Mail keeps asking for User Name and Password

[TomYoung]

(This may be a duplicate posting, but the original never showed up.
Apologies in advance if you end up seeing this twice.)

Hi all:

For the last two days when I open Windows Mail a new Windows Security
window opens asking for my User Name and Password. When I respond to
this request Mail works as it normally does. And, yes, the "Remember
my credentials" message *is* ticked.

I'm not sure if this is a Windows Mail issue or a McAfee Security
Center problem - both programs were recently updated - but McAfee is
periodically reporting a problem that seems like it may relate to the
Mail issue. McAfee reports "Privacy Service shut down unexpectedly
and Personal Information Protection is now disabled" and "Privacy
Service shut down unexpectedly and Parental Controls is now
disabled." I can't find anything at the McAfee site that seems to
relate to this issue.

Can anybody shed some light as to what's going on here and how to fix
the problem?

Thanks.

Tom Young

 

[Sunny Central]

Hi, in reply to you Tom Young, I have been having the same problem, I cannot
use my email because computer keeps asking for User Name and Password. Have
you found the answer yet?
Molly Kennedy

 

[TomYoung]

Hi, in reply to you Tom Young, I have been having the same problem, I cannot
use my email because computer keeps asking for User Name and Password.  Have
you found the answer yet?
Molly Kennedy

Removing and reinstalling McAfee seems to have done the trick. Mail
is no longer asking for User Name and Password.

Tom Young

 

[hooflngpoo]

if not the fact that i cant login, its to remember each one (username and
password)
so if you dont mind i need help with both.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

That type of error is usually caused by interference from a non-
compatible antivirus program. Which antivirus are you running?
As a minimum, email scanning in the antivirus must be turned off,
although that may not be sufficient to eliminate all bad effects.
In a worst case scenario, your antivirus may need to be uninstalled.

If turning off your antivirus email scanning function does not resolve
your problem, consider upgrading to Windows Live Mail, because it
is less prone to suffering bad effects from overly intrusive antivirus
programs: http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview

Email scanning in any antivirus must be disabled, for reasons
explained here:
http://thundercloud.net/infoave/tutorials/email-scanning/index.htm

 

[TomYoung]

It's the same problem I was having. If I filled out the User Name and
Password prompts then Mail worked normally. It's just that I had to
go through the process every time I opened Mail.

Completely uninstalling and then reinstalling McAfee has fixed the
Mail problem.

Tom Young

 

[Ed Campbell]

I have been having the same problem as the other users in this post. I am
using Mcafee anti virus and I have disabled e-mail scanning and I also tried
to install the Live Mail. Both of those attempts failed to fix the problem.
I have the exact same error with Live mail as I had with Vista mail.

Any other suggestions? Kind of stuck here.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

McAfee antivirus is among the top three troublemakers for Windows Mail.
First of all, turn off email scanning in McAfee, although that is seldom sufficient.
Next, delete that email account (because it has been corrupted by McAfee),
restart Windows Mail, then recreate the account.

If the problem continues, the only way you can prove or disprove that
McAfee is the culprit is to uninstall it, followed by using their debris removal tool:
http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=107083&lc=1033

If you decide to replace McAfee, we can recommend a free antivirus
program which is more compatible with Windows Mail:

 

[Ed Campbell]

I totally deleted Mcafee. (Using uninstall and the tool you referenced
earlier)
Cleared out the Windows Live Mail account
rebooted
Recreated the Windows Live mail account (no Anti virus installed at all)
Logged into the Comcast Web mail to validate that the account was ok (It was)
logged out of comcast web mail
Logged into windows live mail
Could not access because of password / userid issues.

Still stuck :-(

Any other suggestions.

Thanks.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Are you running any other third party security software such as Spybot
or SpywareBlaster?

When you get that username/password prompt, click Cancel. It should
pop up an error message. Right-click on that error message, copy,
then paste it into a reply here.

 

[Ed Campbell]

Sorry about the delayed response.

Nope there is no other security software other than Mcafee. This is my
daughter's computer and her ID is set up as a user account with parental
controls. So that is the only other security that is in place.

Windows mail was working fine for a week or so before the password problem
started. No additional software was installed right before it stopped
working. But I do believe that on the day it stopped working Comcast had
some kind of mail server glitch. Because on that day I was also unable to
retrieve my mail from my Windows XP outlook 2003 computer. The following
day I was back in business on my computer and this problem started on my
Daughter's computer. Could the server problems have corrupted the windows
user account somehow?

Here is the error message that I am seeing (I xxxxxxx'ed out the actual
e-mail name since I didn't want to put my daughter's e-mail address in a
newsgroup )


Unable to send or receive messages for the Comcast (xxxxxxxxxxx) account. An
incorrect password was entered. The next time you send or receive messages,
you'll be asked to enter your user name and password for this account.

Server Error: 0x800CCC90
Server Response: -ERR invalid username/password
Server: 'mail.comcast.net'
Windows Live Mail Error ID: 0x800CCC92
Protocol: POP3
Port: 110
Secure(SSL): No

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

As a test, you could try setting up that mail account under a different Windows
user on that same computer. If that works, it rules out all external influences
(external to the email program). If successful, you can try the
'complete uninstall/reinstall' procedure for Windows Live Mail:
http://liveunplugged.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!F92775FC46A390CA!226.entry