Outlook 2003 sporadically fails POP authentication

[Guest]

Jeff, Neo and Brian,

Having switched ports, line and adapter card, I believe I've eliminated my
hardware as a contributor to this problem. It is significant that the
problem occurs with either Outlook or Outlook Express on the computer running
XP. As I stated early-on, the problem only occurs during normal working
hours. I'd be convinced it was the traffic my ISP is carrying were it not
for two factors: 1. My ISP doesn't see others sporadically failing to
authenticiate and 2. My Windows 98SE/Outlook 2000 computer doesn't experience
this problem.

Any other ideas?

Thanks,

Bill

 

[Jeff Stephenson [MSFT]]

Jeff, Neo and Brian,

Having switched ports, line and adapter card, I believe I've eliminated my
hardware as a contributor to this problem. It is significant that the
problem occurs with either Outlook or Outlook Express on the computer running
XP. As I stated early-on, the problem only occurs during normal working
hours. I'd be convinced it was the traffic my ISP is carrying were it not
for two factors: 1. My ISP doesn't see others sporadically failing to
authenticiate and 2. My Windows 98SE/Outlook 2000 computer doesn't experience
this problem.

Any other ideas?

Don't know about neo and Brian, but the only thing I can think of right now
is a network packet sniff that will show us exactly what is being sent
between your machine and the server, including the password. If the
correct password is being sent and authentication fails, the problem is on
the server. Otherwise it's an Outlook problem.

 

[Guest]

Don't know about neo and Brian, but the only thing I can think of right now
is a network packet sniff that will show us exactly what is being sent
between your machine and the server, including the password. If the
correct password is being sent and authentication fails, the problem is on
the server. Otherwise it's an Outlook problem.

Great idea, Jeff. I installed the AnalogX PacketMon (free from
www.analogx.com) and just finished testing it. Took about 30 seconds to
figure out how to capture the exchange between Outlook and the POP server and
sure enough, my password sticks out like a sore thumb. I'll capture a failed
transaction tomorrow and let you know.

Thanks!

Bill

 

[Guest]

Jeff, Neo and Brian,

Jeff's suggestion to sniff the outgoing packets has eliminated Outlook as
the cause of my problem. Thank you for helping me with this. I also have to
credit AnalogX for providing me with their free PacketMon with a big WOW,
this is sure easy to use!

FWIW, here is the trapped dialog between Outlook and my POP server for a
failed poll followed by a successful poll:

+OK CommuniGate Pro POP3 Server 4.2 ready <[email protected]>
USER billybob
+OK please send the PASS
PASS mypassword
-ERR incorrect password or account name
+OK CommuniGate Pro POP3 Server 4.2 ready <[email protected]>
USER billybob
+OK please send the PASS
PASS mypassword
+OK 0 messages (0 bytes)

 

[Jeff Stephenson [MSFT]]

Jeff, Neo and Brian,

Jeff's suggestion to sniff the outgoing packets has eliminated Outlook as
the cause of my problem. Thank you for helping me with this. I also have to
credit AnalogX for providing me with their free PacketMon with a big WOW,
this is sure easy to use!

FWIW, here is the trapped dialog between Outlook and my POP server for a
failed poll followed by a successful poll:

+OK CommuniGate Pro POP3 Server 4.2 ready <[email protected]>
USER billybob
+OK please send the PASS
PASS mypassword
-ERR incorrect password or account name
+OK CommuniGate Pro POP3 Server 4.2 ready <[email protected]>
USER billybob
+OK please send the PASS
PASS mypassword
+OK 0 messages (0 bytes)

Awesome! I'll keep a link to AnalogX around for future use - I've never
known what to tell people when I think the next step is a packets sniff,
because NetMon is not generally available to them and is not what I'd call
easy to use. This sounds great.

 

[Guest]

i'm having a similar problem, but my emails are from MSN.

running XP Pro(SP2), Office 2003(fully updated (except for the French
grammar thing)).

quite often i get the annoying popup saying please enter you username and
password. it also always leaves the 'remember your password' box unchecked.
i click on the 'OK' and it goes away and, as far as i know goes off and
checks my mail.

i did a knowledge base search, it told me to add hotmail.com and msn.com to
my IE Privacy on the toolbar.

that didn't help either.

i'm very close to just going back to using IE's mail section.

