yet another victim of the Verizon blacklisting

[pfps]

I, too, am unable to connect to pop.verizon.net or smtp.verizon.net from my current location.  This is not a problem with my account as I can read email through the web interface.

It really appears that Verizon is blacklisting many portions of the internet and refusing to service email requests from there.  That they are doing this indicates that there is some sort of emergency.  However, it would be very useful to have some information about what is going on so that we don't spend so much time trying to fix the situation.

[PaulPiusC]

Today, 10/7/2014, I was unable to get or send verizon mail from Thunderbird or my Android devices. This happens a lot with verizon, very rarely with Yahoo or gmail. You say you too are having this problem. Was there another post on this subject and what do you mean by 'blacklisting many portions of the internet'. I've never seen this reported as the cause for these problems, its usually some settings that Verizon has changed.

[Verizon_Support]

I'm going to send you a message so we can help figure out what's going on

~Jess

[pfps]

Jess:  I never received any message.  The problem is a known one, at least so far in that Verizon has cut off access to its POP and SMTP servers from a large part of the internet.  What is not known is why, why the problem has not yet been fixed, and why Verizon is making it so hard for customers to find out what is going on.  Given the number of posts in various places and the number of people known to be on the various trouble tickets, I would estimate that several thousand people have been so affected that they spent considerable time trying to find out what is going on.  That results in a lot of lost time, and Verizon is likely to end up losing a considerable amount of money in the end - a loss that could have been mostly avoided with only a little bit of effort on the part of Verizon. 

Verizon may be making the cynical calculation that few people are going to drop Verizon because of email issues.  I don't think that this would be a valid calculation, as email is the last sticky bit of Verizon's entire service package.

[mirnovo]

After some lengthy discussions with Verizon technical service I was told that they had for about a month problems with international outage. We travelled to Europe at the beginning of September and we were not able to receive and send Verizon email (pop.verizon.net and smtp.verizon.net was unable to connect). No problems with yahoo mail and Gmail. I was not even able to connect to Verizon webmail. When we got back to the States we found that our past sent messages and a lot of incoming messages simply disappeared from our folders and even from Webmail. In summary it seems that Verizon is having problems with their servers. To me they called it "international outage" and they have been working on it for about a month. How many people have been affected by that I was not told. It looks like Verizon is trying to keep it quiet.

[LizzieT]

I don't know about "blacklisting" but I have several times had trouble accessing my pop acounts through my apple mail account.  Today 10-8-14, I cannot access any verizon pop accoutns at home, through either computer.  I suspect my service or router is messed up.  I can access them through my browser.  Would love this to get fixed!

[tns2]

Verizon does not maintain the BLACKLIST.  They may tell those that do if they see attacks.  I belive they use several of the popular blacklist services.

[pfps]

TNS_2:  This is a different kind of blacklist.  Verizon is not accepting POP and SMTP connections from a large part of the internet.  As far as I can tell, it is only Verizon that is acting this way and Verizon has complete control over which portions of the internet that they are blacklisting.

[djb5]

Re:
"TNS_2: This is a different kind of blacklist. Verizon is not accepting POP and SMTP connections from a large part of the internet. As far as I can tell, it is only Verizon that is acting this way and Verizon has complete control over which portions of the internet that they are blacklisting."

And Verizon most certainly has control of their Support site (and support staff) and has chosen to not publish this as a known issue so customers wouldn't have to spend so much time and frustration trying to figure out why they can't get their email.

[LawrenceC]

Please see the announcement here:

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Verizon-net-Email/Email-Account-Password-Lockout/m-p/744863

[djb5]

Re:
"Please see the announcement here:

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Verizon-net-Email/Email-Account-Password-Lockout/m-p/744863"

If your symptom is "email server not responding" and you want to find out why, seems to me that the most reasonable place to look is on the Verizon Support page. Searching for "email server not responding" there brings up absolutely no clue. (For that matter neither does a search for "password lockout", if that is the symptom you may have seen.
Known issues should be posted clearly for all to see. Even verizon support staff, as evidenced by several posts on this forum, have been unable to find out what was going on.
Technical problems happen and are to be expected in this complex environment.
Failure to communicate known issues with customers doesn't need to (and shouldn't) happen.

[pfps]

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@LawrenceC wrote:

Please see the announcement here:

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Verizon-net-Email/Email-Account-Password-Lockout/m-p/744863

---

That is not the problem that I am experiencing.  My account is not locked out, as I can read email through the web interface. 

The problem is that the Verizon POP and SMTP servers are not accepting connections from a large part of the internet.  Changing my password is not going to affect this - I cannot even connect to the servers to enter a password or identify myself to Verizon.

[Folly654]

LawrenceC:

I'm afraid your suggestion does not accurately relate to the problem, which is access to Verizon accounts from overseas. and total lack of information from Verizon about this. 

