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email Nightmare


raymac46

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I always cringe when my ISP send me an email - and today was no exception.

My ISP - Rogers - uses Yahoo! as their email service - you know those guys who just had a big security issue.

Anyway Yahoo! has decided that IF you use an email client instead of webmail you have to go thru an additional security step. You log in to the web service and then generate a handy dandy APP Password for use with your email client. It gives you an easy to remember random password of 15 characters - something like gnorgenplatzurp - which you then enter into your client. They give instructions on how to do this for every Microsoft email client made in the last decade plus Mac email. Thunderbird? - well we don't hear much about that - not supported.

So I got in and generated my password OK - you only get one shot at it, it's locked in and you only get to see the password once. So copy it down right. I figured out how to enter it into Thunderbird.

Then I tried to get into my wife's email. Her web password wouldn't work. Neither would her old email password on Thunderbird. Net net - I could get my email and she could not. This is not a happy place to be.

I called Rogers and the phone tech said this policy was so new he didn't know what do do - he passed me on to a more senior tech over a chat line. This guy escalated further to a tech specialist in Internet lore and this fellow showed me how to reset my wife's online password and generate her APP Password. I got that set up in Thunderbird and sanity appears to be restored.

If a geek like me has this much trouble God help the average Rogers user. Hopefully they use Outlook or some browser app to read their email.

Two hours of aggravation - did I tell you how much I enjoy getting emails from my ISP?

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securitybreach

Why are you using your ISP's email anyway? What happens if you switch providers? Personally, I have not used an ISP's email service since like 2000 or possibly before..

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I have gmail as an alternative but my wife doesn't want to change and inform everyone of her new email address. I can understand that. We'll never switch providers. We have a choice of 2 and the other one is worse.

Edited by raymac46
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securitybreach

I have gmail as an alternative but my wife doesn't want to change and inform everyone of her new email address. I can understand that.

 

Understandable.

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V.T. Eric Layton

Well, I have many email accounts, as most of you know. I strictly utilize Thunderbird as my email client. I do NOT visit webmail sites to get my mail. I have a Yahoo account, actually. It's so old that when Yahoo decided to not offer POP/IMAP a few years back on new webmail accounts, they grandfathered me in. Yahoo (soon to be owned my Verizon) will probably be transferring all their email accounts/data over to AOL (also owned by Verizon) servers in the near future. Don't worry. The transition might be a bit bumpy, but once you get on AOL, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

 

When Verizon sold out the FIOS operations in CA, TX, and FL to Frontier about a year ago, they gave all their old Verizon customers the option to transfer their Verizon email accounts over to the AOL servers; retaining the verizon.net domain. The transition was easy-peasy. They even transferred your aliases, if you had any set up, into new AOL accounts. I still have POP/IMAP access and all that. So, technically speaking, I no longer have an ISP email account. I do not have an email account set up with Frontier. I still use my old Verizon emails (now on AOL servers) for my primary emails. I have no complaints.

 

Email is a wonderful thing; one of the best things about the Internet, actually. We take it for granted, but the instantaneous nature of this type of communications is truly awesome. It was revolutionary, like the telegraph and the telephone. Maybe one day, something better will come along to make email go the way of snail mail, but I don't see that happening any time soon. Email, when properly secured and utilized, is a fabulous means of world-wide communication; even more so these days due to the ability to send LARGE attachments in conjunction with cloud server options. For instance, T-bird has a setting that allows you to coordinate with your DropBox (and others) service to send attachments that would not normally be allowed by email services due to size restrictions.

 

Speaking of security, T-bird also has a wonderful extension called "Enigmail" that allows for encryption/decryption of secured emails. Sadly, it's difficult to get friends/family to utilize encryption. Most are afraid of it due to its techy requirements or they're knowledgeable enough to utilize it, just too lazy.

 

I love my T-bird!

 

G9XzuG2.png

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I have an ancient att dot net email account that I use pretty heavily. They also utilize Yahoo for infrastructure. I've been wondering what will happen with that account. I also have an account with Comcast, and agree with Ray. I really have a choice only between Comcast and Verizon, and I dislike Verizon as much as Comcast.

