What has happened to PlusNet service?

[#1]

Using port 110 times out after accepting user ID and password:

* Account 'XXXXXXXX@mail.free-online.net': Connecting to POP3 server: mail.free-online.net:110...
[2023-12-03 18:12:01] POP< +OK POP3 perditon ready on mail.free-online.net 00029b7a
[2023-12-03 18:12:01] POP> USER XXXXXXXX
[2023-12-03 18:12:01] POP< +OK USER XXXXXXXX set, mate
[2023-12-03 18:12:01] POP> PASS ********
** Session timed out. You may be able to recover by increasing the timeout value in Preferences/Other/Miscellaneous.

Using port 995 with STARTTLS times out without asking for anything:

* Account 'XXXXXXXX@mail.free-online.net': Connecting to POP3 server: mail.free-online.net:995...
** Session timed out. You may be able to recover by increasing the timeout value in Preferences/Other/Miscellaneous.

NOTE: I have now managed to get Thunderbird working without timeouts by deleting and re-creating the accounts (or maybe it was just after the hub restart?) So it may be a claws-mail issue after all -- but I haven't changed the config or installed a new version. The only thing I can think of is an update to another library. I do regular updates and security patches so maybe one of those could be the culprit? I'll look back through my update logs to see what was updated in the last week or so.

EDIT: Scratch that, Thunderbird has just timed out again!

[#2]

Out of interest are you still seeing the timeout issue?

[#3]

Yes, still having timeouts.

This morning, I have installed the latest version of Linux Mint MATE and claws-mail in a VM. Set up the same as my live system, and I'm getting the same timeouts in the latest version in the VM.

Also, Thunderbird is timing out too.

[#4]

As they says "that's disappointing"

It would be good to ping mail.free-online.net but the servers do not respond to ICMP packets, but you can use trace route forcing it to use TCP and a port, terminal command sudo traceroute -T -p 110 mail.free-online.net (-T forces TCP -p 110 uses port 110, -p 995 uses port 995)

Not sure if this is helpful

[#5]

I get:

[andrew] /home/andrew
andrew $ sudo traceroute -T -p 110 mail.free-online.net
traceroute: invalid option -- 'T'
Try 'traceroute --help' or 'traceroute --usage' for more information.

[andrew] /home/andrew
andrew $ traceroute --help
Usage: traceroute [OPTION...] HOST
Print the route packets trace to network host.

  -f, --first-hop=NUM        set initial hop distance, i.e., time-to-live
  -g, --gateways=GATES       list of gateways for loose source routing
  -I, --icmp                 use ICMP ECHO as probe
  -m, --max-hop=NUM          set maximal hop count (default: 64)
  -M, --type=METHOD          use METHOD (`icmp' or `udp') for traceroute
                             operations, defaulting to `udp'
  -p, --port=PORT            use destination PORT port (default: 33434)
  -q, --tries=NUM            send NUM probe packets per hop (default: 3)
      --resolve-hostnames    resolve hostnames
  -t, --tos=NUM              set type of service (TOS) to NUM
  -w, --wait=NUM             wait NUM seconds for response (default: 3)
  -?, --help                 give this help list
      --usage                give a short usage message
  -V, --version              print program version

Mandatory or optional arguments to long options are also mandatory or optional
for any corresponding short options.

Report bugs to <bug-inetutils@gnu.org>.

[andrew] /home/andrew
andrew $ traceroute --version
traceroute (GNU inetutils) 1.9.4
Copyright (C) 2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by Elian Gidoni.

[#6]

Seems to be version dependant command

traceroute -V
Modern traceroute for Linux, version 2.1.0
Copyright (c) 2016 Dmitry Butskoy, License: GPL v2 or any later

I installed traceroute rather than inetutils-traceroute

HTH

[#7]

[andrew] /home/andrew
andrew $ sudo traceroute -T -p 110 mail.free-online.net
traceroute to mail.free-online.net (217.46.26.25), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  gateway (192.168.1.254)  0.553 ms  0.786 ms  1.000 ms
 2  195.166.130.255 (195.166.130.255)  8.385 ms  8.822 ms  8.876 ms
 3  84.93.253.127 (84.93.253.127)  10.016 ms  10.096 ms 84.93.253.123 (84.93.253.123)  10.151 ms
 4  195.166.129.208 (195.166.129.208)  10.736 ms ge0-1-0-22.ptn-gw2.plus.net (195.166.129.210)  10.906 ms 195.166.129.208 (195.166.129.208)  11.277 ms
 5  195.166.129.192 (195.166.129.192)  10.931 ms pih-al2.plus.net (195.166.129.194)  11.079 ms  11.576 ms
 6  mail.free-online.net (217.46.26.25)  11.815 ms  8.850 ms  8.930 ms

