Can't connect to email account (protocol problem)

[HainesB]

I purchased my wife a MacBook Air, apparently with Mavericks 10.9. She has a Yahoo mail account, and that is working. However, I created an additional mail account for her that she cannot access.

When I define the Mail Account I presume "Description" is aribitrary and that the password is the user's password on the machine.

I configure IMAP with hostname: mail.<userdomain>, which is what the mail server expects. I leave Path Prefix empty. I set the port to 143, which is required by my mail server. I do not enable SSL. When I enter the password I set on the mail server, I get the message, "Internet account preferences can't connect to the account <the name I gave to the account>. Unable to verify account name or password". I know they are correct because that is how they appear on the mail server. Something's apparently wrong with the protocol.

Haines Brown

 

[BrianBaughn]

Username can be the entire email address or the part before the @ sign, depending on the service.

The password for the email account isn't the "user's password on the machine" unless they just happen to be the same.

 

[HainesB]

Thanks, Brian.

You observed that "Username can be the entire email address or the part before the @ sign, depending on the service." That I realize. The mail server identifies the account with the entire email address. However, the Mac mail set up does not ask for a "username". The initial Mail Account dialog asks for email address, description and (machine) password. When I click on Advanced, it asks for hostname, port, and (email) password. I presumed "description" can be anything and I gave a name that was readily identifiable for the user.

I use the full address when it asks for the email address, and under "Advanced" when it asks for the server name, I enter what I know the server expects: mail.<userdomainname>. I enter port 143 and don't enable SSL. On the mail server I set up this account to be authenticated with just password.

Then I click "OK". But nothing happens: there's no feedback of any kind such as an attempt to log in and whether it succeeded. I have to click another mail account and then to back to click on the account I'm trying to set up in order to get a login attempt. This fails because of password or user ID.

My next step is to see if I can telnet into the user's mail account. I see that Mac supports telnet. But for now I wondering if you see that I do something wrong from this end.

 

[ancelrick]

I would try to ping "mail.<userdomainname>" from the macbook air. Just to see if its reachable.

 

[BrianBaughn]

OP:

Have you even looked at Mail>Preferences>Accounts?

 

[HainesB]

As for pinging, the mail server no longer allows itself to be pinged. For example, I cannot ping the mail server that I currently in use with my own machine. It used to be I could freely ping it. I tried netstat with both my own and my wife's email server, in both cases I get inbound-relay.omnisOP3 TIME_WAIT.

I go to Mail->Preferences->Accounts. After a short pause during which apparently Mail is trying to connect to the mail server, a dialog pops up stating that it "cannot connect to the account", where "account" is the arbitrary name I had assigned to this mail account in the Account's main page. The dialog says to "Enter user's password". It identified user here as Mac account user, which happens to be my wife's first name, and so I assume that it is asking for my wife's password to her machine account, not her account on the remote mail server. However, I tried that, too.

 

[satcomer]

As for pinging, the mail server no longer allows itself to be pinged. For example, I cannot ping the mail server that I currently in use with my own machine. It used to be I could freely ping it. I tried netstat with both my own and my wife's email server, in both cases I get inbound-relay.omnisOP3 TIME_WAIT.

If you can't ping that email server it might be down.

 

[HainesB]

I know the mail server is not down. I've been periodically sending and receiving mail all day. My hosting service about two years ago tightened up on sercurity (it is not AT&T or Yahoo). You can see for yourself: the name server is 216.239.130.200. I can ping my domain name, but not the email server or the name server, although both are in working order.

 

[BrianBaughn]

As for pinging, the mail server no longer allows itself to be pinged. For example, I cannot ping the mail server that I currently in use with my own machine. It used to be I could freely ping it. I tried netstat with both my own and my wife's email server, in both cases I get inbound-relay.omnisOP3 TIME_WAIT.

I go to Mail->Preferences->Accounts. After a short pause during which apparently Mail is trying to connect to the mail server, a dialog pops up stating that it "cannot connect to the account", where "account" is the arbitrary name I had assigned to this mail account in the Account's main page. The dialog says to "Enter user's password". It identified user here as Mac account user, which happens to be my wife's first name, and so I assume that it is asking for my wife's password to her machine account, not her account on the remote mail server. However, I tried that, too.

If there's something weird about the unidentified mail service you're trying to connect then getting help here may be fruitless.

First, in my experience, most mail services these days require SSL. I've noticed this because old business printer/copiers that had a "send to email" function often didn't have the ability to use SSL, rendering that function useless for most folks.

As for setting up a NEW mail account in mail, try "Add Other Mail Account..." and enter a gibberish email address such as mrshainesbrown@lsjdkflkjlkslfkjlfjlfkj.com which will result in you having to set up the account manually.

Mail is not asking for a Mac User Account password to set up a new account but I realize you said you tried the user's email account password.

I have a feeling that revealing more about this particular email host would get this straightened out.