@richandlinda
Firstly, I must explain that I moved your post to its own thread because the issue you are seeing is nothing to do with the issue being dealt with in the thread you originally used.
In the original thread the poster is getting a message that their email account has been locked from sending emails but they have no problems receiving them.
Your error message says "The host 'pop3.virginmedia.com' could not be found" and also reports"Windows Live Mail Error ID 0x800CCCC0D". Taken together those errors mean:
- you are having a problem receiving emails rather than sending them. The pop3 VM server deals with incoming emails not sent emails However to be fair the 0x800CCC0D error suggests you might also have a problem sending emails.
- you are using Microsoft Live Mail to manage your VM emails
- that for some reason MS Live Mail is unable to even locate the Virgin Media email server so it has not reached the point of trying to access your emails to discover whether your account is locked.
To answer your questions
"is it just me or is there a more widespread problem with the Virgin Server?"
The pop3.virginmedia server is working fine for me so I don't think there is a problem with the server however it is possible there was the problem at the time you received that error which has now resolved itself.
A more likely explanation is that there may be a problem with your copy of Live Mail. Microsoft announced they were stopping support for Live Mail in 2016 and replaced it with their "Windows Mail" product. As I recall, the main reason for that was users had been reporting problems with Live Mail from 2013 and so MS decided it was time to ditch it for something more up to date.
I am sure that you will say that it has been working fine up to now but at the very least, having had no updates for the best part of 5 years it does present a big security risk to your personal information and an increased risk of malware and viruses getting on to your PC. Also, if issues with the MS software have developed since 2016 they will not have done addressed.
"What does "entered the server name mean"? Enter it where"
That is referring to the server name (pop3virginmedia.com") which you first set up your VM email account on Live Mail. In this case that name is correct but there is other information in those settings other than the server name itself so it may still be worth checking those settings in Live Mail
I have never used Live Mail but a quick online search gave me this:
Editing Your Account Settings In Windows Live Mail
- With Windows Live Mail open, click on the 'Accounts' Tab.
- Click the email account you wish to edit in the list on the left hand side of your screen. ...
- The previous step should have opened the properties box with all the settings for your email account
For more detail instructions click here https://support.siteapex.com/email
The settings for Virgin Media email accounts should be:
Incoming server pop3.virginmedia.com
Port 995 SSL/TLS
Username is your FULL VM email address
Outgoing server smtp.virginmedia.com
Port465 SSL/TLS
Authentication - Enabled
Username and password is the same as incoming.
Personally, I don't think the issue is with your Live Mail Settings, that's just Live Mail trying to be helpful. It could however be an issue with your antivirus software or your firewall software that is blocking access to the VM sever for some reason. You could try turning those off briefly to see if that allows LiveMail to access the server.
You also mention resetting the password. Again, I don't see anything to suggest that is the problem but there is an easy way to reset the password. Enter the email address and then follow the instructions in this link https://www.virginmedia.com/my-virgin-media/forgotten-details/password You will need to enter the security information that was set up as part of your VM broadband account.
Another thing to try is check whether there is an issue with your VM email account itself by signing in to the email account directly on the VM Website.
Enter your email address and password here https://mail2.virginmedia.com/ and see if that comes up with an error. Accessing the email account via the website does not involve the pop3.virginmedia,com server so you should be able to access the account from there. However it will only show incoming messages because the pop3 protocol you are using does not load outgoing emails in the webmail account. They are just stored in you Live Mail software.
One other possible cause for that error could be that your broadband connection is unstable for some reason. Are you seeing any signs of that? Are you able to access websites ok or do you get slow response times when opening web pages in your browser?
To sum up, my own advice would be to stop using Live Mail and switch to using the MS Mail App if your version of Windows supports it. Alternatively and probably a better choice, download and instal the free open source email client Thunderbird from here https://www.thunderbird.net That is what I have started using and have had no problems with it. My understanding is that it supports Windows 7 and later versions of Windows. It's also super easy to set up. You just enter your email address and password and it creates all the right email settings automatically.
Sorry to go on at such length,but I have to say that there is no easy answer to resolve the problem you are seeing. It could be down to so many things,
Coenoby
I'm a Very Insightful Person, I'm here to share knowledge, I don't work for Virgin Media.
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