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Email setup craziness

I spent about 2 hours on the phone with Verizon tech support yesterday, with a very nice and diligent support person. The 1st hour was spent getting the red light out on my Westell 6100 DSL modem. The next hour was spent trying to figure out why Thunderbird could suddenly not connect with either pop.verizon.net or smtp.verizon.net. He never could figure it out, and neither could the Thunderbird expert he referred me to. Everything was set up correctly as it had been for a long time, including the latest port settings. After they gave up, I tried letting Windows Live Mail set up a connection automatically, and amazingly it worked. What happened was it used the default settings: incoming.verizon.net on port 110, and outgoing.verizon.net on port 25 which I thought had been blocked a long time ago. I'm still set up that way and it's working fine, and the new "correct" settings still don't work. Can anyone explain this?

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armond_in_nj1

@dbarbour wrote:
... trying to figure out why Thunderbird could suddenly not connect with either pop.verizon.net or smtp.verizon.net ... Everything was set up correctly as it had been for a long time, including the latest port settings ... tried letting Windows Live Mail set up a connection automatically, and amazingly it worked ... it used the default settings: incoming.verizon.net on port 110, and outgoing.verizon.net on port 25 ... Can anyone explain this?

None of the volunteers here will be able to explain why your settings work or do not, because you have not posted them in detail. Please note that there are any number of threads on the forums detailing the exact, successful settings for the Thunderbird mail client. Try "thunderbird" in the "Ask the Community" search box at the top of the page.

With respect to the question of why the old settings still work, please see this post:

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Verizon-net-Email/Problems-with-Outlook-and-sending-email/m-p/563643#M12080

dbarbour1

Well, I didn't post the settings because they are exactly as Verizon requires and had been working for a long time, and also were checked by Verizon's Internet and email client support persons yesterday. Apparently something happened because of the fix for my Internet outage, which I also don't understand because nothing had been changed on my end. I'm surprised that the old email client settings still work. I thought port 25 in particular was supposed to be blocked as a security risk.

AnnieS1

Hi dbarbour,

Please go to your profile page for the forum by clicking on your name, and look at the top of the middle column where you will find an area titled "My Private Support Cases".

There you will find a link to the private board where you and the agent may exchange information. This should be checked on a frequent basis as the agent may be waiting for information from you before they can proceed with any actions. Please keep all correspondence regarding your issue in the private support portal.

Regards,

AnnieS

SF191

I had a similar experience yesterday. New installation couldn't get it to work with Outlook. I did a live chat with a very nice fellow, we went to GoToMeeting and I let him operate my computer remotely. Almost an hour later, the connection was cut (not by me) and the problem wasn't fixed. I managed to do it myself today.

Unfortunately I just found out that all sub-accounts have to have passwords different from the main email account. I keep 3 emails: 1 for family & friends, 1 for businesses I deal with (to keep personal spamming to a minimum) and 1 that I have mail from my website forwarded to. Verizon wants to complicate my life by forcing me into 3 passwords. That's an insanely stupid policy. I'm of a mind to go back to Cablevision but they've got their own problems. Maybe one day a communications provider will actually care about customers...

On another note, it seems like the only task the moderators have on this forum is to prevent someone from airing a gripe about Verizon publicly. That's not a way to win admiration for the company.

armond_in_nj1

@SF19 wrote:
... I just found out that all sub-accounts have to have passwords different from the main email account. I keep 3 emails: ... Verizon wants to complicate my life by forcing me into 3 passwords. That's an insanely stupid policy ...

I'm not sure how you came to this conclusion, but your statement about VZ requiring different email passwords for each subaccount is not correct. It is indeed the case that each subaccount must have a unique user name, but any and all accounts can share the same password..

As an example, I have 10 Verizon email accounts (one primary and nine subaccounts, plus an email alias). Eight of these accounts (the primary plus seven subaccounts) have the identical password. The other two subaccounts each share the same password (different from the other eight). My system works correctly and there are no email issues with sending and receiving mail.

Whatever procedure you are using to set your password is not correct. Perhaps if you tell us exactly how you are going about it, someone here can offer suggestions. Please comment.

SF191

I came to that conclusion after trying unsuccesfully to add a sub account with the same password 5 times. I then added the account with another password and tried to modify it after the fact. Same result - it wouldn't let me use the password I wanted.

I then contacted Verizon tech help and was given the same intuitive, though unhelpful and incorrect, advise that you're offering. After finally getting an "email expert" it was confirmed to me that Verizon does not allow the same password to be used for security reasons. The instructions mention that the password can not contain your user name - which was the error message I got all the time - but it also forbids repeating the password.

I previously had FiOS and had multiple sub accounts set to the same password. So sometime in the last few years Veriizon instituted this ridiculous change. I note that my old passwords had 6 characters and now they require a minimum of 8. So they have made changes since I last had the service. This one is extremely unfriendly to the customer. I'm not looking for things that make my life more complicated.

armond_in_nj1

@SF19 wrote:
... I then contacted Verizon tech help and was given the same intuitive, though unhelpful and incorrect, advise [sic] that you're offering ... it was confirmed to me that Verizon does not allow the same password to be used for security reasons ... I note that my old passwords had 6 characters and now they require a minimum of 8. So they have made changes since I last had the service ...

I'm not of course suggesting that Verizon doesn't change password requirements from time to time in the interests of security. Of course they do, as do all ISPs. However separate individual passwords for subaccounts is not one of these changes, and this is confirmed in practice by my 10+ email accounts.

I am sorry if the information I offered is, in your estimation, "unhelpful and incorrect." However unless I'm suffering some sort of delusional episode (it hasn't happened yet, but anything is possible these days), I promise you that my statements do indeed reflect the reality of my situation: I am able to use identical passwords across multiple email accounts.

Having said that, I'm afraid I must simply wish you good luck and much success in addressing your issue.

Verizon_Support

Hi, dbarbour. We're just stepping in briefly to let you know that we haven't forgotten you. If you'd like to have us revisit this with you, please don't hesitate to ping us with another post.

Thanks!

Best,

Leon

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