Imap port 993 blocked somehow

[tankman1989]

Somehow my Outlook and Thunderbird stopped working all of the sudden. I can not use port 993 and the Outlook message says that it may be my ISP blocking the port. I thought it was my email host but I tried connecting to Gmail and it did the same thing. I then thought it had to be my ISP so switched ISP connections and it is doing the same thing. So after looking at these facts I have figured that it has to be something within the PC.

I looked at the firewall and didn't see anything related to port 993 or Imap. I didn't have any 3rd party firewall software installed when this started but have since installed an Internet security suite and that isn't blocking anything.

I've searched for solutions and most results are not relevant to my issue.

I tried this process on another Win 7 machine and it works fine. I completely replicated the working process, on a new install of Thunderbird on both machines, and my main desktop isn't allowing any account verification or checking. I've also tried on another Win 7 machine that is running on VMware Player, on the same desktop that isn't working. It won't work on that machine either.

BTW, port 995 (POP) works fine.

Can anyone give me some suggestions as to where to look or what else to test to verify where the problem lies?

Could this be something to do with the network card?

Also, I've looked at the router and there are no rules set up to filter this port from this machine.

 

[tankman1989]

try testing imap with telnet to verify port 993 is down
or
run a ncat / netcat listener on other pc on 993 and try connecting to it

turn off firewall. repeat above

safe mode

remove 3rd party security suite

unlikely network card, but no harm in trying a different one

is your router filtering per pc so blocking that connection ?

Thanks a lot for the help Alice!

Router isn't blocking. I tried a direct internet connection to a different ISP/modem and it still didn't work.

Doesn't work with firewall off, or 3rd party software removed.

I ran this command:

c:>telnet imap.1and1.com imap

I don't know what to do after that. I expected a prompt of some kind. I am able to input text but don't know what to put in.

I also tried it from a Linux VM running on the same machine (so it MIGHT not have the same problem, although the VM running Win 7 isn't working either) This is what I got:

I'm not sure about the netcat thing, do you mean run it from the machine that is connecting/working and have it "look" at the machine that isn't?

I tried to download ncat (for windows) and I can't use it b/c ESET see's it as a threat that can't be allowed to be used (auto delete). I did install nmap and I could install CygWin if I need to.

 

[Markverhyden]

What is the exact message?

Did you look in event viewer to see what it said?

Also, I never recommend people to install those "take care of everything" security suites. I've seen the bork Windows a number of times and a nuke and pave is the only solution. Unless you have a full backup prior to the installation.

 

[tankman1989]

I checked event viewer and there is nothing strange going on. It shows Outlook loading fine and doesn't even report the error message when it shows up.

As for the security suite, this all started happening 45 days before the security suite was installed. I was upgrading my AV and decided to go with the security suite for a few reasons but that was only a couple days ago so I don't see that being a factor.

I tried the "telnet imap.1and1.com 993" and it just goes to a blank screen for about 30 seconds and then back to the command prompt like it was timing out. I think this is similar to what is happening when I try to check email and when I try to set up accounts.

What I can't seem to get my head around is why my virtual machine in VMware player is acting the same way. It has a different IP address and everything. The only same thing is the NIC.

I'm going to try switching to a different NIC and see if that doesn't fix anything. Could something be binding to the NIC somehow?

Alice, you put in the IP address: 172.16.0.101 for the nmap. What is that about? Am I supposed to substitute my IP for that one? I' sorry I don't know anything about port scanning and nmap/wireshark/etc is all crazy foreign to me.

 

[tankman1989]

I disabled my primary NIC and tried a different one and still no dice.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

What I can't seem to get my head around is why my virtual machine in VMware player is acting the same way. It has a different IP address and everything. The only same thing is the NIC.

Well depends how you have the vmware network set doesnt it? like theres a mode that makes it act seperate then theres the one that shares the host connection. I'm not at home right now so I don't remember the choices.

One tool I like to use is smsniff, a very basic basic sniffer.

 

[tankman1989]

Well depends how you have the vmware network set doesnt it? like theres a mode that makes it act seperate then theres the one that shares the host connection. I'm not at home right now so I don't remember the choices.

One tool I like to use is smsniff, a very basic basic sniffer.

I tried the VM in NAT and bridged mode and it doesn't work in either.

If this is a port problem, could this have anything to do with the OS loading the same port (on the OS) in the same memory address every boot time? Could something be screwed up here? I'm running an SSD so IDK if that might make a difference.

 

[Markverhyden]

The error in event viewer is a fairly frequent for port related connection issues. But since you are not seeing it on other machines on the LAN and the same machine has an issue on another connection it has to be local on the machine.

What I would do is remove the certificate from the target machine. It may be trying to transmit a corrupted cert to authenticate a session.

Run certmgr.msc from cli to get to the manager. By removing it when you try connecting next it should force a download of a new cert.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

thought about that cert thing but he said he was able to connect via pop3 ssl

 

[SAG]

netstat -an (or other port checking stuff) not reporting anything?

First - rule out your hardware.
Boot a linux live CD and configure thunderchicken. If it works, then you know it is your winders install.

If it is your winders install, completely disable security software and test.

 

[Markverhyden]

thought about that cert thing but he said he was able to connect via pop3 ssl

Most large(r) providers separate imap from pop. His event veiwer showed imap.land1.com so my guess is pop is different. But you comment caused me to go back and review the posts. He had also tried connecting to GMail so that is a completely different server and cert. So it makes me wonder if the Certificate Services is somehow borked.