Unable to connect to Tiscail email with Thunderbird

[CitizenX]

Hi. I'm trying to connect to my Tiscali email account using Thunderbird on Win 10 using the settings shown on the email help pages:

IMAP

mail.talktalk.net

port 993

SSL/TLS

*my tiscail email password*

But it doesn't work. I get a "try new password" error, but my password is definitely correct as I'm pasting it in from a password manager. Up to now, I've been using emClient with the following settings, which do work:

POP3

pop.tiscali.co.uk

port 995

SSL/TLS on special port (legacy)

*my tiscail email password*

I can't use the original settings as thunderbird doesn't seem to have a POP3 option nor any special "legacy" settings.

What settings do work for tiscail/Thunderbird?

[Gondola]

Good to know you discovered the password manager was presenting the wrong password.

When using POP3 protocol, the Inbox messages only are downloaded from the online server mailbox. The email software on your devices can be set to Never delete from the server or to delete after a user defined period. The Never delete option allows the use of multiple devices to each download Inbox messages.

IMAP email accounts will synchronise online server mailbox folders allowing you to manage the online mailbox from any one connected device.

[CitizenX]

Hi Gondola, thank you for your help with this. It turned out that, although I'm using a password manager, the problem was actually due to using the wrong password 😞 I noticed that the password used by emClient (which was working) had 20 characters but the one I have saved in my password manager (which I tried with Thunderbird and Windows Mail) had only 16 characters. I'm not sure how that happened!

Of course, I still needed to switch to the talktalk.net settings you gave me rather than using the tiscail.co.uk legacy settings.

The only problem I have now is that when I enter the right settings, I have over 15,000 emails (5 years worth) still in my Tiscali account which Thunderbird starts downloading - I had to shut down my PC eventually so I could go to bed! I thought POP3 deleted emails after accessing them, in which case, why are they all still there? I'm now thinking that I should probably use IMAP instead so that I can sort through this mountain quicker and actually delete from the server all the emails I don't want? (I only want to keep a few dozen)

[Gondola]

Your emClient POP3 account setup should be as follows:

Account Type	POP3
Username	Full tiscali email address
Password	Tiscali email password
Incoming mail server Host	mail.talktalk.net
Incoming Port (POP3)	995
Security Policy	Use SSL/TLS on special port (Legacy)
Outgoing mail server Host	smtp.talktalk.net
Outgoing Port	587
Security Policy	Force usage of SSL/TLS
Server Requires Authentication	Yes
Authentication Method	Normal Password

For a definitive check of your email settings take screenshots of the incoming and outgoing server settings, image edit to obscure the first part of the email address and upload here using the Camera icon (desktop browser) or Picture icon (mobile browser) above this reply area.

Windows Mail Sync options should look like this for your POP3 account setup:

Your Thunderbird POP3 account setup should be as follows:

[CitizenX]

So could someone just tell me what settings I should be using for my me@tiscali.co.uk email address? The details shown above don't work in emClient, Thunderbird, or Windows Mail, either POP3 or IMAP. (Incidentally, I'd prefer to use POP3 as I have hundreds of emails stored on my PC - I only asked about IMAP because that seems to be the recommended system nowadays.)

[Ady-TalkTalk]

Hi CitizenX, I've checked and the mailbox in your profile is fully functioning. 

Ady

[Gondola]

The Thunderbird account will be set to IMAP if that's what you set up. The account protocol type once created is not changeable. But as you want an IMAP account then that'll do nicely.

emClient is using out of date legacy host names. Those host names work now because they're on the current security certificate as alternative names. However, when a certificate is renewed there's no assurance that those names would remain because the TalkTalk guidance to use only talktalk.net host names for all domains has been in place now for quite some years now.

[CitizenX]

Hi Gondola, thanks for your help. As far as I can see, my Thunderbird settings are exactly the same as the ones you show, except I must be using a different version as there's no option to set the protocol - it's fixed to IMAP:

Thunderbird incoming settings

My emClient settings are different but they work fine:

emClient settings

I'm switching from POP3 to IMAP as I understand it's supposed to be the default nowadays?

[Gondola · Accepted solution]

First thing, is Thunderbird set up as an IMAP account or a POP3 account?  You see where it says Protocol and that has a drop down selector to select IMAP or POP3. POP3 uses the same settings except for the incoming port that's 995.

The IMAP settings on setting up should be as below where the Username is your tiscali email address.

Second is that your emClient POP3 account setup should be as follows:

Account Type	POP3
Username	Full tiscali email address
Password	Tiscali email password
Incoming mail server Host	mail.talktalk.net
Incoming Port (POP3)	995
Security Policy	Use SSL/TLS on special port (Legacy)
Outgoing mail server Host	smtp.talktalk.net
Outgoing Port	587
Security Policy	Force usage of SSL/TLS
Server Requires Authentication	Yes
Authentication Method	Normal Password

For a definitive check of email settings take screenshots of the incoming and outgoing server settings, image edit to obscure the first part of the email address and upload here using the Camera icon (desktop browser) or Picture icon (mobile browser) above this reply area.

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