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I must say, Thunderbird has to be the best mail client I've ever tried, although I've been having trouble with my universities Email lately - a modified Gmail that simply refuses to work with Tbird/IMAP on my new Debian setup, although it works fine with POP and did before with IMAP on Manjaro... could be something to do with Google's authentication and the version packaged by Debian (45... Debian's stability at hand).

Aside from that, I only have my personal Email at zoho.com, which works fine with remote storage, so no big deal really.

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I have a Comcast email which I never use. (I need it as an id to log into Comcast's/Xfinity's site).

 

My husband maintains a db of 1300+ people. Most fairly old (70's, 80's and 90's and a few 100 or older). I warned him about Verizon going away. Most of those folks do not know how to change to AOL. One woman, in her 80's was helped by a nephew, who got her a gmail account. But my husband is getting bounced emails so if the person has a correct address or phone number on file, he contacts them to tell them their email address is gone.

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V.T. Eric Layton

I must say, Thunderbird has to be the best mail client I've ever tried, although I've been having trouble with my universities Email lately - a modified Gmail that simply refuses to work with Tbird/IMAP on my new Debian setup, although it works fine with POP and did before with IMAP on Manjaro... could be something to do with Google's authentication and the version packaged by Debian (45... Debian's stability at hand).

Aside from that, I only have my personal Email at zoho.com, which works fine with remote storage, so no big deal really.

 

I recommend a search at Mozilla's support page. I've resolved many an issue with FF and TB using that resource.

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V.T. Eric Layton

I have a Comcast email which I never use. (I need it as an id to log into Comcast's/Xfinity's site).

 

My husband maintains a db of 1300+ people. Most fairly old (70's, 80's and 90's and a few 100 or older). I warned him about Verizon going away. Most of those folks do not know how to change to AOL. One woman, in her 80's was helped by a nephew, who got her a gmail account. But my husband is getting bounced emails so if the person has a correct address or phone number on file, he contacts them to tell them their email address is gone.

 

For those in CA, TX, or FL who were on FIOS w/ Verizon, the time to convert to AOL ended about 7 months ago. For others in the country on systems that are still owned/operated by Verizon, I've heard that they are planning to move everyone over to their AOL servers. I don't know if you'll have to manually opt-in for the changeover, as FIOS customers did, or if it will be automatic.

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V.T. Eric Layton

Oh, and for those interested in higher security email, I highly recommend ProtonMail. They do not have POP/IMAP available for free accounts just yet, but they're working on it. Should be available soon.

 

If you sign up an account and are looking to add folks to your address book, I am vtel57 at protonmail.com. :)

 

Also, if you do already or decide in the future to use encrypted email in Thunderbird via Enigmail, my public key is:

 

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.22 (GNU/Linux)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1ZBMwn7Y0FnMoNLwCL3aGCULiQXa1c8Gvh4bWtyexNoJm99A4X+b
=OFcB
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

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I must say, Thunderbird has to be the best mail client I've ever tried, although I've been having trouble with my universities Email lately - a modified Gmail that simply refuses to work with Tbird/IMAP on my new Debian setup, although it works fine with POP and did before with IMAP on Manjaro... could be something to do with Google's authentication and the version packaged by Debian (45... Debian's stability at hand).

Aside from that, I only have my personal Email at zoho.com, which works fine with remote storage, so no big deal really.

 

I recommend a search at Mozilla's support page. I've resolved many an issue with FF and TB using that resource.

 

Good call... Turns out it is an issue with older versions of Thunderbird. I have it set up with POP now anyway, so I'm not pressed to update. I'll just wait for the Debian team to release it.

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V.T. Eric Layton

Being "tech smart" isn't so much what you know as it is knowing where to find what you need to know. :)

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One takeway I have from this is:

  • If you need tech support at Rogers (my ISP) it's a lot better to contact them via live chat rather than by phone. Your wait times are shorter, they seem to have a better quality of tech on the chat lines and if they need to escalate you to someone more savvy they are going to put you on chat anyway.
  • I'm better at writing out my tech concerns than telling them to someone on the phone. Time to think and respond.

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