Completely off topic - I need help.

On Sun, 21 May 2017 08:46:12 -0700, Bill W
wrote:

On Sun, 21 May 2017 20:10:13 +1200, Eric Stevens
wrote:

On Sun, 21 May 2017 00:59:42 -0400, nospam
wrote:

In article , Eric Stevens
wrote:

The affected computer used Thunderbird.

that's likely the problem, if not a major part of it.

That's what I thought at first, but first I updated Thunderbird and
then I stripped it right out using Revo Uninstaller and gave it a
completely fresh install. When the problem remained I switched to
using the W10 mail client (I previously accidentally wrote 'mail
server') and it cant connect to my ISP's mail server for receiving
either.

sounds like it could be a networking issue.

is there any type of firewall running, incoming or outgoing? if so,
disable and test.

I've done that with the one in the computer. There is another in my
router but it isn't stopping any other traffic and I don't know
anything that has changed it in the last year or so, let alone 15 days
ago.

As unlikely as it is, it can't hurt to plug the affected PC directly
into the modem, and bypass the router.

But here's something even better: 15 days ago is about when my PC
crashed from a Windows update, and a quick Google search showed email
issues arising from previous updates. This is one fix that seemed to
work for a couple of people:

Yep, same thing happened to me on 2 computers. You would think
Microsoft would have at least it's own programs sorted for the launch.
Anyway, here is the fix:
1. Open a command prompt from the start menu as Administrator.
2. type sfc /scannow
3. Windows will scan your system files and repair corrupted ones (why
they are corrupted who knows).
4. Do a reboot and I am sure your emails will work again.

You might have to do this repeatedly until all errors are repaired.

'scannow' has just completed it's first run and reported that all
appears to be OK (I forget the exact words).

I have started Thunderbird and tried to connect. This time I was asked
for my wife's IMAP password which I gave - and was rejected. Yesterday
there had been much tooing and froing over passwords and settings and
there was a chance it had been incorrectly spelled. So I tried several
variations. None worked so in desparation I went back to what I
believed was the correct password, and this time it worked.
Thunderbird downloaded the mail.

The password problem has left me highly suspicious of the whole
problem but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I would like to thank everybody for all of the suggestions and you in
particular for hitting the jackpot. I just hope it keeps working.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

On Sun, 21 May 2017 08:58:10 -0400, "Mayayana"
wrote:

"Eric Stevens" wrote

| I have spent hours on the phone with my ISP and have tried every
| combination of connection that there is including password security
| and ports. Nothing works.
|
Did you also try a search? The first item turned up
when I did a search was an interesting one: Someone
turned out to have a password too long, with questionable
characters. It didn't interfere with SMTP but did interfere
with POP.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1045102

A longshot, but....

Password hasn't changed in years.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

On Mon, 22 May 2017 11:18:43 +1200, Eric Stevens
wrote:

On Sun, 21 May 2017 08:46:12 -0700, Bill W
wrote:

On Sun, 21 May 2017 20:10:13 +1200, Eric Stevens
wrote:

On Sun, 21 May 2017 00:59:42 -0400, nospam
wrote:

In article , Eric Stevens
wrote:

The affected computer used Thunderbird.

that's likely the problem, if not a major part of it.

That's what I thought at first, but first I updated Thunderbird and
then I stripped it right out using Revo Uninstaller and gave it a
completely fresh install. When the problem remained I switched to
using the W10 mail client (I previously accidentally wrote 'mail
server') and it cant connect to my ISP's mail server for receiving
either.

sounds like it could be a networking issue.

is there any type of firewall running, incoming or outgoing? if so,
disable and test.

I've done that with the one in the computer. There is another in my
router but it isn't stopping any other traffic and I don't know
anything that has changed it in the last year or so, let alone 15 days
ago.

As unlikely as it is, it can't hurt to plug the affected PC directly
into the modem, and bypass the router.

But here's something even better: 15 days ago is about when my PC
crashed from a Windows update, and a quick Google search showed email
issues arising from previous updates. This is one fix that seemed to
work for a couple of people:

Yep, same thing happened to me on 2 computers. You would think
Microsoft would have at least it's own programs sorted for the launch.
Anyway, here is the fix:
1. Open a command prompt from the start menu as Administrator.
2. type sfc /scannow
3. Windows will scan your system files and repair corrupted ones (why
they are corrupted who knows).
4. Do a reboot and I am sure your emails will work again.

You might have to do this repeatedly until all errors are repaired.

'scannow' has just completed it's first run and reported that all
appears to be OK (I forget the exact words).

