Email issues

Trevor · May 04, 2014, 12:16:20

Hi All,
Yesterday, I had a number of returned emails that I had not sent and when I tried to access my main address it came up as invalid password. I went to Idnet's site and found that the password had been changed (something like 'simple password please ch' had been added) so I was concerned that my address had been hacked. I've changed all my passwords, but cannot get Thunderbird to play nicely. I seem to remember that I had issues when I first set up Tbird and opted for no security, dumb I know, but now I can't send and when I try to download messages it reports no messages to download. I thought as I had changed all the passwords I would be prompted for the new one?
Is there a problem with mail today? I managed to get some messages downloaded (going through them one at a time) after responding to the change password prompt, but now the remainder report 'no messages to download' again.
When I try to send I get a message saying Sending of message failed.
The message could not be sent using SMTP server smtp.idnet.com for an unknown reason. Please verify that your SMTP server settings are correct and try again, or contact your network administrator.
My setting are:
Outgoing:
smtp.idnet.com
Port: 587 or 465
Username: Not specified
Authentication Method: Normal Password
Comm Security: STARTTLS or SSL/TLS

Sorry for the long post, but I hope someone can help me out. I cannot get on to the Idnet site atm, but when I did, the T'bird setup did not cover security settings.
Can anyone suggest a viable alternative to T'bird?
Thanks

Simon · May 04, 2014, 12:55:51

It's possible that IDNet changed your email password to stop the account being used 'fraudulently', but I'm surprised they didn't tell you if that was the case.

Have you now changed your password to one of your own? If so, Thunderbird should have rejected your old password and requested a new one. If it didn't, then you'll need to find Password Manager, which I think will be in the settings under Securiry or Privacy (I don't have T'Bird so am guessing there), then remove the old entry containing your old password. Then, next time you start Thunderbird, it should ask for a new password to the account, and that might also solve the SMTP issue.

Trevor · May 04, 2014, 13:33:58

Thanks Simon. Incoming mail is now OK. T'bird prompted me to enter a new password. Strange that it didn't work before for all accounts. I do wonder if that was linked to my inability to access IDnet's web site?
SMTP still won't work unless I set it to no authentication.
Are there any other free email clients I can try?

Simon · May 04, 2014, 13:57:33

There's the SeaMonkey suite which includes the browser as well, so this could replace Firefox and. Thunderbird:

http://www.seamonkey-project.org/

Sometimes you need to restart TB, though, to get it to ask for a new password, if the old one has been changed. Not sure about the SMTP issue, as that shouldn't have changed.

Trevor · May 04, 2014, 14:00:04

Thanks again Simon.

I'll take a look at SeaMonkey. I don't use Firefox now, I prefer Chrome, although it isn't without it's faults!

peasblossom · May 04, 2014, 16:57:05

Quote from: Simon on May 04, 2014, 12:55:51
Have you now changed your password to one of your own? If so, Thunderbird should have rejected your old password and requested a new one. If it didn't, then you'll need to find Password Manager, which I think will be in the settings under Security or Privacy (I don't have T'Bird so am guessing there), then remove the old entry containing your old password. Then, next time you start Thunderbird, it should ask for a new password to the account, and that might also solve the SMTP issue.

You'd need to go to 'Outgoing Server settings' which is right at the bottom of the side bar on the left and remove the smtp listing. It will ask for the password when you next log in and that will add it back in (as long as you ask it to remember it.) Sometimes an email client (that's what T'Bird is) gets the hump (technical term) about use of special characters so it may be you need to play around a bit to find one that it's happy with. That's what I found anyway.

Simon · May 04, 2014, 19:21:00

Thanks for the tip, PB.

Trevor · May 05, 2014, 09:35:26

Quote from: peasblossom on May 04, 2014, 16:57:05
You'd need to go to 'Outgoing Server settings' which is right at the bottom of the side bar on the left and remove the smtp listing. It will ask for the password when you next log in and that will add it back in (as long as you ask it to remember it.) Sometimes an email client (that's what T'Bird is) gets the hump (technical term) about use of special characters so it may be you need to play around a bit to find one that it's happy with. That's what I found anyway.

Thank you.