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Thunderbird connection refused

  • 6 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 17 views
  • Last reply by cnieland4

cnieland4
cnieland4
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As of this morning 01/03/21, both my email accounts (gmail and rcn.com) are getting a "Connection refused" error on my Thunderbird email application. My version is fully updated (78.6.0). I'm using a 2017 iMac OS 10.14.6. I've tried changing the proxy settings to "no proxy" but it had no effect. There have been no changes since I used the computer last Thursday 12/31/20.

As of this morning 01/03/21, both my email accounts (gmail and rcn.com) are getting a "Connection refused" error on my Thunderbird email application. My version is fully updated (78.6.0). I'm using a 2017 iMac OS 10.14.6. I've tried changing the proxy settings to "no proxy" but it had no effect. There have been no changes since I used the computer last Thursday 12/31/20.

All Replies (6)

sfhowes
sfhowes
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What's the antivirus? Several of them, such as Avast/AVG, Bitdefender, ESET, TrendMicro etc. are known to block connections without careful attention to their email settings. Do you connect through a VPN?

cnieland4
cnieland4 Question owner
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Thanks for your reply. I'm not using any anti-virus application and I don't connect through a VPN. Nothing has changed since it all was working fine a few days ago.

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 10 Contributor
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What is the authentication method on the gmail account? If it's not OAuth2, Google may have turned off access by 'less-secure apps' and blocked the connection.

It never hurts, and often helps, to restart the router/modem.

cnieland4
cnieland4 Question owner
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Thanks for reminding me to reboot the modem and router. I just tried that but no change in the Thunderbird "Connection refused" errors. The authentication method is OAuth2 for Gmail. Just a regular insecure password for the rcn.com mail. Both accounts worked before and neither are working today.

cnieland4
cnieland4 Question owner
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Thanks for the reminder to reboot the modem and router. I just rebooted both and the error message is the same.

cnieland4
cnieland4 Question owner
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The authentication mode for the gmail account is OAuth2. It worked fine until today. The other account is an rcn.com webmail. Both accounts are getting the same "connection refused" error message.