[andrew] /home/andrew
andrew $ sudo traceroute -T -p 995 mail.free-online.net
traceroute to mail.free-online.net (217.46.26.45), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  gateway (192.168.1.254)  0.538 ms  0.839 ms  1.112 ms
 2  195.166.130.255 (195.166.130.255)  8.760 ms  8.850 ms  9.114 ms
 3  84.93.253.127 (84.93.253.127)  9.824 ms  10.423 ms  10.583 ms
 4  195.166.129.208 (195.166.129.208)  11.475 ms  11.286 ms  11.343 ms
 5  195.166.129.192 (195.166.129.192)  11.028 ms  11.092 ms  11.498 ms
 6  mail.free-online.net (217.46.26.45)  12.541 ms  10.252 ms  10.966 ms

[#8]

Very much the same figures I get so nothing obvious on the network for the timeouts.

I've only ever used IMAP as I use free-online email on more than one device, I keep the inbox sizes down to what I need to keep.

Do you get timeouts using IMAP?

Not sure what else I can do to help now @Townman (the man who knows email) any thoughts on this issue?

[#9]

webmail works OK. I've never used IMAP locally. When I tried to set it up in claws-mail (imap.free-online.net:993 with STARTTLS) it just returns:

** IMAP error on imap.free-online.net: stream error

in the log and does nothing.

I can't afford to spend any more time on this. I just hope someone at PlusNet (I presume you don't work at PlusNet...) comes up with a solution quickly. As I said in my original post, the customer service has gone downhill significantly.

Thanks anyway for your help.

[#10]

No I do not work for plusnet, my intentions were to help establish if there is TCP connectivity to the free-online mail servers from your network.

Testing with telnet we have established there is. The traceroute commands show there appears to be no latency.

Are you able to setup a mobile hotspot to see if you get the same issue; this would help prove if there is a problem with your broadband connection or email clients you are using.

[#11]

As I said, I do appreciate the time and effort you have put into this, especially considering you don't work for PlusNet.

Both of the PCs I'm having trouble with are on wired Ethernet. At the moment I don't have the time to dig out my laptop and install and configure claws-mail and then set up a mobile hotspot. Maybe later in the week... I'll post again if/when I can get that done.

[#12]

@Dan_the_Van 

I have been watching this thread quietly and not added anything to your sound guidance here, as you have covered all of the bases.

I am inclined to conclude that this is not a mail server issue, but possibly an internal networking issue.  Different diagnostics are delivering different end point reports.  Given that in general Plusnet servers DO NOT respond to ping requests, it is difficult to know for sure if these tests are simply being ignored ... or something is indeed broken.  I will see if an escalation delivers any illumination.

From my laptop on my Plusnet connection (static IP address)...

pathping mail.free-online.net

Tracing route to mail.free-online.net [217.46.26.35]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
  0  TRINITY.home [192.168.1.21]
  1  192.168.1.254
  2  251.core.plus.net [195.166.130.251]
  3  84.93.253.95
  4     *        *        *
Computing statistics for 75 seconds...
            Source to Here   This Node/Link
Hop  RTT    Lost/Sent = Pct  Lost/Sent = Pct  Address
  0                                           TRINITY.home [192.168.1.21]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  1    3ms     0/ 100 =  0%     0/ 100 =  0%  192.168.1.254
                              100/ 100 =100%   |
  2  ---     100/ 100 =100%     0/ 100 =  0%  251.core.plus.net [195.166.130.251]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  3  ---     100/ 100 =100%     0/ 100 =  0%  84.93.253.95

Trace complete.

Note that the resolved IP address for the server is different and this does not report past sub-net 84.93.253.* as does the diagnostics above.

From my mobile phone NOT connected to WiFi...

traceroute to mail.free-online.net (217.46.26.35), 64 hops max.
1 *
2 *
3 109.249.132.21 (109.249.132.21) time=78 ms
4 *
5 109.249.132.14 (109.249.132.14) time=69 ms
6 core1-hu0-2-0-0.colindale.ukcore.bt.net (62.172.103.139) time=38 ms
7 *
8 *
9 *
10 *
11 *
12 *
13 *
14 *
15 *
16 *

This has resolved to the same IP address for the mail server, but stops reporting somewhere within the BT ukcore ... which is even further removed from the Plusnet space that the various reports above.

