Virgin Media Community

[AKUK]

Hi,

I'm unable to send emails from either my PC or my iPhone. The error code I get is SMTP Response: 525 5.7.13 Authentication Denied (VM321). I've looked on the forum and see other people have had the same issues in the past and the advice given is to wait for it to reset. It's been 4 days now and I still cannot send emails. This seems to happen to me at least once a year, the last time being back in October 2020. 

Can someone from the Help & Response Team PM me to resolve this, please. Thank you in advance. 

[HowardML · Accepted solution]

It's a long time since I have seen one of these. The error VM321 means that too many authentication attempts have been seen in every hour. VM will deny further attempts.  VM apply these limits to prevent spam but do disclose what the hourly limits are. because to do would subvert the point of the limits.  My suspicions are that these attempts may not be yours. If a malicious actor has knowledge of your email address (easy) and your password (not so easy but entirely possible) they could be sending spam mail which would trigger this error. You wouldn't see this but it it will be clocking up authentication attempts on your address and account. 

So the first thing to do is to change your password in My Virginmedia. You will then need to wait 24 hours for the counters to reset and for you to be able to send mail again. 

Of course this could be down to you, I don't know. You might be sending lots of email because you are working from home. Remember this is a residential mail service and business use is limited to some home working.  You might want to create some fall-back capacity with an address from one of the free (ad-supported) services. 

While the Forum Team can intervene it won't be of much help immediately. They will simply raise an IT ticket with a minimum 5 days resolution time. 

I think the immediate solution lies in your hands. But I'm not ruling out a VM issue. It's just that there are things you should be doing first which might resolve it quickly.

[AKUK]

Thanks for replying so quickly, Howard.  I only changed my password a couple of weeks ago, but I'll reset it to something else and see if this solves the issue. 

[HowardML]

@AKUK 

I've had a further thought. Are you away from home at the moment and sending from a non-VM IP address albeit with authentication? Because if you are the hourly limits are set much lower for this kind of situation. You would hit the buffers much sooner than if you were sending from a VM IP address (even one which is not yours). You'd also hit the buffers more quickly if you are sending from a country with a poor spam reputation.

Applies to you at the moment? 

Also should mention that if you need to send mail urgently use VM web mail at mail2.virginmedia.com.  The auth limits do not apply to web mail because it is much more difficult for spammers to send spam this way. 

[ravenstar68]

Howard - do you want to double check what VM321 means (I think you might be confusing it with VM320)

Tim

[HowardML]

Probably - InvalidAuthAttemptsperhour. I still haven't seen one for ages. So please put me right!

[ravenstar68]

VM321 is incorrect authentication attempts per hour
VM320 is correct authentication attempts per hour

Both are account based rather than IP based - HOWEVER based on past experience - I'd start by having the OP do an audit of al devices on their network that send emails via VM's server.  Chances are one of them needs the settings changing.

I remember when we had fun with someone getting VM320 errors every night from midnight.  That turned out to be a security system.

Tim

[AKUK]

Hi folks. 

I changed my password and have waited about 72 hours now. I still cannot send emails. Same deal as before. 

Can one of the team PM to resolve this please, as I have a bunch of received emails that I can’t respond to? 

[ravenstar68]

Did you read my post?

VM321 means that a device is sending out the WRONG password.  Howard confused it with VM320.  You need to start by making sure that all devices have been updated and you need to wait about an hour before trying again.  So check to see if anything has mail stuck in the Outbox and if so delete it.

In the meantime you can use Webmail to send your messages.

@ModTeam - Can you ask one of the team to verify that the IP addresses that generate the VM300 (authentication failed) errors, prior to the VM321 errors correspond to the users IP or come from outside the Virgin Media network.  I suspect the former but it's always good to have confirmation.

Tim

[Natalie_L]

HI AKUK, 

Thank you for posting to the Community. 

I am sorry to hear you are experiencing issues with the mail service. 

I would like to take a closer look in to this and potentially get this raised for investigation. To do this, I will need to pop you over a private message. 

I will do this now and you should be able to access this via the purple envelope on the top right of this page. 

Speak soon,