As moderator you can be a big help if you first understand our issues. 

I note that the post you reference was issued on Sept 18, one day after the infamous shutting down of overseas access, but oddly it refers only to "residential" accounts, and does not discuss the overseas problem. It also says "We are notifying customers who must take action to re-activate their accounts" but I have heard of no-one who has received such notification.

[tns2]

I know its bad but verizon did acknowledge the problem.  They just haven't made it easy yet to get valid overseas whitelisted.

Verizon was under a fairly massive attack, possibly trying to use the previously reported stolen customer infomation.  They resorted to block most overseas ISP's.  Hopefully they are beginning to work through the requests to whitelist valid Overseas ISP's.  But until they say otherwise, only customer requests to whitelist will get things changed.

Remember this forum is not really the best place to just vent your anger.  It is mosly peers with only a few Verizon admins, and no Verizon policy setters.

[pfps]

Where has Verizon acknowledged this problem? I have not been able to find any such place. I have not received any communication from Verizon concerning the problem. The Verizon support people that I have contacted do not have a clue about the problem. The solutions that have been reported are useless for many people. When I have called Verizon support I have strongly suggested that Verizon be open about the problem. Nothing has happened. My only avenue of communication is via forums like this one. Even here there is misinformation, which I have tried to correct but to no avail, as some people on this forum have the ability to create posts that cannot be replied to. Fortunately I am now back home, but I am now in the process of moving further away from Verizon so that I am not affected the next time I travel.

[tns2]

I know Brittany did not make it very clear but it is mentioned in her post

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Verizon-net-Email/Email-Account-Password-Lockout/td-p/744863

[pfps]

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@tns_2 wrote:

I know Brittany did not make it very clear but it is mentioned in her post

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Verizon-net-Email/Email-Account-Password-Lockout/td-p/744863

---

This post does not match what was happening to us.

There never was suspicious activity on our acccounts. Our accounts were never disabled.  (We could still use webmail, by and large.)  We do not have overseas accounts.   We were never notified.

Because our accounts were never disabled, re-activation is not a remedy to the problem at all.

There is no information on either of the referenced pages that is relevant to our problem.

The problem is that the Verizon POP and SMTP servers were (and almost certainly still are) refusing to accept any connections from a large part of the internet.  Verizon made this problem dramatically worse by not having any effective remedy for many affected parties, by not telling their support staff about the problem, and by not putting up any information on it.  There is not even any way to correct or comment on the post.

[tns2]

I've directly discussed this with Brittany and yes its meant to explain that FOREIGN ACCESS was cut off.  Unfortunately some domestic were  also cut off.  Both may be addressed if you ask them to whitelist you.  If for example all ABCD ISP's addresses are being blocked (or at least a lot of them), it would be better if you asked ABCD to contact Verizon about getting their addressses whitelisted.  That way if you get a different IP address from ABCD the next time you connect, you will have access.

[pfps]

Well if the referenced post was supposed to refer to the situation what we find ourselves in, then it is very badly written.  The post talks about suspicious activity on our accounts and the remedy is to get our accounts reset.  Nothing about access being cut off or whitelisting.

Also your remedy does not work when travelling.  When travelling you get a different setup at each hotel, with potentially different addresses and ISPs.  Getting put on a whielist is impossible and would not be a remedy even if it were possible.

It seems that there is a lot of confusion within Verizon on this problem.  You would think that Verizon would know what it has done, but I guess not.

I think that the only thing saving Verizon from the ash can of history is its monopoly position.

[tns2]

Its much clearer now then it was.  Have you read it recently?

[djb5]

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@tns_2 wrote:

Its much clearer now then it was.  Have you read it recently?

---

With all due respect (and thanks for all the help provided here on the Forums, especially from unpaid customers helping the rest of us) ,

Forums are NOT the place for a business to announce service outages or limitations. When an action to discontinue is planned, all customers should be notified. And the situation should be clearly posted on the top level Support Page, at least with a link titled something like "Known Outages or Service Disruptions".

And, ideally, when trying to access a curtailed service, it would be helpful to receive a more meaningful message than the one we all received here "Server not responding" (perhaps could include where to go to find possible reasons for receiving the message).

And, no need to even go into the issue of updating all technical staff (or the database the help desk people search) soif you call for help you get the answer.

I know, preaching to the choir here, but it does seem Verizon has been reading these threads, so I'm hoping they will pay attention.

And TNS_2, it's great that you are so helpful (truly, you are a treasure for all of us who come here for help), but I don't agree with your position that posts on a customer forum are a substitute for keeping customers informed of service disruptions or outages. Although, it is through the support of Verizon that we even have these forums, so we have to appreciate that!