sky e-mail

My brother moved to Sky broadband max recently and is unable to access
his pop3 mail account. I've tried it using all the details supplied but
it fails to connect, when logging in to the web based e-mail account on
their website it states:

Error:
Error initialising email portlet

What does that mean? He has tried contacting Sky but they are
predictably utterly useless. Is there anything he can do to fix this, or
is he stuck and just waiting for Sky to fix the problem? Which probably
will never get sorted.

He's already had to have a replacement wireless router because the
original one wouldn't connect. I wouldn't touch Sky with a barge pole
after seeing his problems! But as he is tied to them now, what can he do?


--
regards, James Luff Gamertag: Lufferov
remove 'nospam' to e-mail
"There are 10 types of people in the world:
Those that understand binary, and those that don't."

> My brother moved to Sky broadband max recently and is unable to access
> his pop3 mail account. I've tried it using all the details supplied but
> it fails to connect, when logging in to the web based e-mail account on
> their website it states:

So ordinary pop3 access doesn't work at all ? Any error messages ?

The settings are:

pop.sky.com
smtp.sky.com

No secure authentication required, just enter the username (without the
@sky.com bit) and the password (afaik it's case sensitive)

Can I suggest an alternative way around - just log into his normal
account and add an additional user - use that as his email address
instead :-}

Can you access his account from _your_ machine ? (just in case it's
something screwy on his system)

Colin Wilson wrote:
>> My brother moved to Sky broadband max recently and is unable to access
>> his pop3 mail account. I've tried it using all the details supplied but
>> it fails to connect, when logging in to the web based e-mail account on
>> their website it states:
>
> So ordinary pop3 access doesn't work at all ? Any error messages ?
>
> The settings are:
>
> pop.sky.com
> smtp.sky.com
>
> No secure authentication required, just enter the username (without the
> @sky.com bit) and the password (afaik it's case sensitive)
>
> Can I suggest an alternative way around - just log into his normal
> account and add an additional user - use that as his email address
> instead :-}
>
> Can you access his account from _your_ machine ? (just in case it's
> something screwy on his system)

Settings are as you listed, the error when using thunderbird on my PC
and OE on his machine is password rejected. But the password is correct
because he can log in to the sky portal and he uses it to connect to the
broadband service. We have also tried changing the password
(successfully) and tried using that to get e-mail but still no joy.

The portal e-mail page shows the error: "Error initialising email portlet"

We haven't tried setting up an additional user yet, but I was about to
try that. However, any e-mails that Sky send to his account are sent to
his main address, which doesn't work. He really wants that sorted, in
the meantime he is using a hotmail account but when he is paying for a
service (albeit cheap) he should still get it.

--
regards, James Luff Gamertag: Lufferov
remove 'nospam' to e-mail
"There are 10 types of people in the world:
Those that understand binary, and those that don't."

James Luff wrote:
> We haven't tried setting up an additional user yet, but I was about to
> try that. However, any e-mails that Sky send to his account are sent to
> his main address, which doesn't work. He really wants that sorted, in
> the meantime he is using a hotmail account but when he is paying for a
> service (albeit cheap) he should still get it.
>

Talking of which, as he is in a contract and they are in breach by not
providing a working e-mail account. How easy would it be for him to get
out of the contract for their failure to provide the service? I'm
guessing it will be pretty tough, they aren't going to just let him go...?

--
regards, James Luff Gamertag: Lufferov
remove 'nospam' to e-mail
"There are 10 types of people in the world:
Those that understand binary, and those that don't."

> Settings are as you listed, the error when using thunderbird on my PC
> and OE on his machine is password rejected.

While I think on, I remember getting a similar error - I think it might
have something to do with changing the provided password for the main
account upon first logging in, but I can't be sure.

I seem to remember the order I did it was:

logging in
checking the webmail
changing the user profile (updating the password to something memorable)
not being able to use the email any more :-}
trying to change the password back - and failing
giving up :-}

> We haven't tried setting up an additional user yet, but I was about to
> try that. However, any e-mails that Sky send to his account are sent to
> his main address, which doesn't work. He really wants that sorted, in
> the meantime he is using a hotmail account but when he is paying for a
> service (albeit cheap) he should still get it.

Fair point - for now, I just took it as being borked, as the one they
allocated as the primary account isn't one you'd bother to use anyway...

I just tried again and get the "error initialising email portlet"
message too.

> My brother moved to Sky broadband max recently and is unable to access
> his pop3 mail account. I've tried it using all the details supplied but
> it fails to connect, when logging in to the web based e-mail account on
> their website it states:
> Error initialising email portlet

FWIW i've just sent them an error report, as follows:

-----
To: (E-Mail Removed)
Subject: Sky email portal - problem

Please note that this email address will soon be defunct, and you will
need to send any reply to a different address - either: (edit: that'll
confuse them)

(E-Mail Removed)
or
(E-Mail Removed)

(i'm the additional user, and the tech-head in the household, so all
replies are best coming to me)

Account ref: xxxxxxxxxxxx

You have a problem with your email portal at present, where a user is
getting an error message once they change the default password of the
account holder.

This problem persists both via the website and via pop3.

The website error is shown as "Error initialising email portlet"

The pop3 error is simply "bad username or password"

The password in both cases is correct (otherwise I wouldn't have been
able to log onto the website to see the error message.

As a result of this, an "official" messages from yourselves are
undeliverable as the email account is not accessible.

I am not the only user with this problem (it has also been reported on
the uk.telecom.broadband newsgroup)

I've configured two additional users on the account, both of which work
fine - it's just the "primary" account that has an issue.

Colin Wilson wrote:
>> My brother moved to Sky broadband max recently and is unable to access
>> his pop3 mail account. I've tried it using all the details supplied but
>> it fails to connect, when logging in to the web based e-mail account on
>> their website it states:
>> Error initialising email portlet
>
> FWIW i've just sent them an error report, as follows:
>

Let me know if you get a reply.

--
regards, James Luff Gamertag: Lufferov
remove 'nospam' to e-mail
"There are 10 types of people in the world:
Those that understand binary, and those that don't."

> > FWIW i've just sent them an error report, as follows:
> Let me know if you get a reply.

Will do :-)

Colin Wilson wrote:
>>> FWIW i've just sent them an error report, as follows:
>> Let me know if you get a reply.
>
> Will do :-)

He phoned them again today and was told to "Try again in 48 hours"...
classic fob off line, what is supposed to be different then?

He was told that his details would be passed to the relevant department,
but that doesn't actually mean anything.

--
regards, James Luff Gamertag: Lufferov
remove 'nospam' to e-mail
"There are 10 types of people in the world:
Those that understand binary, and those that don't."

> He phoned them again today and was told to "Try again in 48 hours"...
> classic fob off line, what is supposed to be different then?
> He was told that his details would be passed to the relevant department,
> but that doesn't actually mean anything.

We now have proof that we've notified them of the problem, and that we
are not able to receive any correspondence - and in particular changes
of T&Cs to the account.

Any changes would, on the face of it, seem to be contrary to their own
T&Cs as we can't possibly receive them, therefore unenforceable.