Losing my mind with Windows Live Mail

[Seth1968]

Hi All:

Issue:

Customer has a shaw email addy that's set up in WLM. Suddenly, WLM started stating that the password was incorrect.

Her webmail works without issue.

Attempts at a fix:

- She was on the phone with Shaw for over two hours, but they couldn't fix it. That included resetting her password and logging into her computer via remote access.

- When I got it, I confirmed that her webmail was working, and also confirmed her server settings with typical shaw mail settings: https://community.shaw.ca/docs/DOC-1040

- Cleared msconfig of all needless entries, and removed an expired version of McAfee. Issue remained.

- Deleted and re-created the WLM account. Issue remained.

- Removed and re-installed WLM. Issue remained.

- Confirmed that no malware is present.

Notes:

- Incoming mail server is pop.shaw.ca, and I also tried shawmail.lb.shawcable.net.

- Outgoing mail server is shawmail.lb.shawcable.net (lb for Lethbridge).

- Log on user name is her email, and I also tried her [email protected].

- She also has an xp system that accesses that web mail addy just fine with Outlook Express.

Unless someone can think of something else I can try, I think I'll give up and set it up in Outlook. Actually, I'll do that anyway as it will be a good test.

Hmmm...before I set up Outlook, I'm going to create a new Windows 7 account and see if I get WLM to work.

[Seth1968]

The new W7 account idea didn't help, and Outlook shows the same password error:banghead:

[Disoblige]

Shouldn't you have tried "shawmail.lb.shawcable.net" for incoming instead of "shawmail.shawcable.net" as you stated?

[Seth1968]

That was a typo. Thanks for pointing it out.

I'll edit it.

[Seth1968]

I thought of another idea that I should have tried a long time ago.

I'll install WLM on my bench system and set it up with her email addy. That result should narrow things down.

[Tik-Tok]

I'm NOT a IT guy what so ever, but ask her if she has a Asus O!Play in her house... for whatever god foresaken reason, O!play (linux based) and Windows Live Essentials interfere with eachother. (As in, I can't access my computer through O!play when any Essentials programs are installed, and the O!play won't let me log in to Essentials programs either)

[Seth1968]

Thanks for the suggestion guys, but I found the problem.

I set up WLM with her account on my bench system, and lo and behold, I got the same damn password error!

In other words, it's a problem with her email account. I've got her mail and contacts backed up, so I'll get her to call shaw and create a new account.

[Seth1968]

Wait a second...I've got her XP system here as well, and that email account works fine with Outlook Express:dunno:

[Seth1968]

For the love of god....

I just tried her OE again, and now it's giving me the same error. It's now definitely a problem with her email account.

[Disoblige]

Hey Seth, can't you help her delete the e-mail she currently has on her Shaw Account, then re-create it?

Maybe that will fix the issue.

[Seth1968]

Originally posted by Disoblige
Hey Seth, can't you help her delete the e-mail she currently has on her Shaw Account, then re-create it?

Maybe that will fix the issue.

Good idea, but to the best of my knowledge, once a Shaw or Telus email addy has been deleted, it can't be used again for a certain amount of time (I think 30 days or so).

I've spent way too much time on this already, so I'm going to get her to call Shaw and re-create the account. If that's not possible, then a new account it is.

If she has to create a new account, I'll let her know to keep the old addy as she can access it via webmail. She can then let her contacts know of the change and send any important mail to her new addy.

[EK69]

Originally posted by Seth1968


Good idea, but to the best of my knowledge, once a Shaw or Telus email addy has been deleted, it can't be used again for a certain amount of time (I think 30 days or so).

I've spent way too much time on this already, so I'm going to get her to call Shaw and re-create the account. If that's not possible, then a new account it is.

