Not able to send emails anymore

[#1]

Hi there,

Moved away from Plus.net years ago now.

Now with Sky FFTC.

Can only send emails via webail.plus.net.

Struggling to setup Thunderbird to allow me to send emails.

See attached photo.

Have I set something wrong?

Thanks in advance,

Matt

[#2]

Quick update for you.

I get the attached error when trying to send an email.

Thanks,

Matt

[#3]

Moved away from Plus.net years ago now.

I assume you requested for your account to be downgraded to an 'email only' one ?

Some of the early email only accounts did not have privilege to authenticate with the outgoing server ( relay.plus.net ).

Have you ever been able to send directly ( without using webmail ) since the account downgrade ?

[#4]

Yep, went to email access only when I moved away years ago now.

Used to work fine.

Suddenly stopped working about a year ago now.

Thanks,

Matt

[#5]

Suddenly stopped working about a year ago now.

In that case, needs a PN staffer to look over your account.

[#6]

"Can only send emails via webail.plus.net"

Suggests that there is nothing wrong with the account settings - but you never know!

There are a host of issues which a SMTP client might report as a password error, rather than the real error.  I would recommend running a manual test connection using telnet...

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
535 Too many SMTP auth failures. Please try again later.

[#7]

Will you organise this for me?

Probably around two years ago now thinking about it. 

[#8]

I'll try this later.

Thanks for such a detailed post!

[#9]

Hi there,

Tested this yesterday.

Got a time out connecting to

telnet relay.plus.net 587

No sure of the email setings for my current ISP.

Back to the drawing board right.

Thanks,

Matt

[#10]

Matt,

Do you see the following...

220 avasout-peh-003 smtp relay.plus.net


Connection to host lost.
PS C:\Users\username>

If yes, then that is to be expected - the connection has timed out waiting for you to type... as per the guide above.