Need to choose 3rd party email address to login

[scooby52]

Hi there,

I have just fallen foul of the recently (not) announced change in VM Security policy, preventing apps like Oulook from using my virginmedia.com email password for authentication, and had to go through the proces to create an App password. Although this has been frustrating as I haven't seen any announcement or warning from VM that this new policy is being enabled, I was OK with the concept, until I tried to folow the instructions, and then found I had to specify a "3rd party" email address as the userid to login to VM, before I can then set the App password.

I've followed the instructions and it now works, but I have 3 questions:

1) Will I have to do this for my various ntlworld.com email accounts?

2) If so, can I use the same 3rd party email address for all my ntlworld.com addresses and my one virginmedia.com address, or does each virgin/ntlworld.com email need a unque 3rd party email address to access it ?

3) What on earth is behind this bizarre idea? The VM webpages talk about enhancing security, but I don't buy that. This is making the whole user experience far more complicated, and the lack of announcement makes me suspicious that this change is due to hide some issue or failing in the VM authentication infrastructure?

[John_GS]

Hi @scooby52 

Thanks for posting and welcome back to the community.

Sorry to hear you're not happy with the My Virgin Media username change. I am glad to hear you've been able to complete this change.

If you're accessing via the online account, this is how you'll now log in. 

For third party client access, see here

Best wishes.

[scooby52]

Hi John, you haven't answered my questions

1) Will I have to do this for my various ntlworld.com email accounts? - I have several ntlworld.com addresses plus the one for my wife.

2) If so, can I use the same 3rd party email address for all my ntlworld.com addresses as well as my one virginmedia.com address, or does each virgin/ntlworld.com email need a unque 3rd party email address to access it ?

[用心棒 · Accepted solution]

Each will need a unique third-party email address however there are various workarounds, for instance:

• use Firefox Relay
• If you have a Gmail account then Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses - Gmail Help meaning each variant is a unique third-party email address as far as Virgin Media service is concerned, i.e. if your email is johnsmith@gmail.com, you own all dotted versions of your address:

  ▸ john.smith@gmail.com
  ▸ jo.hn.sm.ith@gmail.com
  ▸ j.o.h.n.s.m.i.t.h@gmail.com
  ▸ ⋮

NB sub-address is another option to consider once Virgin Media resolve the issue of verification code being expired on receipt; example of sub-address is johnsmith+subAddress@gmail.com

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