What has happened to PlusNet service?

[#1]

Long rant...

I have been a PlusNet (Free-Online) customer for many years, and have always been happy with the service I received. On the few occasions I have had to report a problem, it has always been speedily resolved.

However, a few days ago I started having timeout issues retrieving emails. Nothing had changed at my end, so I went to look at the "Service Status" page - only to find it has disappeared. I then looked for the page to report a problem, only to find that the web-form had been replaced by a text-based diagnostics bot.

I used the bot, which offered to restart the router, but that didn't solve the problem (as I expected, since it's not a connection issue). It then said the problem must be with my hardware (LOL) and gave me a link to a series of general hardware tests/changes, none of which were relevant. So I requested further help.

A while later, I discovered a voicemail message, which said someone would contact me in 15/20 mins. Two days; still no call and still very intermittent email access.

COME ON PLUSNET, YOU USED TO BE BETTER THAN THIS!

[#2]

Morning @andrewww that does sound like a pain, I've been here for 10 years nearly and been through when it was easy to raise up until when it was hard. The dialler system works most of the time though I have to admit but not sure why it didn't this time. I will pass the feedback on to the team for you. Just so I can get the full picture about the fault, is it just the retrieving emails that is the problem or do you have issues with other sites, etc?

[#3]

Hi,

Just emails - timing out when trying to retrieve (most of the time, occasionally one or the other address will work). No problems with connectivity, getting a solid 72 down and 19 up, as usual. All websites OK and Usenet OK.

Thanks.

[#4]

At least the other side is looking ok, what email software are you using?

[#5]

claws-mail version 3.17.5 (since Apr 2022, configuration unchanged - which was copied from previously working config)

Linux Mint MATE 20.3 (Una)

Thanks

[#6]

Out of curiosity and this is just for testing purposes. What's webmail like with retrieving them?

[#7]

Webmail is OK.

[#8]

Hmm that's a little out of my depth with Linux Mint and Claw. One issue, maybe that you are affected by our long-standing issue of performance when the mailbox is on the heavy side. Do you have many emails in webmail?

As well have you tried setting it on the phone or another device to see if it works?

Are you using POP or IMAP in claws-mail

[#9]

Hi,

Do you have many emails in webmail?

account #1 inbox 8, sent 7, rest 0

account #2 inbox 301, rest 0

I wouldn't think 300 emails is a lot, but I have deleted them all anyway.

For both accounts, claws-mail was set up to delete emails on the server after 14 days. I have now changed that to 7 days.

It has so far made no difference, usually timing out and occasionally succeeding.

As well have you tried setting it on the phone or another device to see if it works?

I don't have emails set up on my phone. My wife's computer, which also uses claws-mail, is exhibiting the same timeout behaviour, so it's not my computer. I suppose I could set up Thunderbird and see if that makes any difference.

Are you using POP or IMAP in claws-mail

POP

claws-mail is set up to use (and has been for many years) mail.free-online.net on port 110 with no SSL/TLS. This worked until about a week ago.

I see that the current settings are specified as port 995 with STARTTLS.

I have just tried these settings, and it timed out without even trying to log on.

[#10]

@andrewww 

Have you tested the connection using telnet? Open a terminal window, enter command.

telnet  mail.free-online.net 110

it will respond with something like

Trying 217.46.26.15...
Connected to mail.free-online.net.
Escape character is '^]'.
+OK POP3 perditon ready on mail.free-online.net 00029b79

telnet  mail.free-online.net 995

Trying 217.46.26.25...
Connected to mail.free-online.net.
Escape character is '^]'.

ctrl+] will break the telnet connection

This above means the PC can connect to mail.free-online.net on port 110 or 995, if it does then there something wrong with the config.

HTH

[#11]

port 110 works OK

port 995 fails to connect

if it does then there something wrong with the config

who's config, mine or PlusNet? I haven't updated claws-mail or changed anything... What else could have changed the config?

[#12]

OK, I have tried Thunderbird - it also times out.

[#13]

Being around sometime I use free-online mail servers but I opt to use IMAP rather than POP.

time out for connection test on port 995 is worrying, as this would point to something external to your home network as no connection can be made to the mail host on port 995.

Does port 110 work with no security, with 995 timing out it will never work using that port.

A Hub reboot might resolve the issue.

Edit: does telnet  imap.free-online.net 993 connect?

[#14]

Port 110 with no security is what I have set up (see previous posts). It times out about 8 out of10 times.

Re-started the hub, still having timeouts retrieving email.

imap.free-online.net 993 does not connect.

EDIT:

Ok, since the hub restart, all telnet commands now appear to connect, but still getting timeouts (though it doesn't seem to be as often?)

Thanks

[#15]

An improvement then.

Regarding the timeouts does it make any difference if you use either port 110 or 995 for mail.free-online.net?