Sympatico email

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Hi there, I hope you can help with this problem. I cannot get in my sympatico email at all, it will not accept my username/password. The message reads... PASS command did not succeed.Mailserver pop1.ns.sympatico.ca responded-invalid username or password. I had all my settings checked,emptied the cache etc. but no luck. I phoned sympatico who in their infinite wisdom in less than 40 days suddenly don't know anything about it or Netscape. I was/am in the process of removing my folders to my documents but had not gotten to "drafts" it just wouldn't work one day when I turned on the puter. I'm at my wits end. I have some important documents in my drafts folder which I would very much like to retrieve. Thanks in advance for your help. Ronnie

 

The reaction of the alleged "support" people of Sympatico are quite common.
Sympatico is usually described as Sympatico/MSN, i.e. tightly Microsoft bound.
As such, their IT people are not supposed to know anything about any other mail applications. You can take a look at this article to see what some people have to put up with.
One thing which I don't understand is if this problem has just happened recently, or has been around for a while.
Also, about these mails in the "Drafts" folder, it is not clear what they do there.
Typically, the Drafts folder is used for unsent mail. After the mail is sent, they not not see visible in the Drafts folder, but should be in the Sent folder. However, if your settings are not correct, the mail may sit in the Drafts folder.

 

Ronnie,

Have you tried changing your password? Look at this page and see if you find anything useful:
Reset Password

Note: This is a Bell.ca help site for Sympatico Mail

 

Ronnie,

While I never received the particular error message you were getting, I did have considerable trouble getting Sympatico to play nice with Thunderbird.
For anyone else who might come looking for help with general Sympatico settings here, these are the settings that ultimately worked for me:

Tools > Account Settings > Server Settings:
Server name: pophm.sympatico.ca Port: 995
User Name: xxxxxx@sympatico.ca (whatever your address is)
Security Settings - Use secure connection: SSL
(no check mark in Use secure authentication)

Tools > Account Settings > Outgoing Server:
Description: <not specified>
Server Name: smtp1.sympatico.ca
Port: 25
User Name: b1xxxxxx (whatever your b1 number is)
Secure Connection: TLS (if available)

At various times, I've had to input both my Sympatico Access Password and my Sympatico email password - when asked for a password, I usually try one, and if that doesn't work, then I try the other. If neither works, I reboot the computer - after that, I've always been successful.

 

Rebecca,
the biggest mistake that one can do is to tell the tech (non)support that anything other than Microsoft software is used. Sympatico must use as a basis a Microsoft product, or the information on getting the settings must be missed, somehow. Changes in settings are about two years old, and hard to find in the Sympatico pages, but this thread discusses the problem .
Sympatico will tell you how to get the settings in Outlook Express, and it should be possible to translate them to Thunderbird settings.

 

Westside,
You're right about the fact that Sympatico tech support won't help with anything other than MS software, but the issue goes beyond that sometimes. I did originally have them help me configure OE, and from that I was able to set up TB.
However, server settings that work fine for months/years will, on occasion, suddenly stop working, even though Sympatico denies having made any changes (and I have made no changes on my computer or to my TB settings). For example, I used to use smtphm.sympatico.ca as my outgoing server for a couple of years until one day I could no longer connect. Found a post by someone somewhere saying they were using smpt1.sympatico.ca, and lo & behold, using that one, I was able to send out emails again. Sympatico tech support still tells me smtphm.sympatico.ca is what I should have entered as my outgoing mail server!

Personally, I'm still using pophm.sympatico.ca as my incoming server, but there are numerous Sympatico customers who have to use pop6.sympatico.ca (as mentioned in the thread you referred to).

 

Rebecca,

Thanks for your experienced input on Sympatico settings!

 

Thanks,
Rebecca. And, I corrected my link. It takes people like you who have the service, and was able to wade through what the alleged support people tell you, and get usable information. Thanks, again.