I have started Thunderbird and tried to connect. This time I was asked
for my wife's IMAP password which I gave - and was rejected. Yesterday
there had been much tooing and froing over passwords and settings and
there was a chance it had been incorrectly spelled. So I tried several
variations. None worked so in desparation I went back to what I
believed was the correct password, and this time it worked.
Thunderbird downloaded the mail.

The password problem has left me highly suspicious of the whole
problem but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I would like to thank everybody for all of the suggestions and you in
particular for hitting the jackpot. I just hope it keeps working.

In the back of my memory there was this issue with broken SSL in
Windows, so scannow might have repaired that. Did you try to log into
any secure (https) web sites while you were having the problem? I
believe you wouldn't have been able to.

On Sun, 21 May 2017 11:50:27 -0400, dale wrote:

On 5/20/17 9:43 PM, Eric Stevens wrote:
I have two Windows 10 computers in my house, two iPads and two
iPhones. All of these use the same mail server. On the 6th May my
older W10 machine lost the ability to download mail. It can send but
it can't receive. All other devices continue unchanged.

The affected computer used Thunderbird. Since the problem started I
also switched to the mail server built into Windows 10. It won't work
either. The symptom is that the mail server times out and presumably
is failing to connect. The mail remains on server and can be accessed
by other devices but not this particular computer.

I have spent hours on the phone with my ISP and have tried every
combination of connection that there is including password security
and ports. Nothing works.

I've run out of ideas as to what the problem might be. Any polite
suggestions will be welcome.


this might help

do you delete the mail after download with Thunderbird?

No

if not, delete the account, recreate it, and download all the messages again

Tried that. It didn't change the situation.

doesn't apply to the Windows mail client but might be worth a shot, had
a similar problem when a news server name changed

Mail server's name hadn't changed.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

On 5/21/2017 6:52 PM, Eric Stevens wrote:
On Sun, 21 May 2017 08:05:29 -0400, Neil
wrote:

On 5/21/2017 12:36 AM, Eric Stevens wrote:
On Sat, 20 May 2017 22:43:11 -0400, Neil
wrote:

On 5/20/2017 9:43 PM, Eric Stevens wrote:
I have two Windows 10 computers in my house, two iPads and two
iPhones. All of these use the same mail server. On the 6th May my
older W10 machine lost the ability to download mail. It can send but
it can't receive. All other devices continue unchanged.

The affected computer used Thunderbird. Since the problem started I
also switched to the mail server built into Windows 10. It won't work
either. The symptom is that the mail server times out and presumably
is failing to connect. The mail remains on server and can be accessed
by other devices but not this particular computer.

I have spent hours on the phone with my ISP and have tried every
combination of connection that there is including password security
and ports. Nothing works.

I've run out of ideas as to what the problem might be. Any polite
suggestions will be welcome.

Thunderbird's server settings are the likely source of your problem. I
have experienced similar issues at times, and for some reason the
problem is more frequent under Win10 if one is connecting to multiple
email servers. Usually, the problem can be addressed by manually setting
all incoming and outgoing server port and protocol settings to match
your other device settings. The worst-case (but least frequent) scenario
is that the damaged account needs to be deleted in order to force
Thunderbird to reestablish all server connection criteria.

HTH.

See my reply to nospam.

I looked at it, but saw nothing that addresses what I've written, above.
One difference is that my comments are based on similar experiences and
how I resolved them, not WAGs about what might be going on. If my
suggestions don't help to resolve your problem, I haven't anything else
to offer.

I feel much the same way except that in my case I saw nothing that
addressed what I haven't already written. I've already done everything
(and more) that you suggested. Seeing that the Windows Mail client on
the affected machine has exactly the same problems I strongly suspect
that Thunderbird isn't the problem but something inside the computer
concerned.

The only thing that comes to mind about things "inside the computer"
being the cause would be port blockages. Did your error logs show any
odd activity regarding your firewall settings?

--
best regards,

Neil

On Sun, 21 May 2017 16:24:26 -0700, Bill W
wrote:

On Mon, 22 May 2017 11:18:43 +1200, Eric Stevens
wrote:

On Sun, 21 May 2017 08:46:12 -0700, Bill W
wrote:

On Sun, 21 May 2017 20:10:13 +1200, Eric Stevens
wrote:

On Sun, 21 May 2017 00:59:42 -0400, nospam
wrote:

In article , Eric Stevens
wrote:

The affected computer used Thunderbird.

that's likely the problem, if not a major part of it.

