This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

I cannot send or receive emails

  • 6 replies
  • 5 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by Matt

more options

I have Thunderbird (38.5.1) set up on a desktop and a laptop machine. Both machines are running Windows 10 and I have 7 Virginmedia email accounts on the system. I can receive and send emails normally on the laptop but neither send or receive on the desktop (since 1st Feb). The email settings are identical on both machines. This problem is just related to the desktop machine

I have tried deleting the email passwords from the desktop machine's copy of Thunderbird but Thunderbird does not ask me for a new password: it just says it is retrieving messages and stops or says it cannot send a message ('The message could not be sent because the connection to Outgoing server (SMTP) smtp.ntlworld.com timed out.')

I have no idea what to try next...

I have Thunderbird (38.5.1) set up on a desktop and a laptop machine. Both machines are running Windows 10 and I have 7 Virginmedia email accounts on the system. I can receive and send emails normally on the laptop but neither send or receive on the desktop (since 1st Feb). The email settings are identical on both machines. This problem is just related to the desktop machine I have tried deleting the email passwords from the desktop machine's copy of Thunderbird but Thunderbird does not ask me for a new password: it just says it is retrieving messages and stops or says it cannot send a message ('The message could not be sent because the connection to Outgoing server (SMTP) smtp.ntlworld.com timed out.') I have no idea what to try next...

Chosen solution

Following your reply I have done some more work and found that the problem seems to be related to Freedome (a VPN system). When I switched off Freedome Thunderbird worked on the desktop with no problem. However there has been no problem with the laptop which is also running Freedome. I will take up the matter further with Freedome.

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (6)

more options

does your anti virus have a password vault feature?

more options

My antivirus software does have a password vault but I don't use it - on either machine.

more options

IO have heard of Norton doing this sort of thing, which is what prompted my question. Try disabling any email scanning and see if that helps. I think the issue will be with the anti virus, or it's firewall component.

more options

Thanks for this. I have seen similar replies to this question and had already tried switching off email checking -(and even stop the firewal) but there is no change in the situation. If it were the my anti-virus (F-secure) I would have expected it to affect both my laptop and desktop machines.

What I cannot understand is why when I delete a password from Thunderbird, I am not prompted to provide a new one. Is there any way I can view the interchange between Thunderbird and my mail provider to see what happens?

more options

Chosen Solution

Following your reply I have done some more work and found that the problem seems to be related to Freedome (a VPN system). When I switched off Freedome Thunderbird worked on the desktop with no problem. However there has been no problem with the laptop which is also running Freedome. I will take up the matter further with Freedome.

more options