No email on (some) wifi

[tikvah]

I use the Mail App on a MacBook Pro running Lion. When I'm at home my email works just fine. It also works when using wifi or wired ethernet at friends' houses or most public locations. But sometimes it does not. This happened in an airport last year. I was connected and could use my browser but not email.

Right now I'm in the Oakland Public Library and I'm stuck in the East Bay for 6 hours a day all week. The browser works fine (or you wouldn't be seeing this) but my email thinks there is no connection. I can't receive any of my email and I can't send it either.

I'm not looking for suggestions like "use web mail" or "go someplace else." I also have tried using that V thing and couldn't get it to work (your directions are not very complete).

I need my email. Please help!

Thanks,
Cyndi

[tikvah]

Nobody's on? I can't email support (duh) and I can't phone you because I'm in the library. It doesn't seem you have a live chat option. Or a form to send email via the web.

[thulsa_doom]

Many public wireless networks restrict all access until you've gone to a webpage and indicated you agree to their terms and conditions. Others block certain ports to prevent network abuse whether you've agree to their conditions or not. VPN is one way to bypass this kind of blocking, but only if the ports used by VPN aren't themselves blocked.

You may want to check to make sure you're using port 143 for your incoming (IMAP) mail server and port 587 for your outgoing (SMTP) mail server. Most well-meaning network administrators have no particular reason to block these. If they are blocked, the proper solution is to request that they be unblocked by the network administrator, whoever that may be.

Webmail is the most reliable way to access Sonic.net mail when on a network that appears to be restricting everything but web traffic, as it looks like any other web traffic to routers and firewalls between you and us.

[tikvah]

Thanks John! I wanted to check with you first because I thought there might be a simple change like the port thing. Which unfortunately doesn't work. I asked the library staff and they called the IT dept. The IT guy knew immediately what I was talking about. They block everything but port 80, which is for a browser. It's blocked "downtown" and not at the library itself. So it sounds like nothing except browsers work (though I haven't tried anything aside from that and email). I tried setting the email to port 80, with the IT guy's blessing, but it doesn't work either.

I really don't understand why this is a "security issue" given that most wifi allows email. I do get why they might want to block streaming of really large files and stuff like that.

I will use webmail to spot check my email for anything urgent but I can't do real work in it as I have everything on my computer (not a fan of the cloud).

Hopefully my other days down here will include fuller access.

Thanks,
Cyndi

[Sbutler@sonic.net]

I used to be able to retrieve my work email from home. The old sonic login would give me a choice of browsers. I chose the basic browser and I could retrieve my work email. The new login gives me no choice of browsers and all attempts to login to sonic wenbmail have failed. What is the cure?

[adame]

Are you trying to log in with the full "@sonic.net" at the end of your username? Currently, this can cause problems with the new webmail. Are you using all lower-case letters? Do you see an error message when you try to log in?