That's what I thought at first, but first I updated Thunderbird and
then I stripped it right out using Revo Uninstaller and gave it a
completely fresh install. When the problem remained I switched to
using the W10 mail client (I previously accidentally wrote 'mail
server') and it cant connect to my ISP's mail server for receiving
either.

sounds like it could be a networking issue.

is there any type of firewall running, incoming or outgoing? if so,
disable and test.

I've done that with the one in the computer. There is another in my
router but it isn't stopping any other traffic and I don't know
anything that has changed it in the last year or so, let alone 15 days
ago.

As unlikely as it is, it can't hurt to plug the affected PC directly
into the modem, and bypass the router.

But here's something even better: 15 days ago is about when my PC
crashed from a Windows update, and a quick Google search showed email
issues arising from previous updates. This is one fix that seemed to
work for a couple of people:

Yep, same thing happened to me on 2 computers. You would think
Microsoft would have at least it's own programs sorted for the launch.
Anyway, here is the fix:
1. Open a command prompt from the start menu as Administrator.
2. type sfc /scannow
3. Windows will scan your system files and repair corrupted ones (why
they are corrupted who knows).
4. Do a reboot and I am sure your emails will work again.

You might have to do this repeatedly until all errors are repaired.

'scannow' has just completed it's first run and reported that all
appears to be OK (I forget the exact words).

I have started Thunderbird and tried to connect. This time I was asked
for my wife's IMAP password which I gave - and was rejected. Yesterday
there had been much tooing and froing over passwords and settings and
there was a chance it had been incorrectly spelled. So I tried several
variations. None worked so in desparation I went back to what I
believed was the correct password, and this time it worked.
Thunderbird downloaded the mail.

The password problem has left me highly suspicious of the whole
problem but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I would like to thank everybody for all of the suggestions and you in
particular for hitting the jackpot. I just hope it keeps working.

In the back of my memory there was this issue with broken SSL in
Windows, so scannow might have repaired that. Did you try to log into
any secure (https) web sites while you were having the problem? I
believe you wouldn't have been able to.

Normally only my wife uses my old (troublesome) computer. Any https
working that I do is via my new computer which uses a different build
of W10.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

On Sun, 21 May 2017 20:06:08 -0400, Neil
wrote:

On 5/21/2017 6:52 PM, Eric Stevens wrote:
On Sun, 21 May 2017 08:05:29 -0400, Neil
wrote:

On 5/21/2017 12:36 AM, Eric Stevens wrote:
On Sat, 20 May 2017 22:43:11 -0400, Neil
wrote:

On 5/20/2017 9:43 PM, Eric Stevens wrote:
I have two Windows 10 computers in my house, two iPads and two
iPhones. All of these use the same mail server. On the 6th May my
older W10 machine lost the ability to download mail. It can send but
it can't receive. All other devices continue unchanged.

The affected computer used Thunderbird. Since the problem started I
also switched to the mail server built into Windows 10. It won't work
either. The symptom is that the mail server times out and presumably
is failing to connect. The mail remains on server and can be accessed
by other devices but not this particular computer.

I have spent hours on the phone with my ISP and have tried every
combination of connection that there is including password security
and ports. Nothing works.

I've run out of ideas as to what the problem might be. Any polite
suggestions will be welcome.

Thunderbird's server settings are the likely source of your problem. I
have experienced similar issues at times, and for some reason the
problem is more frequent under Win10 if one is connecting to multiple
email servers. Usually, the problem can be addressed by manually setting
all incoming and outgoing server port and protocol settings to match
your other device settings. The worst-case (but least frequent) scenario
is that the damaged account needs to be deleted in order to force
Thunderbird to reestablish all server connection criteria.

HTH.

See my reply to nospam.

I looked at it, but saw nothing that addresses what I've written, above.
One difference is that my comments are based on similar experiences and
how I resolved them, not WAGs about what might be going on. If my
suggestions don't help to resolve your problem, I haven't anything else
to offer.

I feel much the same way except that in my case I saw nothing that
addressed what I haven't already written. I've already done everything
(and more) that you suggested. Seeing that the Windows Mail client on
the affected machine has exactly the same problems I strongly suspect
that Thunderbird isn't the problem but something inside the computer
concerned.

The only thing that comes to mind about things "inside the computer"
being the cause would be port blockages. Did your error logs show any
odd activity regarding your firewall settings?

No. And at one stage I tried disabling the firewall. I seemed to be
making contact with my ISP's mail server, which then rejected the
contact.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens