Previously working e-mail accounts suddenly no longer work correctly
I set up e-mail address for my entire family years ago. Some ended up getting used, some didn't. These e-mail addresses have been working fine for years (10 years so far, if I'm remembering right).
Last night, I wanted to add new e-mail address for my wife. I saw that one of the e-mail addresses was marked as inactive, so I deleted it. Then I successfully added the new e-mail address by choosing to create a "Secondary User" and chose the option to create an e-mail account for that user.
Shortly after that, I got an e-mail asking me to validate the new e-mail address. The message was badly formatted HTML and a little unclear in the wording, but I clicked a link that said "continue" and was taken to a Cox web page that said validation was successful.
Within fifteen minutes, my mail program (Thunderbird) on my computer (booted to Ubuntu) started complaining about errors logging into MY e-mail account (not the new one I created for my wife, but my own personal e-mail which has been working just fine for years). Similarly, my wife's existing e-mail account (which has been working just fine for years) has started producing errors whenever she sends an e-mail through Outlook on her PC in Windows.
I tried to send an e-mail from my account through the Cox WebMail site. I got an error that said there were three possible reasons why I was blocked from sending the e-mail. If I recall correctly, they were:
1. I have exceeded the limit on sent e-mails. Nope, as I rarely use this e-mail for sending anything -- I just use it for website registration (i.e. I don't send e-mails from this account)..
2. There was something suspicious (malicious?) about my email. Nope, it was just "testing 1, 2, 3".
3. There was some problem with handling of the e-mail on the side of Cox.
The message said that in case 3, the matter would be resolved shortly. However, I'm not sure what shortly means, since the e-mail has been broken now for at least 13 hours now. That does not seem like a short time to me.
I should mention I am a software engineer familiar with multiple operating systems and applications. In other words, I'm pretty sure the mail applications are set up correctly on our computers (and have been working just fine for years). The fact that these accounts suddenly have problems minutes after I added a new account tells me this issue has something to do with e-mail servers or processing on Cox's side.
I didn't touch any settings for these old e-mail accounts. It's very disconcerting that adding a new e-mail account (secondary user) can break existing e-mail accounts whose settings with mail programs have worked for years.
Still, I'm ready to try any steps to get our e-mail working correctly.
Currently, of the 7 e-mail addresses we have, I have tested four of them:
1. My wife's e-mail that she uses all the time.
Sends and receives through Outlook, but now gets an error after sending each mail.
2. My "junk" e-mail
No longer sends/receives through Thunderbird (errors available upon request). Can receive but not send through Cox WebMail,
3. Family "junk" e-mail
Works fine through Thunderbird and Cox WebMail. Can send and receive e-mails through both.
4. Brand new e-mail that I set up last night
Hadn't thought to actually test this until just now (because having our other e-mail addresses broken is a higher priority for me to resolve).
Ironically, I can't access this e-mail at all. Trying to get to Cox WebMail with this account produces an advertisement that I should buy Cox internet to start using WebMail. Perfect. I'm reminded that I thought it was really weird that there was a selection when creating a secondary user for whether or not that user should have an e-mail account. What struck me weird was that the default was no e-mail account. I remember having to make the other selection (which I thought was "create an e-mail account for this user"). Pretty sure I selected that, and I did get the validation e-mail, and I do see that e-mail account listed under the e-mail boxes for the master account. Sadly, from the WebMail viewpoint, I apparently don't have any way to access this new e-mail account.
Cox, please fix my e-mail accounts.