If she has to create a new account, I'll let her know to keep the old addy as she can access it via webmail. She can then let her contacts know of the change and send any important mail to her new addy.
And set up forwarding on the old one in case.
Or get her to sign up for gmail or actual live.ca account and ditch shaw lol

[Seth1968]

Originally posted by EK69

And set up forwarding on the old one in case.
Or get her to sign up for gmail or actual live.ca account and ditch shaw lol

:thumbsup:

I just got off the phone with her and thankfully she's quite computer savvy and completely understands the problem.

I don't use Shaw at all, so I'll check out her webmail to see if I can set up forwarding, or if Shaw has to do that.

Thanks for the the suggestions guys!

[Seth1968]

BTW- Does anyone know why the mail can't be accessed when using a client? I suspect it has something to do with messed up password authentication.

[sabad66]

Easy - you can't use shaw or telus' outgoing mail server unless you're on one of their connections. Obviously MS servers aren't using shaw, so they don't let you access their servers.

Switch it to another public outgoing SMTP server and problem solved.

[firebane]

Try Thunderbird instead and see if issue persists. I hate live nail.

[Seth1968]

Originally posted by sabad66
Easy - you can't use shaw or telus' outgoing mail server unless you're on one of their connections. Obviously MS servers aren't using shaw, so they don't let you access their servers.

Switch it to another public outgoing SMTP server and problem solved.

The problem occurs at her house as well.

[sabad66]

Is she using a vpn or proxy or anything like that? can you ping the smtp servers?

[sabad66]

Wait - is WLM a desktop client or are you connecting it through the hotmail web interface?

[Seth1968]

Sabad,

I tried it with Outlook and WLM (Window's Live Mail Client) on her computer, Outlook Express on her XP computer, and WLM on my computer.

I know the settings are fine, as very rarely the clients will connect without the password error.

[EK69]

haha that sounds messed up
sometimes it connects, usually it doesnt?
i did some light googling, and looks like shaw only uses POP so far?

sell her on IMAP and she will want to ditch POP shaw herself
it was fine back when everyone only used 1 computer to check email...but now since everyone has multiple devices, IMAP works better :dunno:

and from what ive seen in shaws webmail, u can set up forwarding i believe... but i haven't looked too much into it... i have a shaw email, just never use it lol

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by EK69
i have a shaw email, just never use it lol

Ditto. I check it about once a year to see if I have any warnings about file-sharing. Turns out some people have been mistaking my email for someone else's. I missed out on a $700 email transfer, the other month, lol. (it got cancelled after 30 days)

[Seth1968]

I freakin gave up and got her on Gmail instead.

Gmail imported all her mail and contacts. In addition, it automatically forwards any new shaw mail to gmail:thumbsup:

[revelations]

Yea I move all my clients away from ISP emails whenever possible - its just plain stupid to keep to POP when IMAP is available for free from so many places.

[EK69]

And with gmail she can even do exchange and sync contacts to her phone Along with calendar if she wants to. I think I read that shaw upgraded to support exchange too but I dunno...

I basically just do the same as tik-tok said with my shaw email lol.

[Evolution17]

You have to enable Shaw webmail for mobile devices.
They want you to set up a secondary password for your email (it can also be your shaw webmail login pw) which has stronger password requirements.
After you set the password WLM or outlook should pick it up automatically.
I had a client come in about a week ago who had the same issue and that of all things worked.

[Seth1968]

I tried that as well. Had to get her account number and postal code.

Oh well, it's gmail now.

[Disoblige]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok


Ditto. I check it about once a year to see if I have any warnings about file-sharing. Turns out some people have been mistaking my email for someone else's. I missed out on a $700 email transfer, the other month, lol. (it got cancelled after 30 days)
lol you wouldn't have been able to cash it anyways. They have questions and answers to them. Unless that person was dumb enough to give you the answer from your reply haha.

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by Disoblige

lol you wouldn't have been able to cash it anyways. They have questions and answers to them. Unless that person was dumb enough to give you the answer from your reply haha.

The senders "message" wouldn't have been hard to decrypt, lol.

"hey Ron remember to add 15"

So chances are the password was 715 (for $700 plus 15)