V.T. Eric Layton Posted November 2, 2021 Share Posted November 2, 2021 Ways to securely access AOL Mail I received an email alert from AOL yesterday regarding upcoming changes in their security. One of these changes, I've already dealt with re: my Yahoo accounts... the requirement for a one-time generated password for my Thunderbird email client. Unfortunate, I have four email accounts on AOL servers. They will all require me to create the generated one-time password (passwords AOL websites/webmail access will NOT be affected). Why do I have four AOL accounts? Well, it wasn't my doing. My one-and-only AOL email account was via AIM mail. I've used it for nearly 20 years. My other three AOL accounts were originally Verizon, later Yahoo, now AOL. They did the email server shuffle a couple times the last 4-5 years, so for now they're all on AOL servers. Confusing, huh? Bottom line: If you have any AOL served email accounts, and access them via a 3rd party client, you'll be needing to follow the instructions in the above link by 1 December to continue to retrieve your emails. If you retrieve your emails via the webmail interface, you won't have to do anything. I guess I'll spend some time in the next week or so generating all these one-time passwords and correcting server settings on my T-bird. I'm not looking forward to it. P I T A! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted November 2, 2021 Share Posted November 2, 2021 Well at least they did give you an option. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted November 3, 2021 Author Share Posted November 3, 2021 Yes. I understand what they're doing, though. They're trying to protect their servers/data from potential breaches by insecure 3rd party applications. I can deal with that. It's still a P I T A to set this carp all up so that it works properly. I already had to do this with my Yahoo accounts sometime back. And yes, again... you're correct about them "at least giving me an option". They could have just said, "NO MORE POP/IMAP access. You must use our webmail." At that point, I'd be in a quandary. I would probably just set up all my email accounts to FWD to Proton Mail, and just use that interface from then on. Hopefully, this won't ever happen. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 I've switched over to StartMail personally but still use my riseup accounts and the proton once in a while 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bookmem Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 I didn't realize AOL still existed. I thought they went out even before Netscape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted November 3, 2021 Author Share Posted November 3, 2021 Yup. AOL is still around... Bought out by Verizon a while back. Later bought out by Yahoo. AOL Time Warner (2001–2009) Verizon Communications (2015–2017) Oath (2017–2019) Verizon Media (2019–2021) Yahoo! Inc. (2021–present)* *from AOL Wikipedia article. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted November 3, 2021 Author Share Posted November 3, 2021 Yahoo consolidated ALL existing Verizon, AOL and Yahoo email accounts onto the AOL servers a year or so ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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