Why so frequent issues using VM email from Firefox (and, less so, from Brave)

[XEyedBear]

This is not really a request for help - more a 'getting it off my chest' post. Apologies to those who are irritated by this.

Over the past year or so I have had numerous problems with accessing my VM email, in 2 categories, which I think (no proof) are linked: being locked out of email because  of 'suspicious activity' and messages to the effect of 'your email service is not available right now; please try later'. Both of these occur, most often, when trying to use Firefox in both of my preferred operating systems (Windows and Linux). 

I have now abandoned use of Firefox entirely as I could no longer access my VM email on any of my computers using that browser. In the Windows environment it is slightly worse, in that Brave has now become unable to access my web-mail; I have had to fall back upon Microsoft Edge - and this totally shocks me, it being more than 10 years since I was willing to expose myself to this browser malware which Microsoft promotes.

Of the two categorise of problem that I have been experiencing, the 'suspicious activity; password disabled' lockout is the most concerning. This ALWAYS requires me to talk to somebody in India, who messes about with my password, setting it to something with no security and then requiring me to wait hours for the change to  become effective - at which time I can then reset the password, a second time, to something that has reasonable security.

And what is this 'suspicious activity'? I have asked repeatedly for an example of this and a definition of the process which 'detects' this 'suspicious activity'  - and have received no response - not even from an email to the UK CEO of VirginMedia. I feel sufficiently strongly about this that I intend now to make a formal complaint to Ofcom - VirginMedia are making unsubstantiated claims about my on-line activity which have a negative impact on my reputation. This cannot be allowed to continue.

For the future, I need to really question if the internet connection speed I get from VM justifies this much hassle  - or should I be looking for a more trouble free service from elsewhere?

[m00g]

If you do make a complaint, i hope you do, please include VMs failure to provide the tools to correctly secure email boxes.

By this i mean the limiting of passwords to eight to ten characters with no special characters, no 2FA etc etc.

VMs email security policy is poor and they would be helping themselves by allowing users more security.

Before the trolls jump in, yes I know a more secure email would most likely be one you pay for rather than the "free" (quotes used as nothing is free) supplied by your ISP.

[ALF28]

I agree the security should be better regarding the virgin password.

I have had issues with my firefox browser this week,it crashed a few times and I have removed the browser and now use edge or google chrome in windows 10/11. The edge browser is the most secure as defender only protects the edge browser.

An alternative to web mail is to use an email client such as thunderbird which I use on windows and works well and no password issues normally.

I was also using the avast browser but it kept getting alerts from security scans. so the choices are limited and older browsers may not be patched.

Also the virgin web site was down for 2 days earlier this week.

If you are getting warnings of suspicious activity from virgin they should explain that, usually it is spamming  or ddos when IOT devices can become infected.

Wise to to a  full  computer antivrus scan  with defender or similar and also check all connected devices are password protected and the firmware is up to date.

alf28

[Ayisha_B]

Hi @XEyedBear,

Welcome back to our Community Forums and thanks for your post. 

I am sorry to hear you have had some ongoing issues accessing your email. 

The mailbox can be locked for a number of reasons as I do appreciate this may be frustrating.

Are you able to access this now?

If you do have any issues and need our help, let us know.

Many Thanks

[ALF28]

edge browser- virgin webmail

My edge browser had problems while viewing virgin webmail today, the brower closed down and I lost my login so I tried again and took several attempts to get back in with messages saying mail not available or oops. Somtimes, using the arrow keys top left of the browser can get the correct page up after a few goes. If using more than one virgin email this can also confuse the browser, and always log out of the web site as well as  the email or it it difficult to log back in, as the browser thinks you are still logged in.

It might help to  clean the browsing history and then reset the browser, often this does help if passwords do not work.

Mozilla Thunderbird is a good alternative email client if you use windows and the paswords can be remebered if preffered, so quick access

alf28