 

[Guest]

I'm a new user of outlook just entering this fray, and have the same problem.
I use my cellphone to access the net, and signing in is quite the problem. If
it looks for mail (every 5 minutes), it is usually ok, but if I hit the
send/recieve button, it cannot sign in, but none of this is consistent.

 

[Jeff Stephenson [MSFT]]

I'm a new user of outlook just entering this fray, and have the same problem.
I use my cellphone to access the net, and signing in is quite the problem. If
it looks for mail (every 5 minutes), it is usually ok, but if I hit the
send/recieve button, it cannot sign in, but none of this is consistent.

Is there an Outlook question here? I certainly can't help with your
cell-phone...

 

[Guest]

I guess there really isn't an outlook question, as it seems that the recieve
error is actually a transmission error either in the phone or ISP. when I
hook up to the wireless LAN at school, outlook performs fine. sorry to wate
your time.

 

[Guest]

I just installed Outlook 2003 on XP on a new machine and ran into the same
type of problems. I disabled Norton, the likely culprit to start with, and
then reinstalled Outlook to no avail. I still get the pop error indicating
an unsuccessfull authentication. I know all the setting are right becuase I
have another laptop with the exact same settings.

Then I added the AnalogX Packetmon and found the pass field is being left
blank...

Even though the field is correct in account settings, and I type it in again
when the Enter Password pop-up occurs, Packetmon shows the field is still
blank. So, is this why I can't log in via outlook?

Now I tested the same settings with telnet to the pop server and with
Outlook Express and even with the Test Account Settings and they all work.
So, what is wrong with this install of Outlook? I can't reset the install to
stop it from sending a blank pass field.

Chris

 

[Jeff Stephenson [MSFT]]

I just installed Outlook 2003 on XP on a new machine and ran into the same
type of problems. I disabled Norton, the likely culprit to start with, and
then reinstalled Outlook to no avail. I still get the pop error indicating
an unsuccessfull authentication. I know all the setting are right becuase I
have another laptop with the exact same settings.

Then I added the AnalogX Packetmon and found the pass field is being left
blank...

Even though the field is correct in account settings, and I type it in again
when the Enter Password pop-up occurs, Packetmon shows the field is still
blank. So, is this why I can't log in via outlook?

Now I tested the same settings with telnet to the pop server and with
Outlook Express and even with the Test Account Settings and they all work.
So, what is wrong with this install of Outlook? I can't reset the install to
stop it from sending a blank pass field.

Did you disable Norton by uninstalling and then reinstalling it without the
options? From various posts in these groups, it sounds as if that's the
only way to really disable it.

Is your computer logged into a domain (for example at work), or is it just
a home computer?

 

[Guest]

I uninstalled Norton with no resintall of Norton. I do not have the original
disks since it came with my new VAIO laptop. Sony does not provide any CDs.
Does this mean I must re-install XP from scratch and then reinstall all
applications?

We do not use a domain controller at work and I did the email testing at home.

CJA

 

[Jeff Stephenson [MSFT]]

I uninstalled Norton with no resintall of Norton. I do not have the original
disks since it came with my new VAIO laptop. Sony does not provide any CDs.
Does this mean I must re-install XP from scratch and then reinstall all
applications?

We do not use a domain controller at work and I did the email testing at home.

Does Outlook work properly without Norton in the picture?

I don't know whether you'll need to reinstall everything to get Norton
back. There may be a way of installing just Norton from the disks that
came with your VAIO, though I do recall that my VAIO disks seemed to want
to reformat and reinstall the original image rather than let you
selectively reinstall software. A real pain...

 

[Guest]

This thread appears to describe a problem I have had since installing MS
Outlook 2003. I use Trend Micro not Norton and have recently (last few days)
upgraded to the 2005 version. The problem still persists. Clicking "retry"
has no effect other than to offer me another opportunity to click "retry".

Generally I become fraustrated and reboot the system which for some reason
solves the problem (this is not a remedy I would like to maintain).

This is a desktop hp pavilion 753n, operating on XP (home edition) with sp1
and sp2 installed (and apparently working). My ISP is Verizon DSL and this
is a hard-wired system.

If anyone has any solutions I would be happy to hear about them.


Thanks,

jj

 

[Brian Tillman]

This thread appears to describe a problem I have had since installing
MS Outlook 2003. I use Trend Micro not Norton and have recently
(last few days) upgraded to the 2005 version. The problem still
persists. Clicking "retry" has no effect other than to offer me
another opportunity to click "retry".

One way to see if you can eliminate the problem is to disable any email
integration of the AV scanner.