Webmail: "Connection dropped by IMAP server"

OK, what does this mean, then?

It's an ancient Free-Online account, so I suspect what it really translates as is:

"Your account is defunct, as you forgot to log into it for months and months".

But why doesn't it say that?

Instead, it appears still to recognize me as a valid user, but then just drops the connection.

It's not the end of the world, as it was a long disused mailbox anyway, and very unlikely to be anything of major significance in it - hence the forgetting to check.

But I did used to give it the odd glance, just in case.

Best guess is that for some reason the IMAP server is timing out. Might be several things which cause this, including server errors or you not being recognised. Or it might just be a timing out issue.

In reply to a post by camieabz:

Best guess is that for some reason the IMAP server is timing out. Might be several things which cause this, including server errors or you not being recognised. Or it might just be a timing out issue.

Ha, LoL, I figured that. But what I really meant was if, as I suspect, the real underlying reason is that the account has expired/been disabled, why doesn't it say so, instead of some random error message about the IMAP server?

Now, I cannot tell if the account has been suspended, or if there's some quite coincidental technical problem stopping me accessing it. If PN have pulled the plug, it would be nice if the login attempt was met with the appropriate message.

Ahh. Well if I designed the system, and it was an authentication issue, it would tell you that you are not getting to play with my e-mail system.

Over to Plusnet.

Hi there - we don't restrict access to mailboxes in this way, so the system probably just needs a kick on our side. If you give it 4-8 hours you should be back up and running

In reply to a post by bentrimble:

Hi there - we don't restrict access to mailboxes in this way, so the system probably just needs a kick on our side. If you give it 4-8 hours you should be back up and running

Oh well, you learn something new every day! I always thought it eventually expired if I neglected it for too long. Although, I must admit, I think I've left it some considerable time before, without encountering this problem.

So now I've alerted it to my continued existence, it should remember me soon, should it?

OK, thanks I'll try again later.

Bet there's nothing exciting in it anyway, but it never does any harm to check.

T.

Hi Ben,

I know I've left it a bit of a long time to mention it, but this never did sort itself out.

I still can't access the ancient mailbox that you assure me you don't "restrict" on grounds of disuse.

I hesitate to raise a ticket, when I no longer use it in any realistic sense anyway. I just liked to have a very occasional check, in case there was any contact from the distant past who still tried to reach me there.

But it's funny that it seems inaccessible, when you say you don't do that. I'm still getting the same error about Connection dropped by IMAP server. I don't think I've mistaken my username or password, but if I had, I'd get a different error message, presumably?

Incidentally, it's not a problem with Webmail generally - I can still log in to my more recent account - but as I've never used it, it only contains mail from Plusnet anyway.

T.

HI TLM, can you PM me your plusnet username so I can look into it for you.

Jojo

Hi TLM,

As per my PM your issue now seems to be resolved and you will be able to connect via webmail.

Jojo

Hi,

Thank you, I can confirm that worked.

Empty of all that was, or might have been in it, however, so quite an academic exercise looking to see if anyone from way back had e-mailed me. If they had, it's not there now. Neither is anything else I know was in there.

Tina