Mentor
•
106 Messages
Severe Problems With Outlook Email Authentication And Both Legacy DSL & U-verse
I'm an IT consultant who has worked with Outlook since the earliest versions and with AT&T since it was Southwestern Bell, and I have never seen a problem as bad as this. This problem has been plaguing me and several of my clients for 2 or 3 weeks now and it's about to run us all nuts (some, like me, have "legacy" DSL and some have U-verse). The maddening thing is that it happens intermittently, not constantly and with no rhyme or reason. For reasons unknown, the AT&T mail server suddenly stops "authenticating" the Outlook client, either for the logon, password, or both and that accursed window pops-up asking for your logon & password. However, no matter how many times you put them in (verifying that they are correct first) and check the "Save Settings" box, the authentication fails over & over again, and then just suddenly starts working out of the blue. I have checked and double-checked all the settings and they are correct per the AT&T online documentation. I've even run the online-based configuration tool and the same thing continues to happen on a totally random basis. One of my clients spent a couple of hours on talking to (overseas) tech support and they only made the problem worse, causing him to get a totally new email address and change his password multiple times. He also told my guy that AT&T has "mandated" that your password be changed every 3 months, but to the best of my knowledge that's only if you use the Webmail product, not the SMTP based method with Outlook. This is happening with Office 2007, Office 2010 & Office 2013 products, right across the board. I keep telling my clients that if I could solve the problem I'd do it for me first but that is not assuaging their frustration. This has to be on the AT&T end of things due to the nature of the problem but they do not seem to want to acknowledge it. Any insight as to 1. why this is happening on such a protracted basis and 2. what AT&T is doing to address it would be appreciated. When it happens to this many people over an extended period of time there's definitely something "rotten in San Antonio"... Thanks
DD™
Teacher
•
24 Messages
9 years ago
LOL...great minds think alike (refer back to my message which was last edited just 3 minutes prior to your message submission)!!
DD
0
0
Quaestor
Tutor
•
8 Messages
9 years ago
Almost as though the bad behavior was intentional... I hope that's just minor
paranoia on my part.
0
0
75vette
Scholar
•
93 Messages
9 years ago
Yes, finally, a few "normal" or what should be normal, days!
0
0
davidzzzz
Teacher
•
15 Messages
9 years ago
This sounds like a good solution. Have you done this? If so, how is it working? Couldn't you use any free email account?
0
0
Quaestor
Tutor
•
8 Messages
9 years ago
Yes, I have done this. All my AT&T webmail accounts now forward
unconditionally to other accounts. In setting up Outlook to handle these new
accounts I did everything as normal except that I specified the AT&T address
as the return address, which makes the change "invisible." Using a free mail
account is possible, but why except the limitations? In my experience free
mail is worth every penny you invest in it. Other reasons to foward to a paid account provided by a stable and long-established hosting company are the server-based anti-spam and anti-malware addins that many hosts offer, and the actual technical support provided by a savvy and well-trained agent whose job is to keep you a satisfied customer, and not to deflect problems onto third parties, which seems to be a mission at AT&T Support.
The only reason I have stayed with AT&T is the fact that the associated email addresses are now nearly 20 years old and well-known to friends, family, and business contacts alike.
0
0
75vette
Scholar
•
93 Messages
9 years ago
It's back again today... with a vengence!
Pops up every few minutes........
Really getting sick of this crap!
0
0
ChasSquirrel
Mentor
•
62 Messages
9 years ago
This issue has started up again today.. ughh I am so sick of this. Anyone else?
0
0
gigi.ray
Contributor
•
1 Message
9 years ago
this is extremely frustrating. I cannot get Outlook 2007 or Thunderbird to funtion correctly on my laptop or tablet. Inbound works just fine. Anything outbound fails and prompts me to enter a password. I've tryed everthing listed above - the netsh command, changing ports etc.
The odd this is my husband has no problems with his att.net email account. There must be something somewhere with the account setting/set up. No response from ATT
0
0
75vette
Scholar
•
93 Messages
9 years ago
It's definately an AT&T problem. They choose to ignore it.
0
0
75vette
Scholar
•
93 Messages
9 years ago
Problem twice yesterday and so far 4 times today..
AGGRAVATING!!!!!!!!
0
0