Metropol

Okay, folks, help please.

Have spent a fair bit of Saturday setting up a new computer and Sky Broadband for a friend.

It all seems okay, except the bloomin' Sky e-mail in Outlook Express, which simply refuses to connect.

It's Windows XP, with AVG free anti-everything loaded.

Sky say pop.tools.sky.com for the pop server and mail.tools.sky.com for the smtp, which seems a bit odd, but I've done as I'm told.

Have put [email protected] in the account field and the horrible nine digit password in the password field.

Like I say, it just seems to refuse to connect to the servers.

Any of you Sky users out there know of any tricks that might assist?

I don't know for sure as I have no Sky e-mail experience - however are you sure it's [email protected] rather than [email protected]? I would have thought the former kind of format would be reserved for Sky staff rather than Joe, whereas a username would make more sense for e-mail settings?

Nick Harvey wrote:Okay, folks, help please.
Have put [email protected] in the account field and the horrible nine digit password in the password field.

Firstly - are you sure the username is [email protected]; mine was [email protected]. I don't know if they are consistent.

Secondly - has POP3/IMAP been enabled on the account. Sky don't seem to activate it by default.

First, you need to enable POP3/IMAP on your Sky Email account:
1. Log into your Sky Email account.
2. Click Mail Settings at the top of any Sky Email page.
3. Click Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab in the orange Mail Settings box.
4. Depending on the protocol you have decided upon, select either Enable POP or Enable IMAP.
5. Click Save Changes.

To ensure that Sky Email can communicate with your email program, be sure to click Save Changes on the Sky Email Mail Settings page.

Thirdly - I presume you have seen Sky's instructions for setting up OE.

1. Open Outlook Express.
2. Click the Tools menu, and select Email Accounts....
3. Click Add and then click Mail...
4. Enter your name in the Display name: field and click Next.
5. Enter your full Sky Email address ([email protected]) in the Email address: field and click Next.
6. Enter the following information in the Incoming mail (POP3, IMAP or HTTP) server: field:

POP3 - pop.tools.sky.com
IMAP - imap.tools.sky.com

7. Enter 'smtp.tools.sky.com' in the Outgoing mail (SMTP) server: field.
8. Click Next.
9. Enter your Sky Email username (including '@sky.com') in the Account name: field.
10. Enter your Sky Email password in the Password: field and click Next.
11. Click Finish.
12. Highlight pop.tools.sky.com or imap.tools.sky.com under Account and click Properties.
13. Click the Advanced tab.
14. Under Outgoing Mail (SMTP), tick the box next to This server requires a secure connection (SSL).
15. Enter '465' in the Outgoing mail (SMTP): field.
16. Under Incoming mail (POP3 / IMAP), tick the box next to This server requires a secure connection (SSL).

This port should change to either 995 for POP3 or 993 for IMAP.

17. Click the Servers tab and tick the box next to My server requires authentication.
18. Click OK.

Am I correct in thinking that Sky use google apps for their email so its all done in a gmail interface? In that case you'll definitely have to turn the pop on first.

Many thanks for all that, folks.

The e-mail address they've given us is first initial, dot, surname at sky dot com and the username appears to be either first initial, dot, surname or first initial, space, surname, it's very difficult to tell on their badly printed letter (even with my nice new glasses). If you use first initial, space, surname, the space disappears as you send the field, so I suspect it's the dot option.

We've tried to log in to the Sky web site with both the combinations and the nine character password. Both give "credentials presented are wrong" or similar.

Trying to log into the web site with the whole e-mail address and the password gives "invalid username" or similar.

These people don't have an alternative e-mail address, so we can't use any of the "forgotten" options, as Sky will just send another message to the e-mail account that we can't get access to.

From the above, I now know what the other problem is. Many thanks. I didn't switch secure connection on; will do that.

I will also switch on the pop3 business, if ever I manage to log into the web site.

Any hints on those problems?

Try logging on to http://mail.tools.sky.com with just the part before the @ sign, that's the correct logon format. If thatf ails, then it's definitely a case of incorrect username or incorrect password, in which case you should probably contact Sky.

With Sky, my username is in capitals for some reason.

That should be it, hopefully.

Thanks both.

Grrrrrrrrrr!

Used Chris's link. "Your logon credentials are incorrect".

It's capitals on the letter, Phil, so I used those this time too.

Yes, I think an hour on the phone to Sky is indicated, but he'll have to do it as they're bound to ask his mother's maiden name or something similar.

Have now got it talking to the servers okay, having switched on the secure connection business and got the port numbers correct.

Just need to sort out the username and password now. Have got him ringing Sky, so further details in a week or so!

Success! All sorted out at last.

A tip for anyone in the future. The username turned out to be first initial, underscore, surname; and the e-mail address first initial, underscore, surname, at, sky, dot, com.

However, the details were printed in a box on the letter, so the underscore merged with the bottom of the box and turned 'invisible'.

Thank you Sky! I think it was a nasty plot to keep us hanging on their premium rate number for forty minutes.

And thanks again to all those with suggestions.