Email nightmares

[Dave2002]

We have recently been experiencing major problems with some old Tinyworld accounts - administered by Talk Talk.

Something happened to the server configuration on some of the accounts recently - don't know what. Could have been a change by Talk Talk, or a change by Apple in the mail software or OS, but it's a real pain trying to get this sorted. The problems are particularly with outgoing mail.

Trying to solve the problems by deleting the mail accounts in the Mac mail client, then creating new ones seems very much hit and miss now.

I think it's possible to send via Google/Gmail smtp, from such a legacy account, though personally I don't always want to send via Google. To be honest, I'm not sure that any of the obvious providers are any better re privacy and not "reading" emails, so it perhaps doesn't matter. I do use gmail regularly, though at times I really wish I didn't have to. I'm not sure that Microsoft accounts - e.g outlook.com are any better either.

I would probably rather not have much to do with Talk Talk now. We did earlier have paid for broadband accounts with Talk Talk, but now we only have the remnants, though we do use the mail accounts, which we have found very useful.

Maybe I should just configure all our mail to run via BT - since we are currently using BT broadband.

If anyone knows of a good provider, which will give reliable email service and work with Mac mail, and hopefully not invade one's privacy in any obvious way, I'd be pleased to hear of it.

[umslopogaas]

I use Orange email for no better reason than Orange are my mobile phone provider. There are occasionally times when you cant access for a few hours because of faults at their end, but otherwise I've never noticed any problems. As for privacy/security, I wouldnt know: I dont use email for any financially sensitive purposes. Certainly I have never had any communications or other evidence to suggest privacy has been breached. I occasionally get advertising emails, eg Majestic Wine telling me about their latest offers, but that's only because I was foolish enough to give them my email address.

As far as I can tell, Orange email is free: at least in the more than ten years I have used it, I've never been sent a bill. I suppose that I get it as a free service because I use Orange for my mobile phone, but since I only use my mobile once in a blue moon, I have paid Orange very little money over the years.

[Anastasius]

....and hopefully not invade one's privacy in any obvious way, ....

You really are paranoid. You will NEVER - I repeat NEVER - know if anyone or any secret squirrel organisation/Mafia/MI5/GCHQ/"who the Hell cares" is reading your emails. If it really is that important to you then don't use email. Then you can relax.

Regarding your TalkTalk email problems....you should know if you have recently updated any part of your operating system with a Security Update etc from Apple. Apple do not change things in the background without your say-so although I know that your conspiracy theory laden mind would have it that they did.

So it's TalkTalk.

[Dave2002]

You really are paranoid.

No - merely cautious. I do use methods which I know to be insecure if I don't care too much, but I think twice or three times before sending any confidential or private information.

In my experience most people haven't a clue about security, and there are enough bad guys out there waiting to exploit that.

Oh - have I ever been hit? Yes - though not so much by email. I'd definitely always recommend caution.

So it's TalkTalk.

Possibly, though it's not so obvious how or why, or what to do about it. Also, I generally do know if I've updated things, but others round here in my household seem a bit clueless at times. Arguably things are now working again, though I'm still not totally sure. It's just taken over an hour for a couple of test emails to reappear. Not actually a problem on my machine, but others here are having problems, and also with the iOS mail - which I've not even looked at yet.

[Dave2002]

Touching lots of wood ..... success ...... so far!

Maybe there was a recent change at the server end - for once it looks as though that might increase security. Well done those people - just a pity they didn't let users know!

We deleted previous accounts in Mail both on a Mac OS X system running Yosemite, and on an iPad running iOS 9, and tried to create new accounts. We earlier tried simply editing the details of each account. Whether that might eventually have worked we can't say, but we didn't have much luck, so we went for destroy + recreate option. Then we tried to configure the accounts as new accounts in the relevant email clients.

I found this apparently useful page - http://www.geeksquad.co.uk/articles/...gs-setup-guide

However, under the server settings for the relevant ISP it suggested an outgoing SMTP port of 857, but no security.
This was also mentioned in some other, earlier documents, perhaps directly from the ISP. This doesn't work.

What seems to work though is setting up Password authentication, which requires a username + password. Then there might be a danger that passwords could be intercepted if sent over an insecure link (not that all ISPs would be bothered ... perhaps ...), so to give better security SSL needs to be selected.

We checked all this by a trial and error process, until we got something which apparently works.

It is possible that the ISP has tightened up security recently, and thus any attempt to access the SMTP server by an unrecognised user on an incorrect port will be rejected.

So, sorted .... until the next time.