Anybody know anything about SBC e-mail?

I am the tech support for my parents. They have SBC Yahoo DSL and use the Yahoo email with Outlook on Windows 7. They've had this email address since 2004. About every 6 months they get some kind of authentication error that requires entering the password over and over. And then I get a call and I have to go over there and futz with the settings, which never helps, and then eventually it starts working again and they think I fixed it. Which I most definitely did not.

Searching about this issue reveals that it seems to happen 2-3 times a year, and Yahoo blames it on Microsoft, and Microsoft blames it on Yahoo, and neither one does anything. FWIW, I've tried the latest Yahoo settings (inbound.att.net/outbound.att.net etc) with no success in the past.

What I'm wondering is, is there some secret setup that I don't know about that will solve this for good? I've tried to get them to switch emails to something like Fastmail but they won't do it.

Yahoo's mail system sucks and most free email services suck when it comes to integration into Lookout. I would attempt to move them again and again. Gmail is a good alternative, IMO.

I suspect the security token/cookie for their account expires and Microsoft and Yahoo both drop the ball in handling updating this properly. By the time you fumble around with it, the problem is corrected on the back side.

Question, can they still access their mail if they do to the Yahoo email site? That might indicate an issue with the account itself (like getting locked out due to too many password attempts.

At least Google provides support for use with Outlook.

Small Block Chevy Email???

bgkast wrote: Small Block Chevy Email???

rochester@57vette.net

for09@sofine.com

freetwentyseven@lildeucecoupe.edu

treefiddy@2laneBtop.org

Never use an ISP's email account, it's just an attempt to lock customers in, and they typically suck too. Use Gmail or something.

Thanks guys. Yes, they can still access the webmail.

I keep trying to get them to move to something else but they won't do it. They're afraid they're going to lose their old email (why anyone needs sale emails from Land's End from 2008, I have no idea) and no matter how many times I tell them they won't, they don't believe me.

I wish I could have recorded the time I tried to explain IMAP to them. It was priceless.

GameboyRMH wrote: Never use an ISP's email account, it's just an attempt to lock customers in, and they typically suck too. Use Gmail or something.

Does Gmail really work as a free e-mail client? I do have one, but I'd set it up as a "throwaway" just so I could upload old racing videos to YouTube. At the moment, I wouldn't be able to remember the address if someone held a tire iron to my head.

I'll admit, I'm like slowride's parents..my real e-mail addy is actually still Earthlink. Thinking of ditching it, that's $20 a month I could save. No Yahoo or Hotmail (or whatever M$ is calling it these days) because the spam is so bad.

I stopped using ISP mail a long time ago. It would suck to either be stuck with one ISP or have to change email addresses every time a better deal came up.

I had a few password issues lately, but overall happy with my 10 year old yahoo account. Spam filter seems to work well too.

Do what I did. Convert them to Gmail and be done with it.

simple steps.

1. Create the Gmail account.

2. Setup the Gmail account in said email client

3. login to OLD email and set all messages to forward to Gmail account.

4. Profit.

I like Gmail because it has a pretty effective spam filter. That's what keeps me to going to my own domains for mail. As noted above, you can forward all the mail sent to another address, and even set gmail up to send with the other address as the return.

I've been using gmail for years, I definitely like having an address that will work regardless of my internet provider. And then when I got an Android phone it was even better.

I'm partial to imap (which gmail provides) because then you don't end up with email stuck on one machine.

Anyway I stopped at the parents' on the way home and it's only the outgoing mail that doesn't work. I messed with it a little but the settings are already correct so I told them to ride it out. My dad claims he is thinking about cancelling yahoo DSL so that will require an email change anyway... so maybe the end is near!

BTW: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology-science/technology/yahoo-mail-users-unable-access-2922057

bgkast wrote: Small Block Chevy Email???

that's how I read it ..

friedgreencorrado wrote:

GameboyRMH wrote: Never use an ISP's email account, it's just an attempt to lock customers in, and they typically suck too. Use Gmail or something.

Does Gmail *really* work as a free e-mail client? I do have one, but I'd set it up as a "throwaway" just so I could upload old racing videos to YouTube. At the moment, I wouldn't be able to remember the address if someone held a tire iron to my head. I'll admit, I'm like slowride's parents..my *real* e-mail addy is actually still Earthlink. Thinking of ditching it, that's $20 a month I could save. No Yahoo or Hotmail (or whatever M$ is calling it these days) because the spam is so bad.

Love love LOVE Gmail. Have been using it since the beta opened in 2004. If I wanted to use it with Thunderbird or Outlook, I could...but the web interface is great. Collapses into conversations, searchable, social media notifications get auto-shunted to their own tabs, promo emails get auto-shunted to its own tab...best e-mail product by far. No contest.

In reply to turboswede: There's posts in the Yahoo support forums about this too. In fact, I can recall 3 times that I've been asked to fix this same issue, and each time I found posts from various support type forums from other people having problems at the same time.

It's fairly obvious to me that Yahoo email is not reliable, for whatever reason...

for me Yahoo e-mail has been much better than G-mail … easier to use, easier to separate incoming mail into their separate folders …. but lately it's gone to E36 M3 … every time they've "improved" the product the harder it's gotten to use … I'd switch to my G-mail account if I could make it as easy to use/do the things I use to do with my Yahoo account