Outgoing Server authentification

[SHBrown]

For some time I have been receiving messages indicating that I must update my Thunderbird Email settings. I have done this according to the Virgin Media instructions (POP3 & SMTP). Now I can receive emails, but every attempt to send emails produces: "Sending of the message failed. The message could not be sent using Outgoing server (SMTP) smtp.virginmedia.com for an unknown reason. Please verify that your Outgoing server (SMTP) settings are correct and try again." I have verified and tried again several times, to no avail.

[coenoby]

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@SHBrown wrote:

"Sending of the message failed. The message could not be sent using Outgoing server (SMTP) smtp.virginmedia.com for an unknown reason.

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To trouble shoot that a bit further it would be useful to see the error code that the VirginMedia server is returning.

Windows 10 and 11 include the curl command and you can use this to test the VM smtp server.

1. Type cmd into the Windows search bar and press Enter
2. When the Command prompt screen comes up enter the following

curl -v smtps://smtp.virginmedia.com -u username:password  

Before running that command you need to replace username with your virgin media email address and password with your password but make sure you leave the : between them. You may find it easiest to cut and paste that curl command from this post into a Word document for example and simply update the command there.  Then cut and paste the full and updated line in to the command prompt and hit enter.

That will produce a long series of lines of information but what we are looking for is just the VMxxx code. For example VM304.

Post that error code here and that will give some clue as to why the VM server is not authenticating your email from Thunderbird. Do not post the full response.

Coenoby

[用心棒]

In Thunderbird version 91 and later consider trying the following:

• select ☰ > Tools > Developer Tools > Error Console or press Ctrl + Shift + J
• select to clear console
• switch to Thunderbird window and send an email
• switch to Console window and review output for explanation for why email cannot be sent via SMTP server
  either post just the VM error code here or redact error messages before posting

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[SHBrown]

VM300

[coenoby]

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@SHBrown wrote:

VM300

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That error code means the VM server is reporting that the Authentication Credentials (username and password) are invalid.

What error message, if any do you get when you sign directly into your VM email account using the Webmail service on the VM website? You can sign in from this link https://mail2.virginmedia.com/ 

If you get the "Mailbox unavailable...........try again in an hour" message you should follow the advice from VM given here https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Email/Email-accounts-locked-mailbox-unable-unable-to-access-ema...  That should unlock the account.

If you can successfully access the webmail account on the VM website it would still be worth doing a password reset (and waiting 30 minutes) as detailed in that "Email accounts locked" post. That should ensure that the password gets stored correctly on all the VM servers, they do get out of sync sometimes.😉

Coenoby

[SHBrown]

Thanks, but I finally discovered that it was a conflict between Thunderbird and Avast Antivirus, which has now been resolved.

[coenoby]

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@SHBrown wrote:

I finally discovered that it was a conflict between Thunderbird and Avast Antivirus, which has now been resolved.

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Good to hear you got it sorted. Thanks for coming back with that news.

Coenoby

[Tom_W1]

Hi @SHBrown, thanks for your post although I'm sorry to hear you were having some problems.

However, it's great to hear these have been resolved by the time we were able to respond!

Please let us know if you need any further assistance in the future.

Many thanks