AT&T recently changed the server addresses, which triggered the problem for some users. The new server names are inbound.att.net and outbound.att.net. The old server names are supposed to continue working, but some users report changing to these server names fixed the problem.
We’re seeing a rash of Outlook users complaining about the Enter Network Password dialog box constantly popping up and a send/receive error:
Task ‘AT&T – Receiving’ reported error (0x800CCC92) : ‘Your e-mail server rejected your login. Verify your user name and password in your account properties. Under Tools, click E-mail accounts. The server responded: -ERR [AUTH] invalid user/password’
While in some cases it actually is a corrupt password cache and solutions in MSKB 290684 corrects the problem, those solutions don’t seem to help most users.
After trying everything in the KB article, uninstalling and reinstalling Outlook and a host of other (useless) solutions, the user realized the dialog stopped coming up when his iPhone was turned off.
Solution: Stop reading your mail in the iPhone. (Ok, so that’s not a workable solution. <g>)
Users can reduce the frequency of the network password dialog by setting Outlook and the iPhone or iPad to check mail less often or switch to IMAP if possible. If using an AT&T/Yahoo account, you can also switch to the yahoo servers to end the password dialog.
I went online to the ATT Technical Support Chat Line and she had me log onto my ATT Web Mail account. This told me two things: By being able to login to my webmail account I knew that my password was valid, (just in case I changed it and forgot or something similar.) By merely logging on to my webmail account I had actually reset or cleared any errors that my email had. Ever since then I have had no problems with my Outlook accounts. Problem solved!
Logging in to verify the password is correct is always a good idea and I recommend doing this before (or instead of) changing the password because you assume the password is wrong. I have no idea why it also seemed to clear any errors. Logically it shouldn’t matter but logic is often missing with webmail accounts.
Note: The “smartphone and password prompt issue” in Outlook may not be limited to AT&T networks or Yahoo email. If you use a handheld device or second computer to check mail, turn it off and see if the problem goes away.
AT&T Account Configuration
The new server names apply to all AT&T email domains: ameritech.net, att.net, bellsouth.net, flash.net, nvbell.net, pacbell.net, prodigy.net, sbcglobal.net, snet.net, swbell.net, wans.net addresses. (You can also use the yahoo servers, listed below.)
Username: full email address
Incoming server: inbound.att.net
Use Port 995, SSL enabled.
Outgoing server: outbound.att.net
Use Port 465, SSL enabled. On the Outgoing Server tab, enable authentication.
To change the server names, go to Account Settings and double click on the account. Change the server names on this screen then click on the More Settings button to configure the Ports (on Advanced tab) and Outgoing server authentication.
Yahoo Server Configuration
LTyler recommends changing the POP and SMTP servers to the following names to an end to the dialog.
Incoming Mail Server: pop.mail.yahoo.com
Use Port 465 and SSL
Outgoing Mail Server: smtp.mail.yahoo.com
Use Port 995, SSL and authenticate with the outgoing server.
More Information
Outlook 2007: “Enter Network Password” Pop-ups (OutlookForums)
Enter Network Password (AT&T Forum)
Email server settings (POP and SMTP) AT&T Support
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Last reviewed on Nov 14, 2011
I, too, have had numerous popups in Outlook 2007 from POP email through AT&T DSL service, many times each day.
It is finally resolved. After trying several Inbound and Outbound settings, this works great:
Incoming Mail Server: pop.mail.yahoo.com
Outgoing Mail Server: smtp.mail.yahoo.com
I changed this four days ago, and have not been asked for Username/Pswd since.
Thanks! What server name did you use before – was it on yahoo or att?
I’ve had this same issue for the past three weeks, trying every method mentioned on different websites to cure this issue. I was just given this link to this discussion and tried the solution mentioned above. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this will fix this issue.
I have to wonder why AT&T hasn’t solved this issue themselves or informed clients of this problem or resolution. I know we are not the only users of AT&T who are experiencing this problem.
The information I have (which should be taken with a grain of salt at this point) is that AT&T did this to force everyone over to yahoo. That’s why i asked what server names (or domain) had the problem. However, AFAIK, of all mail clients, Outlook may be the only one that handles the change so poorly – so it could just be a simple tweak they made and not a conspiracy to push users over to yahoo.
If it’s just a tweak to the Outlook setup then why isn’t AT&T advising clients what changes need to be made? I would assume that the answer is that they look at it as an Outlook issue and not theirs.
I was told by their rep that they have a division within AT&T, I forget their name, that could assist on solving this issue, but they would charge a fee for this service. He stated that there was a solution but I would have to pay for that since the problem was not on AT&T’s end, but Outlook’s. I got so ticked off by this recommendation that I just hung up the phone.
I’m not sure if they would have suggested the change advised above. I can only assume it would have been something as simple, which irritated me even more. Why can they not just advise a simple solution to the problem and assist customers who are experiencing issues? I guess it involves $$$$$$$$$$$.
It’s not a tweak made to outlook – AT&T tweaked their server (according to my sources) which caused the problem to surface in Outlook. (both sides get some of the blame) Thats why it started hitting everyone about 3 – 4 weeks ago. It should only be a problem for people who also check mail using a smartphone or second computer, which may be a small % of Outlook/AT&T users. As to why they aren’t telling users how to fix it – it’s typical tech support. :) The low level guys you talk to first often aren’t told about the problem and are paid to follow the script. If the solution is not in the book, they are limited by liability policies in what they can do or say.
