Orange/Wanadoo POP servers.

[Keef]

I spent an "interesting" afternoon with a delightful friend down the road who was unable to connect her iPad to her e-mail, although the settings were identical to those on the desktop PC in the study. After some trying of different things, we found that it would connect just fine if the desktop was disconnected from the mail system. Once that was done, and the iPad connected, the desktop then couldn't connect...

It seems the Orange/Wanadoo server (pop.orangehome.co.uk) will only allow one connection at a time from any given account, even if different e-mail addresses are being used. Since she and husband use e-mail for very different purposes (and both of them are busy folks) that is a pain.

We could find nothing that would connect to the Orange mail system to check account settings, and nothing on their website about more than one PC connecting. She's already spoken to the helpdesk who hadn't a clue.

Does anyone know if there is a setting somewhere that needs to be toggled? Or does Orange only allow one POP connection at a time to any given account?

I've googled and asked elsewhere, but nothing found so far. She and I think the answer may be a change of ISP.

[Mike-Bracknell]

It might, as you say, be an anti-spoofing/anti-hacking mechanism blocking multiple connections per source IP.

Best way to check would be to be running the iPad against it, then start the PC's mail client and see whether you get any extended error information from the proper computer ;)

[Keef]

Thanks - I tried that. The PC just reports incorrect password. After disconnecting the iPad, it then connects with no further problem.

I wondered if there is a setting somewhere in the individual user's mail configuration settings to "allow multiple connections" or whatever. I've not been able to find one, and the user (not a technical person by any stretch of the imagination) doesn't remember anything like that. The "helpdesk", of course, can't help.

I suspect, from a lot of Googling, that there is in reality only one POP mailbox into which everything goes, and which only allows one connection at a time.

I offered her a mailbox or three on one of my domains, but she wants to be independent. She has a Gmail account, but doesn't like webmail or Imap.

[Mike-Bracknell]

Sounds like the easiest way would be to use a different ISP. I assume she has her own domain?

[green granite]

This is probably a stupid question but, why does she want the home PC connected to her e-mail server at the same time as her I-Pod? The PC will strip the e-mails off the server so she wouldn't see then anyway, in fact you need to tell the I-pad not to strip them from the server so that there is a hard copy downloaded.

[mixture]

The PC will strip the e-mails off the server so she wouldn't see then anyway, in fact you need to tell the I-pad not to strip them from the server so that there is a hard copy downloaded.

That's why he should really be using IMAP, not POP.

[Saab Dastard]

Keef,

Most ISPs offer a limited number of different mailboxes, each of which can have several aliases.

For example Virgin give us 5 mailboxes, with 3 aliases per mailbox.

We have no problem with 3 people concurrently accessing different mailboxes using the same IP.

Is your friend definitely using a different mailbox, or a different alias to the same mailbox?

SD

[Gertrude the Wombat]

I'm not sure the diagnosis makes sense. A mail client will connect to a POP server for a second or so (plus the time taken to download any new messages) every ten minutes (or whatever you've set it to) - the chances of two clients choosing to connect during the same second are somewhat small.

[Milo Minderbinder]

try the other Orange servers: pop.wanadoo.co.uk / smtp.wanadoo.co.uk
Use the Oraneghome servers on one machine and the wanadoo servers on the other
Also try changing the ports so for SMTP one uses 25 the other 26, while for POP one uses 110, while set the other to either 993 or 995 and turn on SSL

[Keef]

Thanks - some useful thoughts there.

She and her husband share the ISP. He does a lot of work from home; she is out and about a fair bit. Hence he wants his mail to come to the home PC, she wants also to be able to receive hers on the iPad. Both can't connect at once - which is where I came in.

green granite - The iPad doesn't remove mail from the server - it leaves it till the desktop machine pulls it off, so there's ultimately always a master copy on the home machine.

Milo - I tried Wanadoo on one and Orange on the other. Same behaviour.

Gertrude - I thought that too, but after several hours trying all sorts of ideas to find out why things weren't working, I can confirm that if either machine is in "mail" mode, the other one can't connect. Close down OE on the desktop and the iPad can get mail; otherwise it keeps asking for the password and saying it's wrong. Likewise the other way round. That isn't for a few seconds: it's for several hours - I know, I've done it.

Saab - that's how every ISP I've ever used does it. Except Orange, apparently.

Mike - she doesn't have her own domain yet: that's a bit further up the learning curve, although I think she and husband will be going there. I offered her (indeed, set up) POP3 addresses on one of my domains, but that had the problem of not being "her" address. She also has a Gmail account (IMAP) but doesn't like that at all. IMAP isn't good when travelling around out here in the sticks where 3G connections come and go and WiFi is sparse.


It sounds as if nobody here uses Orange, or has tried to connect multiple machines. Meanwhile, an Orange person has contacted me and is looking to find an answer from the techies.

If that reveals no solution, I suspect a change of ISP will be the outcome.

[Milo Minderbinder]

No need for a change of ISP
Just create a Hotmail/AOL/Yahoo free account for her

[mixture]

IMAP isn't good when travelling around out here in the sticks where 3G connections come and go and WiFi is sparse.

Nonsense.

You can keep a local copy of emails for offline reference with IMAP (assuming your mail client supports it, most do these days).

As for intermittent connections, well that affects your POP3 retrieval too ! :cool:

[24Carrot]

Like Gertrude, I am baffled by this.

A POP3 server can only see:
1) The connecting client's IP address.
2) The login credentials.

The IP address will be assigned to the router/modem by the ISP, and should be the same for both the iPad and the PC.
If I understood right, all the login credentials work sometimes so they must be valid.
Frankly, it is hard to see how the server can tell the clients apart.

So if the email client reports a logon failure while another email client "is in mail mode" it should only be because your maildrop is already locked, ie the user is already logged in, or another user needing to access the same maildrop is logged in. If you can see a logfile somewhere, it would say something like:
-ERR maildrop already locked
The email client might well report this as a "login failure", or "wrong password", their error messages are usually rubbish..

But why would either email client grab and hold the server connection? Apart from the obvious (both clients are set to connect every few seconds) I can only think of scenarios with huge email attachments, slow antivirus checks and server time-outs.

Seriously weird!

[mixture]

24Carrot,

Simple fact of the matter is that POP3 does not work very well with multiple email clients. Depending on the quality of the server and client software implementations you can get all sorts of unpredictable and difficult to troubleshoot issues.

IMAP is the way to go, and Keef just needs to smell the coffee, bite the bullet and make the transition.