Virgin Media Community

[robert4967]

I'm sure that I'm not the firts to ask his question. I have received an ' 5.7.13 Authentication Denied (VM303)' notification and am unable to access my virgin.net email account. 

I have spoken with Virgin Media customer help and was told that virgin.net email accounts were nor the responsibility of Talk-Talk. After speaking with Talk-Talk  customer help they told me that the problem is for Virgin Media to solve.

I've had the virgin.net account for 20 years or more, I don't have a Virgin Media or Talk Talk account for 'phone or broadband.

I would welcome any help to fix my problem please.

[Graham_A]

Unfortunately I don't think it will be possible to 'fix' this.  The error code implies that the account concerned has been locked on one of the VM backend authentication servers.

Continued use of any virgimmedia email address including virgin.net ones requires that they are linked to an active VM broadband account.  As you do not have such an account it is likely that the email address concerned is in the process of being closed down.  See this thread for more details: https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Email/Orphan-Email-accounts/td-p/3492073/jump-to/first-unread-m...

The VM Forum Team will reach this thread in due course and should be able to advise further.

[David_Bn]

Thanks for your post @robert4967, and a very warm welcome to you!

We're terribly sorry to hear that you're not able to access the Virgin.net account

I would advise that @Graham_A's advice is correct and the E-Mail account is likely to have been orphaned.

Do you have the details for the account pre-saved on a device, or on a third party application? 

You may still be able to gain access to the account to forward E-Mails onto a new E-Mail account that you may create with an E-Mail provider

Kindest regards,

David_Bn

[robert4967]

Thanks for the quick reply David.

Silly question, what do you mean by account details saved on a device - I can still view the account settings like the SMTP stuff. I also have another email account that I can forward the Virgin.net emails to.....if only I could gain access. The message icon box that appears has a key symbol and says @authentication failed' and I'm asked for my username and password even though the correct username is shown in the box and password entered *********. I've not changed my account password so not sure what this means?

[David_Bn]

Good Morning @robert4967, and thanks for coming back to us

You may find that if you access an application, that you've been able to save the E-Mail account, and the password to previously, and has remained signed in, you may still be able to access the inbox

There's a possibility you could still then forward important E-Mails onto a new E-Mail address you create, or at least, are able to screenshot any important E-Mails, as well as using the basic copy and paste functions to ensure that any important data or links are not lost permanently

I hope that makes sense!

David_Bn

[robert4967]

Thank you again David for taking the time to get back to me on this.

The way that email was set up for me is that the emails download onto my PC after auto ogging onto the Virgin.net server. That means, as far as I can tell,that I have all emails to/from my virgin.net account on my PC up to the point a few days ago when I got the 'authentication denied' message. Curiously, my wife aso as a virgin.net account and that still works fine on the same PC. 

In view of the advice on this forum, we're both taking steps to use alternative email accounts etc. as it looks like only a matter of time before my wife's account is affected too.

I suppose that leaves one question - is it possible to close a virgin.net account to prevent unauthorised access or spam use by hacker etc and if so, how is that done given that neither Virgin Media nor Talk-Talk want anything to do with virgin.net accounts?

Wish I'd found this forum earlier, what a helpful and friendly resource it is!

Thanks

[Graham_A]

When you are ready for the virgin.net email accounts to be completely closed and deleted from the VM email systems just come back to this thread and request it.  The VM Forum Team will then refer it to their IT colleagues to delete the accounts.

There is a lot of nonsense posted by some and given out by telephone help support staff about the virgin.net email domain being controlled by Talk Talk.  VM still retain full control of the domain and accounts thereon, although they have limited access to certain orphaned accounts.

[jem101]

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@Graham_A wrote:

snip……
There is a lot of nonsense posted by some and given out by telephone help support staff about the virgin.net email domain being controlled by Talk Talk.  VM still retain full control of the domain and accounts thereon, although they have limited access to certain orphaned accounts.

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By ‘nonsense’, read ‘outright lies just to get you off the phone and chalk up another successful closed call’, or at best, complete ignorance by poorly trained staff working in a third party call centre with a massive staff turnover rate. 

[robert4967]

Thanks Graham. I've tried several times to forward sent and received emails that appear on my PC; some 'sent' emails I'm able to forwad to my new email account, others I'm unable to do. I'm unable to forward any of my 'inbox' emails. My worry is that if I request that the account be closed, I'll be unable to access any of the inbox and sent emails that I currently have. Is there any way that the Virgin Media IT team can fix the authentication to allow transfer of my 'inbox'? Also, if virgin media are still responsible for these account as has been suggested, how come this is an issue for me?

[Akua_A]

Thank you for letting us know @robert4967.

As the email account has been orphaned and is in the process of being closed, unfortunately our IT teams are unable to fix this in order to permit an inbox transfer.  In this case, it is best advised to take screenshots of important emails so important information is not lost permanently. 

Again we further apologise that you experienced this.

Thanks,