failure responses...

535 ...authentication rejected [as username / password is wrong]
535 ...authentication rejected as source IP has a poor reputation

[#10]

Hi @Townman 

I can't get the Telnet to work all i get is :-

220 avasout-peh-001 smtp relay.plus.net  (it then sits for a while then come back with)

Connection to host lost.

[#11]

Hmmm … that is worrying … seen that before … wonder if one of the virtual servers is down.  I get an instant connection to avasout-ptp-004

The mail “servers” are not single services but rather a sizeable virtual array. I’ve asked for someone to take a closer look.


A general question of those still not able to send emails - are you using Plusnet as your ISP or connecting over another network provider?

[#12]

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@Townman wrote:

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EHLO relay.plus.net

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You should put *your* name (technically speaking your domain name but most use their hostname) in the EHLO command, and not the name of the recipient server. The command is essentially saying 'Hello, I am <so and so>'. Some servers will reject you if you appear to be attempting to impersonate them in this command, and they might do so in a way that isn't necessarily obvious.

[#13]

 I use T'Bird. This morning, I cannot receive from John-Lewis Broadband and Waitrose (both of which have worked in the past couple of days). But I can send from both. PlusNet is working send and receive.

For the very first time since webmail was introduced by Waitrose in 2006 (on dial-up), I tried Waitrose's Webmal and it worked (now being hosted by John-Lewis Broadband as it happens, having migrated through GreenBee and PlusNet). My latest test email was sitting alone in the inbox; which cannot at present be accessed by T'Bird. I fail to understand this flip-flopping between working and not working.

If I can dig up from my archives of 2006 * the right password to do something I've never done before, then surely to goodness PlusNet techies can cease from breaking something today that they got working yesterday, although I fear this let's-try-this-and-see-if-it-works approach is endemic now. Bad practice.

* d'you what? I still receive occasional Quarantine Alert warnings from Waitrose (latest Mar 2021), Apart from that, the last message I got was in 2013 when Waitrose (its postal address I see now as being that of PlusNet) changed the dial-up number! I was told about Waitrose being operated by GreenBee but never by PlusNet and never by John Lewis Broadband. Can you spot when and by whom communication stopped?

Waitrose is very much a legacy account of mine, to receive emails from forums and boards where I couldn't update my email address. It'll be no real loss nowadays, although once or twice something useful has arisen. If I hadn't retained PlusNet email after my move to John-Lewis Broadband, I would now be really scuppered. I pay for my broadband/email/phone package contract - so it's lack of provision currently is not to be dismissed flippantly.

I've now established a gmail 'escape' account to provide some level of future protection from lack of service. And shall be looking into a way of migrating away from my main PlusNet email to calmer waters.

[#14]

Hi @Townman ,

Would i be linking to the same virtual server every time I login from this location or is it just random?

Wonder if that's why I had it working over the weekend in a different area and different router.

[#15]

Still not working with Globalnet.

For the last couple of days I can connect maybe 2 or 3 times a day. It's completely random as to which device will connect at any try.

Yesterday webmail was working for a couple of hours, with intermittent fetch errors. Mailwasher worked occasionally over the weekend, but will not connect today. Thunderbird has not been able to connect since last Weds. My ipad connects once in the morning and then won't connect again for the rest of the day. My android phone app picked a few emails last night and won't connect this morning.

So far this morning nothing will connect except webmail which will log in and them immediately gives an error: IMAP server shut down by signal.

So absolutely not fixed for Globalnet yet!

It's getting beyond annoying now. I was locked out of a site I needed access to over the weekend because a login verification was sent to my Globalnet email and I couldn't access it. I'm trying to change all my various account logins to a different email address but several of them need the existing Globalnet email to verify the change! Please get this sorted!