Since recent Pn outage-Unable to send emails on Android tablet

[#1]

Prior to recent PN outage, i was able to send and receive emails on my Gmail, Hotmail and Plusnet accounts, no problems.

Since the outage I can send+receive on gmail and Hotmail, but am only able to receive PNET emails. 

If I try to send a Pnet email I get the following message; "Server Error, contact your server administrator (plus net)"

No settings have been changed on the tablet and Plusnet settings are as follows;

Incoming: Pop 3 server,  mail.plus .net PORT 110

Outgoing. SMPT Server relay.plus.net.  PORT 587

To repeat,  these settings gave no problems prior to the recent PN outage

It seems a logical conclusion that the PN outgoing settings (port 587) is now incorrect and presumably should be changed, but to what?

Can someone advise and make any helpful suggestions. Thanks

[#2]

Moderators Note

This topic has been moved from Fibre to Email.

[#3]

Are you connecting over the Plusnet network or a third party’s?

Is the SMTP set up using authentication?

What is the exact error message?

[#4]

Hi @Wombat77, I'm sorry to hear about this. Please could you try accessing your mailbox via the webmail portal to see if this works?

[#5]

Thanks for your note, apologies for delayed reply. To answer your questions

1. Using plusnet network, yes

2.. SMPT Server setting is:  relay.plus.net

3. Security type : None

(settings available for 3. Are:

SSL

SSL (Accept all certificates)

TLS

TLS (Accept all certificates)

For info, Port setting is 587

I can send and receive plusnet webmail, no problem, 

Thanks for assisting..

[#6]

To answer your query I can receive and send webmail on my pc, no problem

Checked again this morning, sent a test to my Gmail account and the message was received within a few seconds.

[#7]

Which email client are you using (and which version)?

The correct encryption for SMTP on port 587 is STARTTLS.  If your client does not offer that option, then I'm inclined to suspect that it is not the current version.

I suggest that you look at running SMTP diagnostics to determine the EXACT error condition you are encountering.  Email clients tend to report all errors as a "password" error, when invariably they are not.

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.

[#8]

Thanks for comments,

Email client is gmail v 2020.05.31.316831277

I don't have the option of STARTTLS.   I tried the TLS options available ( TLS and TLS (accept all certificates)) but no success. 

The fault is not being reported as a username/password error but as:-

"Server Error. Contact your server administrator (plusnet)"

What is still unexplained  is that prior to the recent PN outage no problems were encountered. Then the pn service goes down and when it returns I have a problem. As no settings have been changed it does smell a bit suspicious as to the possible cause.

Thanks for the suggestion re SMTP authentication but I would be out of my depth to take that route.

Looks as if I may have to sacrifice some convenience and log in to webmail to send pn email.

[#9]

Try the diagnostics. That will prove (or not) that you can in fact login to the smtp server. If you cannot, then there’s a Plusnet issue to ge investigated. If you can, then it’s a Gmail client issue. The fact it does not offer STARTTLS is a bit suspicious / a give away … it’s a standard option!

[#10]

Hey @Wombat77,

Did you get a chance to give @Townman's suggestion a go?