Yahoo, you suck

[suityou01]

My mate in the seychelles (contracting) has had a lot of problems with email, chiefly outbound email. It would appear that the whole Island uses one SMTP server

And once you know this, it works.

However

The pop3 side of things has stopped working.

Problem 1, local seychelles DNS server does not list pop3.mail.yahoo.co.uk
Solution, add host hack to local hosts file. Sorted

Problem 2, pop3.mail.yahoo.co.uk does not accept my friends credentials (EVEN THOUGH YOU CAN LOG INTO WEB MAIL using them )
Solution, the yank server .com does work

Problem 3, local seychelles DNS server does not list the yank server
Intended solution, do another host hack.

Problem 3, cannot obtain ip address of said yank server.

In conclusion, yahoo, your mail service sucks ass and I hate you so passionately I could throw my sofa across the room you utter utter *u***

[Durbs]

Problem 1, local seychelles DNS server does not list pop3.mail.yahoo.co.uk
Solution, add host hack to local hosts file. Sorted

So why not set his PC/Router to use one of the billions of open DNS servers that DO?

[NickFitz]

pop3.mail.yahoo.co.uk isn't a valid server name - try pop.mail.yahoo.co.uk.

EDIT:

; <<>> DiG 9.6.0-APPLE-P2 <<>> pop.mail.yahoo.co.uk a +multiline +nocomments +nocmd +noquestion +nostats +search
;; global options: +cmd
pop.mail.yahoo.co.uk.	503 IN CNAME pop.eu.mail.yahoo.com.
pop.eu.mail.yahoo.com.	503 IN CNAME pop1.mail.vip.ukl.yahoo.com.
pop1.mail.vip.ukl.yahoo.com. 1343 IN A 217.146.176.233

although Y!'s network will probably want send you to somewhere "near" your "location" (on t'Internet, not necessarily in TRW) so that IP address probably won't work for your friend.

EDIT 2: Have you looked at Y! Mail's help pages?

[AtW]

[suityou01]

pop3.mail.yahoo.co.uk isn't a valid server name - try pop.mail.yahoo.co.uk.

EDIT:

; <<>> DiG 9.6.0-APPLE-P2 <<>> pop.mail.yahoo.co.uk a +multiline +nocomments +nocmd +noquestion +nostats +search
;; global options: +cmd
pop.mail.yahoo.co.uk.	503 IN CNAME pop.eu.mail.yahoo.com.
pop.eu.mail.yahoo.com.	503 IN CNAME pop1.mail.vip.ukl.yahoo.com.
pop1.mail.vip.ukl.yahoo.com. 1343 IN A 217.146.176.233

although Y!'s network will probably want send you to somewhere "near" your "location" (on t'Internet, not necessarily in TRW) so that IP address probably won't work for your friend.

EDIT 2: Have you looked at Y! Mail's help pages?

Tried everything

pop3.yahoo.com/.co.uk
pop.yahoo.co.uk/com

Yes I read the help pages plus a myriad other "help" sites.

He was in a hotel with metered web access so I was up against the clock, and I was using a very shaky connection using gotomeeting desktop sharing.

All in all a stressful experience. I got his credentials working here in blighty, but not from the seychelles.

[suityou01]

So why not set his PC/Router to use one of the billions of open DNS servers that DO?

yeah thanks for that. I did do a host hack, and got the mail servers pinging ok, but then they refused his details, even though they were correct.

[NickFitz]

pop.mail.yahoo.com resolves to... well, have a look:

; <<>> DiG 9.6.0-APPLE-P2 <<>> pop.mail.yahoo.com a +multiline +nocomments +nocmd +noquestion +nostats +search
;; global options: +cmd
pop.mail.yahoo.com.	405 IN CNAME pop.plus.mail.yahoo.com.
pop.plus.mail.yahoo.com. 59 IN CNAME pop.plus.mail.fy4.b.yahoo.com.
pop.plus.mail.fy4.b.yahoo.com. 59 IN A 206.190.53.11

You could give that final hostname, or the IP address, a try.

[suityou01]

pop.mail.yahoo.com resolves to... well, have a look:

; <<>> DiG 9.6.0-APPLE-P2 <<>> pop.mail.yahoo.com a +multiline +nocomments +nocmd +noquestion +nostats +search
;; global options: +cmd
pop.mail.yahoo.com.	405 IN CNAME pop.plus.mail.yahoo.com.
pop.plus.mail.yahoo.com. 59 IN CNAME pop.plus.mail.fy4.b.yahoo.com.
pop.plus.mail.fy4.b.yahoo.com. 59 IN A 206.190.53.11

You could give that final hostname, or the IP address, a try.

Pinging rc.europe.fyeu.b.yahoo.com [87.248.121.75] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 87.248.121.75: bytes=32 time=53ms TTL=54
Reply from 87.248.121.75: bytes=32 time=41ms TTL=54
Reply from 87.248.121.75: bytes=32 time=72ms TTL=54
Reply from 87.248.121.75: bytes=32 time=46ms TTL=54

Ping statistics for 87.248.121.75:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 41ms, Maximum = 72ms, Average = 53ms

Plus, did I not mention, that host was refusing his credentials?

Thanks for trying Nick. I can host hack his pc, but until yahoo sort there lame asses out I cannot help him.

[NickFitz]

Plus, did I not mention, that host was refusing his credentials?

That's the weird bit. Yahoo user credentials are kept in UDB (User database) which is implemented as a massively-distributed filesystem: if you log in on the opposite side of the world from where you normally do, UDB will be able to find and confirm your information within seconds, max, and then keep it cached (fairly) locally to where you are. If he can log in OK to Yahoo! itself, then UDB knows who he is, so I can't see why Mail would have trouble authenticating him

[suityou01]

That's the weird bit. Yahoo user credentials are kept in UDB (User database) which is implemented as a massively-distributed filesystem: if you log in on the opposite side of the world from where you normally do, UDB will be able to find and confirm your information within seconds, max, and then keep it cached (fairly) locally to where you are. If he can log in OK to Yahoo! itself, then UDB knows who he is, so I can't see why Mail would have trouble authenticating him

You have cottoned on to why I am so frakin annoyed

How, and I mean HOW, can it work on yahoo.com and not .co.uk mail servers? It's just not right, bloody annoying, really crap, yahoo sucks ass.