Connecting to POP3 server over business LAN

At work we have a large WAN/LAN.

We are free to browse the web, use MSN, etc.

I can get my home email by using a webmail logon, but I'd rather use
Thunderbird on my U3 USB drive to connect direct to my pop3 server.

when I try to connect, attempts fail. Our IT help desk is in India and a
pain to contact.

Will the network be set up to block the port pop3 uses and is there any
way round this.

Clive

In article <x%cmh.24147$(E-Mail Removed) >
clive <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> At work we have a large WAN/LAN.
>
> We are free to browse the web, use MSN, etc.
>
> I can get my home email by using a webmail logon, but I'd rather use
> Thunderbird on my U3 USB drive to connect direct to my pop3 server.
>
> when I try to connect, attempts fail. Our IT help desk is in India and a
> pain to contact.
>
> Will the network be set up to block the port pop3 uses and is there any
> way round this.
>
More likely your ISP doesn't allow connection if you're not on their
network, so you'd need to run a proxy on your home machine and connect
through that.

In article <x%cmh.24147$(E-Mail Removed) >, (E-Mail Removed)
thought we might be interested in the following...

> I can get my home email by using a webmail logon, but I'd rather use
> Thunderbird on my U3 USB drive to connect direct to my pop3 server.

Your own POP3 server, or your mail supplier's server, i.e. your ISP's?

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Tx2 wrote:
> In article <x%cmh.24147$(E-Mail Removed) >, (E-Mail Removed)
> thought we might be interested in the following...
>
>> I can get my home email by using a webmail logon, but I'd rather use
>> Thunderbird on my U3 USB drive to connect direct to my pop3 server.
>
> Your own POP3 server, or your mail supplier's server, i.e. your ISP's?
>
My ISP's server

Thanks

Clive

Tx2 wrote:
> In article <x%cmh.24147$(E-Mail Removed) >, (E-Mail Removed)
> thought we might be interested in the following...
>
>> I can get my home email by using a webmail logon, but I'd rather use
>> Thunderbird on my U3 USB drive to connect direct to my pop3 server.
>
> Your own POP3 server, or your mail supplier's server, i.e. your ISP's?
>
My ISP's server

Thanks

Clive

Tx2 wrote:
> In article <x%cmh.24147$(E-Mail Removed) >, (E-Mail Removed)
> thought we might be interested in the following...
>
>> I can get my home email by using a webmail logon, but I'd rather use
>> Thunderbird on my U3 USB drive to connect direct to my pop3 server.
>
> Your own POP3 server, or your mail supplier's server, i.e. your ISP's?
>
My ISP's server

Thanks

Clive

On 01 Jan 2007, clive <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Will the network be set up to block the port pop3 uses ...

you could try a simple test, from the MS-DOS command prompt enter

telnet <name of POP3 server> 110

You should get some form of greeting from your ISP's mail server

I just tried a few where I have mail accounts and saw:-


+OK POP3 serverxxx [cppop 20.0] at [64.191.xxx.xxx]

+OK CPOP vCPOP_2_3_1 on gaea.uk.clara.net Ready for Action

+OK POP3 Ready patch 0001f062

+OK POP3 ready


As you can see, the amount of information given is quite variable.


You can try logging in manually with

user pop-mail-username

pass pop-mail-password

then

list for a list of messages (shows message number and byte count)

retr <n> to retrieve message number <n> (just spews it out to
your PC as fast as it can, so will see last few lines of
it, and if someone has sent images, they'll just be lots of
lines for decoding by a mail application)

quit to end your session with the POP mail server.


If you do get a response then there's possibly a password problem in
Thunderbird, eg not storing what you typed... (but if you get about
30 seconds of nothing, then one or other end is blocking the access).

Some 'clever' networks might trap all traffic to particular ports and
feed the requests to their own server - for example on Freeserve it used
to catch attempts on port 25 (SMTP - sending mail) and forced the
connection to their own server instead.... meaning people thought
they were connected to some remote service but it wasn't the case.

NoNeedToKnow wrote:
> On 01 Jan 2007, clive <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >Will the network be set up to block the port pop3 uses ...
>
> you could try a simple test, from the MS-DOS command prompt enter
>
> telnet <name of POP3 server> 110
>
> You should get some form of greeting from your ISP's mail server
>
> I just tried a few where I have mail accounts and saw:-
>
>
> +OK POP3 serverxxx [cppop 20.0] at [64.191.xxx.xxx]
>
> +OK CPOP vCPOP_2_3_1 on gaea.uk.clara.net Ready for Action
>
> +OK POP3 Ready patch 0001f062
>
> +OK POP3 ready
>
>
> As you can see, the amount of information given is quite variable.
>
>
> You can try logging in manually with
>
> user pop-mail-username
>
> pass pop-mail-password
>
> then
>
> list for a list of messages (shows message number and byte count)
>
> retr <n> to retrieve message number <n> (just spews it out to
> your PC as fast as it can, so will see last few lines of
> it, and if someone has sent images, they'll just be lots of
> lines for decoding by a mail application)
>
> quit to end your session with the POP mail server.
>
>
> If you do get a response then there's possibly a password problem in
> Thunderbird, eg not storing what you typed... (but if you get about
> 30 seconds of nothing, then one or other end is blocking the access).
>
> Some 'clever' networks might trap all traffic to particular ports and
> feed the requests to their own server - for example on Freeserve it used
> to catch attempts on port 25 (SMTP - sending mail) and forced the
> connection to their own server instead.... meaning people thought
> they were connected to some remote service but it wasn't the case.


Thanks for the help.

I tried the telnet option and it would appear that the LAN/WAN is
blocking port 110

Clive

In article <(E-Mail Removed) m>,
(E-Mail Removed) thought we might be interested in the
following...

> I tried the telnet option and it would appear that the LAN/WAN is
> blocking port 110

That'll be the corporate firewall then.

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Please post replies to the group...

On 1 Jan 2007 23:58, "Clive" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I tried the telnet option and it would appear that the LAN/WAN is
>blocking port 110

I assume you're simply getting no response then. While that might
be the office firewall, there's still a chance that the mail server
is not allowing external access. Perhaps you can post the name and
if others can get a prompt (as most readers would probably not be a
customer, so not be connected via that ISP) it'll identify which.