Well, I just had the pop up window appear again after I made the change, but the pop up didn’t appear on my wife’s computer. We share the same service with a router. Any ideas on what to do now??
Do you both share the same mailbox? If so, how often is outlook set to check for new mail?
She has her own email address and password. We have both setting to check for new email every 5 minutes.
BTW, we’ve been using Outlook 2003 since approx. 2004 and have had the settings set to check emails every 1 minute. I just recently changed it to 5 minutes thinking that might have solved the problem, but it obviously didn’t.
Just thinking of the top of my head…..when I made the changes to my POP3 and SMTP settings, should I have also deleted the registry password key in the Protected Storage System Provider folder and then reenter my password in the setup?
I don’t think you need to edit the pss unless it’s corrupt – but when you changed the server names, it should have asked you to re-enter the password.
what version of windows?
We recommend using 8 – 10 min, or higher. However, all that will do is reduce the frequency of the dialog.
Do you sync with smartphones? if not, i’d try deleting the protected storage key.
Windows XP
Since you have Windows XP, try the protected storage fix.
My computer went all evening without the pop up window appearing. When I sat down at my computer this morning….there it was!!
I’ll try to remove the subkey in the Protected Storage folder and report back.
Did you reboot? It’s weird that it worked yesterday and now doesn’t.
I reapplied the corrections and rebooted again. I’ll report back when I have something.
Did any of the settings change? It’s sometimes my experience that windows update forces outlook closed (aka crashes it) and when this happens, outlook settings can be lost. This latest round of windows updates (for win7) did not reload outlook on boot, which leads me to think outlook did not close cleanly.
What I did was:
1. Closed Outlook
2. Saved the Protect Storage file to my desktop
3. Remove the subkey under the Protect Storage file in the registry
4. Rebooted the computer
5. Went into the control panel, opened the Mail folder and reentered my password in the Outlook setup. However, the password was already there indicated by ******. Which makes me think that after I went through all the procedures above, shouldn’t the space for the password be blank?
I get the same problem at my works PC, what I think most people are missing is that the password being asked for is the NETWORK PASSWORD, not one for emails. We dont have any Network Passwords on our Computer
So far, no pop up windows. Fingers crossed.
THANK YOU. I’ve been fighting this for a few weeks. THIS change finally worked (fingers crossed.)
I was using pop/smtp.att.yahoo.com; I tried the inbound/outbound.att.net. Both of those caused the same problems. I had messed with the registry; recreated all accounts, etc. But this change seems to work.
I found this artical on Apple’s support site: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2621
In case you can’t read the artical, it points out that POP3 is not designed to support simultaneous connections.
This supports the earlier comment that turning off the iPhone may solve the problem with Outlook.
I would suspect a bug in Outlook where it pops up the password dialog but keeps trying to log into the mail server while displaying the password dialog. When I have seen the problem, cancelling the password dialog does not cancel checking for mail, and it eventually succeedes.
What Outlook should do is probably keep retrying longer before giving up and then display the correct error message. (This may not be as simple as it seems, I took a quick look at the specifications for POP mail and don’t see a provision to tell the caller that the user is already logged in).
Hope this helps clarify the situation a little.
Correct, POP3 does not support simultaneous connections. A lock is put on the mailbox during the download process and this lock prevents other clients from checking mail at the same time. Outlook is (and always has been) a bit slower at releasing the lock than other clients plus servers can control how long a lock stays once the client releases it. One of the people who first brought the problem to my attention believes that AT&T updated their servers to hold the lock longer in an attempt to encourage people to switch over to yahoo servers. That theory makes sense to me. Theory 2 is they lengthened the lock to reduce server load – it’s cheaper than adding more server capacity and most users won’t notice, because they check mail less frequently.
I’m not sure I would call the dialog a bug in outlook but cancelling the dialog only cancels the current check – the next one will succeed or fail on schedule. Reducing the frequencies of mail checks on all devices will reduce the frequencies of the dialog. However, Outlook could handle it better and stop trying sooner or waitng longer before trying again.
I like to use odd times for autochecks, not every 5 or 10 min. If two devices overlap once, they will always overlap. If one is set for 7 min and one for 9, they’ll be on different schedules and as long as the server doesn’t keep a lock open after the device closes the connection, all is well. Higher numbers also help – 11 and 15 min checks will reduce the chances of overlap.
Hi Diane
After our conversation on the other Microsoft forum I spoke with British Telecom’s Yahoo support in their Indian call centre and they apparently working on the Yahoo servers to correct the fault, he was supposed to call me back tonight at 6pm GMT but didn’t call? So far this evening there have been no messages so do I deduce from this that they might have resolved the server issues? Time will tell but I do take a lot of what BT/Yahoo say with a pinch of salt.
Thanks for the update.
I have had this problem intermittently for many years. It started with Bellsouth and then AT&T aquired that company. It has been driving me absolutely bonkers and never have I seen a solution that works. Years ago I paid Microsoft to try to help me and their techie told me to run msconfig and uncheck one of the startup processed. It worked for at least a couple of years.
Does anybody know what process that might have been? I can’t remember.
Thank you. I was having intermittent problems between Outlook and att.net. Unplugged by Iphone as you suggested – - – and viola, fixed.