Intermittent email log-on problem

Comhrá

My friend has an intermittent log-on problem with his Eircom.net email account for the past two weeks or so.

Several times throughout the day his email program (Microsoft Outlook) gives a dialogue box asking for his log-on password and refuses to log him on.

Likewise his webmail denies him from logging on with a similar message. He spent a lot of time with Eircom support over the past few days and though they were very eager to help, they aren't able to resolve the problem. He's had three email account password changes without any solution.

Then later, as an hour later, both Outlook & Eircom webmail work normally, he gets all his emails, and then the error recurs a few hours later and so on.

Does the fact he intermittently can't log onto his webmail at the same time as failing to log on with Outlook suggest there's an issue at the Eircom end?

Eircom Support spent ages on the phone with him today and they suggested he runs his anti-virus & anti malware on his laptop (Windows 10) then do the usual maintenance like disc clean-up.

Still the problem persists. His landline provider is Vodafone if that makes any difference. Thx for any advice/opinions.

ED E

Sounds like he's being fail2ban'd by their auth server. If he or an automated process makes too many failed login attempts his account will be temporarily locked as a security measure. This will cause login failure through all clients (webapp or desktop).

Older versions of outlook were divils for doing it, backup his email, delete the account in outlook and add it fresh would normally resolve.

Comhrá

Thanks. I'll pass on the info.