Superuser escalation

This topic has been escalated by one of the Superusers; please allow time for Plusnet to respond before commenting further.

Escalation does not imply progressing this matter will be given priority, nor that a different outcome will result.

Reason for escalation:  Request response

[#13]

On my home broadband, if I do repeated traceroutes to mail.free-online.net, 

I get several different results as follows -

                                                    Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
  1.|-- My-home-router                               0.0%    10    0.2   0.2   0.2   0.3   0.0
  2.|-- *                                            0.0%    10    6.6   6.7   6.4   6.8   0.1
  3.|-- *                                            0.0%    10    6.9   6.7   6.4   7.2   0.2
  4.|-- xe-0-0-0-3-7.r04.londen05.uk.bb.gin.ntt.net  0.0%    10   10.9   7.8   7.0  10.9   1.3
  5.|-- 212.119.4.141                                0.0%    10   10.0   7.5   6.8  10.0   0.9
  6.|-- t2c4-et-3-0-5-1.uk-lof.gia.bt.net            0.0%    10   14.9  10.6   7.0  16.6   4.0
  7.|-- 166-49-209-195.gia.bt.net                    0.0%    10    7.4   7.3   7.2   7.5   0.1
  8.|-- core2-hu0-16-0-4.colindale.ukcore.bt.net     0.0%    10    7.9   7.9   7.3  10.1   0.8
  9.|--                                             100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0

                                                    Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
  1.|-- My-home-router                               0.0%    10    0.2   0.2   0.2   0.3   0.0
  2.|-- *                                            0.0%    10    6.8   6.9   6.5   8.4   0.5
  3.|-- *                                            0.0%    10    6.6   6.8   6.4   8.3   0.5
  4.|-- xe-0-0-0-3-7.r04.londen05.uk.bb.gin.ntt.net  0.0%    10    7.4   7.4   7.3   7.7   0.1
  5.|-- 212.119.4.141                                0.0%    10    7.0   7.2   7.0   7.5   0.1
  6.|-- t2c4-et-3-1-2-1.uk-lof.gia.bt.net            0.0%    10    7.3   7.3   7.1   7.9   0.2
  7.|-- 166-49-209-195.gia.bt.net                    0.0%    10    7.4   7.5   7.3   7.7   0.1
  8.|-- core2-hu0-17-0-0.southbank.ukcore.bt.net     0.0%    10    7.5   7.6   7.3   8.1   0.2
  9.|-- be11.psb-ir01.plusnet.bt.net                 0.0%    10    7.6   8.0   7.6   8.8   0.3
 10.|-- 195.166.129.208                              0.0%    10    8.0   9.9   7.9  26.5   5.8
 11.|--                                             100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0

                                                    Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
  1.|-- My-home-router                               0.0%    10    0.2   0.2   0.2   0.2   0.0
  2.|-- *                                            0.0%    10    6.4   7.4   6.4   9.7   1.3
  3.|-- *                                            0.0%    10    6.8   7.2   6.5   9.5   1.1
  4.|-- xe-0-0-0-3-7.r04.londen05.uk.bb.gin.ntt.net  0.0%    10    8.0   7.9   7.0  10.0   0.9
  5.|-- 212.119.4.141                                0.0%    10    7.4  10.0   7.2  20.0   4.2
  6.|-- t2c4-et-3-0-2-1.uk-lof.gia.bt.net            0.0%    10    7.5   9.7   7.0  24.3   5.3
  7.|-- 166-49-209-195.gia.bt.net                   10.0%    10    7.2   7.9   7.2  10.1   1.1
  8.|-- core2-hu0-17-0-0.southbank.ukcore.bt.net     0.0%    10    8.1   8.3   7.6  10.2   1.0
  9.|--                                             100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0
 10.|-- ge0-1-0-22.ptn-gw2.plus.net                  0.0%    10    8.2   9.1   8.0  11.8   1.5
 11.|--                                             100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0

[#14]

I did manage to set up my laptop.

I put a fresh vanilla install of claws-mail (no extra plugins) on it and set up an identical account to my desktop.

Connecting through a mobile hotspot exhibits the same behaviour as wifi and wired, i.e. timeouts trying to receive email, with occasional success.

[#15]

Put this on hold. There is an open incident report.