Email dead from this morning

POP3 is incoming (which is fine) SMTP is outcgoing and this is where many users are having issues.

I have been battling the same issue for a couple of days. I even managed to change the password on Virgins "secondary app" password reset, but still cant get pop3 access from my old, but hitherto, reliable Win7 Mail app.

I have created myself a couple of clunky work araounds (for win7 Mail client) ;

1. Setup Windows Mail to use IMAP instead of pop3. Your mail will then appear in the imap folder of your inbox

2. I quickly downloaded thunderbird and configured it for POP3 which worked first time (why?).

My guess this does look like a change in security that some old clients cant handle anymore - thanks for the heads up Virgin.

THAT WORKED! Thanks Snoopdog.

Previously SMTP without SSL on port 25 was unsupported. However, now it is! How strange. That is concerning to some degree as nothing including credentials is encrypted but it's a workaround.

It seems that the moderator removed some of my images because they showed my email addresses! Attached 5, 9, 10 and 11 again.

That has now worked for me also, thanks its much appreciated...Pity the actual Virgin media team themselves didn't fell like responding at all.

I use POP3 for incoming and had no issues but for SMTP I had problems prior to using the workaround. This is not a great workaround as apparently it only works for ntlworld.com e-mail addresses and secondly it is insecure. Your password is sent in clear text along with the contents of the e-mail. It's a workaround but a solution I hope is forthcoming.

Hi Snoopdog.

Sorry to jump in on your post.

We just wanted to let you know we are aware that a few customers are experiencing this issue. 

This is currently being investigated from our side and we hope to have a fix as soon as possible.

Apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Gareth_L

I have registered to say I too have this issue with one pc in the house using windows live mail 2012 and a friend a few doors down the same problem using windows live mail 2011

All using windows 7 (as well as one pc in the house using win7 and postbox and an android device both working fine on other VM address)

For me, the pc that has the issue, also has an old gadget that notifies of emails as the email app is not running all the time, that gadget uses imap and smtp, from last week it can receive but not send

WLM won't do either, and is using POP3 and SMTP, it has 2 VM accounts and an iCloud address it accesses, neither of the VM ones are the primary email on the account, so one of them i have done the stupid pointless change of email address used to access the account (as username) and generated an APP password having had the dumb 2 factor crap sent to the iCloud email address, that is accessed from exactly the same email program!

This did nothing, still can't receive via POP3 nor send via SMTP (proved by the gadget working in imap but not SMTP, even after the app password change)

common denominator here is WLM and VM

I believe VM has discontinued support for certain authorisation handshake protocols, which has affected older programs like WLM (and the small mail gadget I have) 

I also believe that as a company, they have now gotten too big to the point of no-one actually being in control of the basic day to day functionality.

I have spent countless hours trying to sort out renewal ans wifi pods and engineers visits to switch to voip based phones, in the end having to do their job for them as they sent non-telecoms qualified engineers, I refuse to try and speak to someone who barely speaks english about this..... the size of this thread should be enough for the alarm bells to be ringing that there is an internal issue and not a "oh you need our gadget insurance"

So I have been doing some testing with the gadget I have installed on the desktop, that works for IMAP receiving and has the "new" APP password in it and on the account where the actual email address is not used to login, but an unrelated non VM one

Results.....

IMAP as we know works, all standard there as far as settings goes and SSL.... IMAP v4, SSL: yes, Port: 993

Outgoing...

SMTP, SSL no, Port 25 Authentication YES user iD: full actual email address, Password is the new APP one, and this works ONCE and then on confirmation test it fails to send, although looks like it has worked! (this could be a gadget related issue, but i doubt it) sending a 3rd email 5 minutes later with no changes in settings or anything, and it works.... so who knows, but....

Switch the SMTP back to SSL and Port 465 and it fails every time and gets stuck in the outbox, I can't test the Port 587 thing in the gadget, as it only has SSL option not TLS

This exact scenario is also repeated in WLM.

So, bottom line VM servers for POP3 and SMTP no longer accept SSL connections, but still require authentication with email address and password (for app access not account access) but will ONLY accept them in plain text format and in NON-SSL mode.... so basically insecure

and it's our fault/problem not their's and they're implementing all of these changes for "our security".... Perhaps someone from VM would like to answer this..... exactly where do you think scammers get email addresses and passwords from ??  oh yes, that's right, careless transmission of INSECURE data

EDIT:

in addition to the tests above, in WLM i set everything to non-ssl and then changed the incoming server login to use APOP (authenticated POP) and set outgoing server to requires authentication then set use same as incoming,  closed and opened the app and all seemed good, could send emails, but, when trying to receive it threw errors.

So, insecure is the ONLY way to use VM/ntlworld remote mail access (except of IMAP for incoming)

Hi, Paul_DN.

VM's team also sent me the Spamhaus link and while we're awaiting patco55's reply, this is what I found.

My IP address was on Spamhaus' list but the "instructions to resolve" the issue were that a normal home user doesn't need to do anything.  Their report said

-------------------

Policy Blocklist (PBL) - This is for information only. No action is required (unless you run your own mail server).

The inclusion of your IP address on the Policy Blocklist (PBL) is standard for the vast majority of internet users and is not the result of your actions. Here are some key PBL facts for your understanding:

• Being on this list does not mean you won’t be able to send emails.
• You do not need to request removal from PBL.
• This listing is controlled by your Internet Service Provider (ISP), not Spamhaus.
• Your ISP lists ranges of IP addresses that shouldn’t be sending email directly to the internet.
• Typically, IPs of broadband or dial-up customers will be included in this list.
• This is part of Internet best practices enacted to protect all users.

Run your own mail server?

If you run your own mail server, and require removal from the PBL, please click on “Show Details” to review your ISP’s policy. Once you have reviewed the policy, please tick the “I am running my own mail server” check-box at the bottom of the page to enable removal.

-------------------

My conclusions were :

• Spamhaus has my IP address on their list because that is "is standard for the vast majority of internet users"
• "This listing is controlled by your Internet Service Provider (ISP), not Spamhaus" i.e. Spamhouse thinks it's Virgin Media's ballpark, also "Typically, IPs of broadband or dial-up customers will be included in this list."
• The situation only replies a user on this type of blacklist to take acyiob if they are running their own server - which I'm not
• VM are fobbing me off by direction me to a third party actor who believe that the issue is still VM's.

Hope this helps !