Email help please

I'm trying to help a friend set up his btinternet.com email on his new W8 laptop. I've tried following the details on bt customer help without success. I've followed the set up for IMAP and POP3 without success.

My internet provider is PN so we are trying to access his BT email account via a PN connection. Would this cause the failure?

Customer Help link

Edited by wingco1 (Sun 08-Feb-15 22:06:50)

Can you telnet mail.btinternet.com 993 ?

Typing mail.btinternet.com 993 into the Telnet client brings an invalid command response.

I've just done that telnet from my Plusnet connection, and the Command Line window clears, leaving me with a flashing cursor.

I've no idea what BatBoy expects or what to do next though. I didn't get an error message.

Is the telnet client enabled on the machine in question?
************************************************************************************
Edit!!!

Ah, are you getting
Welcome to Microsoft Telnet Client

Escape Character is 'CTRL+]'

Microsoft Telnet> mail.btinternet.com 993
Invalid Command. type ?/help for help
Microsoft Telnet>

Instead, in the CL box type
telnet mail.btinternet.com 993
************************************************************************************
Edit 2!!

Welcome to Microsoft Telnet Client

Escape Character is 'CTRL+]'

Microsoft Telnet> mail.btinternet.com 993
Invalid Command. type ?/help for help
Microsoft Telnet> ?

Commands may be abbreviated. Supported commands are:

c - close close current connection
d - display display operating parameters
o - open hostname [port] connect to hostname (default port 23).
q - quit exit telnet
set - set set options (type 'set ?' for a list)
sen - send send strings to server
st - status print status information
u - unset unset options (type 'unset ?' for a list)
?/h - help print help information

Microsoft Telnet> open mail.btinternet.com 993
Connecting To mail.btinternet.com...

Then it just sits there with the cursor flashing at the end of that last line.

Edited by RobertoS (Sun 08-Feb-15 23:28:51)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I've just done that telnet from my Plusnet connection, and the Command Line window clears, leaving me with a flashing cursor.

I've no idea what BatBoy expects or what to do next though. I didn't get an error message.

That means you can connect to the server from a Plusnet connection.

No, that's not connecting; it's just trying to connect. I think it's cuz ports 993/5 require SSL and plain Telnet does not support it. However the OP won't be using Telnet to connect but a mail client that takes SSL.

Try the standard POP3 connection 'telnet mail.btinternet.com 110' and you should get an immediate POP3 response. Then if you type arbitrary user & pass commands you should get some feedback. Thus:

+OK POP3 PROXY server ready
user BatBoy
+OK Password required
pass RobertoS
-ERR [AUTH] (#AUTH012) Incorrect username or password.

Yes, it's connecting. If you telnet mail.btinternet.com 999 it doesn't connect.

In reply to a post by wingco1:

Customer Help link

You have the correct Help page. This will work over any network.

Make sure you have SSL ON and you have authenticated with your friend's BT email addy & pwd on all ports. Failure to do any of these is the usual reason for failure.

For a simple test configure the incoming POP3 server on Port 110. Then you don't need SSL on that port.

Edited by XRaySpeX (Mon 09-Feb-15 00:43:24)

That's cuz the BT server doesn't offer an open port 999 but it does offer port 993. It's just not completing the handshake because it expects SSL, which is good as trying to connect.

If it were connected where is the server's feedback like '+OK POP3 PROXY server ready'?

Yes, it's connected.
Maybe tcping will help you understand.

Edited by deleted (Mon 09-Feb-15 01:09:13)

Thanks to all who tried to help. I got the email working this morning, (from a PN connection)

I've just tried that and get the same as you.

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 09-Feb-15 11:25:13)

Now that's what you call 'A Connection'!

If telnet results in a blank screen and a flashing cursor, it indicates a connection has been established and is waiting for input or output, just as BatBoy says. Anything sent or received after that is just communication across the established connection. Another one to try:

telnet forums.thinkbroadband.com 80

In technical terms, the blank screen with a flashing cursor signifies that the 3 steps of TCP connection establishment have completed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_Control_Pr...

In reply to a post by wingco1:

Thanks to all who tried to help. I got the email working this morning, (from a PN connection)

Excellent.

Sorry we didn't get further than

we are trying to access his BT email account via a PN connection. Would this cause the failure?

I felt it should, but it is odd that the one XRaySpeX gives generates a prompt. Seeing as both are connections to the same mail server I would have expected a prompt in both cases.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I felt it should, but it is odd that the one XRaySpeX gives generates a prompt. Seeing as both are connections to the same mail server I would have expected a prompt in both cases.

A TCP connection has been established in both cases.

Port 110 is an unencrypted POP3 connection not expecting an SSL handshake, so it sends data straight away to the telnet client.

Port 993 is an encrypted IMAP connection expecting an SSL handshake after it connects, hence a blank screen waiting for input, much like my port 80 example which is waiting for HTTP commands before it replies.

Thanks .

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

If telnet results in a blank screen and a flashing cursor, it indicates a connection has been established and is waiting for input or output

Agreed, but then you would expect some response when you do type something even if erroneous. At least with the TBB one you do get some feedback when you type into it.

Anyway, this is all academic. BT email can be accessed from any network incl. PN. The OP just needed to get the email server settings correct & has now confirmed it works.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Anyway, this is all academic. BT email can be accessed from any network incl. PN.

Exactly. I access mine from numerous different connections in the UK and abroad and these days there is never an issue. Boot the PC, connect to a network wired or wireless, open Outlook and immediately new messages are downloaded.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Agreed, but then you would expect some response when you do type something even if erroneous. At least with the TBB one you do get some feedback when you type into it.

It is normal for a server expecting an SSL handshake to simply terminate the connection without returning any data to the client if data is received from the client that is not an SSL handshake, because protocol dictates that no data should be sent unencrypted over these connections.

On the other hand, since port 80 is not an encrypted port and is not expecting an SSL handshake, it will happily send some unencrypted data to the client before terminating the connection.

BatBoy is correct.
Try using PuTTy and tell it to use RAW as the connection type, telnet sends control characters before each line, including when it connects etc.

Now enter something then press return, it will then disconnect you, so you will see you can connect to that address on that port number.

If you was unable to connect to a specific address it would just sit there until it times out, or in some cases the server closes connection, whereas this is terminating the connection right away, but is due to sending telnet codes and the server say nope that's not SSL/TLS (Transport Layer Security) packets and closes the connection.

If its a port number setup for SSL (think it may use TLS) then you won't see anything due to its expecting an encrypted packet.
SMTP is different, your mail app checks to see what it supports and uses one of those, so you see a welcome message from that.

Paul