275289 - "Please enter a valid hostname." but nothing is valid

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(Thunderbird :: Account Manager, defect)

Description

[Phil Wolff]

see also bugs 238595, 213791, 259187. 

When creating a new POP3 account, nothing entered is returned as valid. Neither
yahoo nor gmail accounts (working in other clients) were accepted. 

There is no way to continue with the account creation; it forces you to back
out. imho, this is unacceptable app behavior; you should be able to save
whatever info you've created in the account.

Comment 1

[Joel Bush]

I am experiencing this same problem. While creating a new account, I get the
error alert "Please enter a valid hostname" when I attempt to progress beyond
the Server information dialogue box. I am completely stuck at this point. The
server type is POP3 and the hostname is pop.ipa.net What's up? 

From the support forum: "Can you confirm with your ISP what your POP3 server
name is supposed to be, the SMTP server you are supposed to be using and your
username?

***I have confirmed them and they are the same ones I have been using for
several years.


Q. What operating system are you using?

***Microsoft XP Professional with SP 1 installed.

Q. At what point of the account setup process do you receive the "Please enter a
valid hostname" message?

***It occurs when I try to click "next" on the "server information" dialogue
box, no matter what I enter into the "incoming server" textbox.

Q. Do you have any other Thunderbird accounts using that mail server?

***I do not.

Q. Can you workaround the bug by creating an account using other values, and
after its created change the server name etc.? 

***No, I can't get past the server information dialogue box, no matter what I
enter."

Comment 2

[Darek T.]

Recently I have decided to change may email client from Outlook Express to
Mozilla Thunderbird. Unfortunately, I have run into a problem which I guess, we
can live with.

My problem arises from necessity to share a computer (at home) with other
members of my family. As part of the package with our Internet connection, the
ISP is providing us with up to 5 email addresses, so every member of the family
can have their own mail box.

I hope it wont surprise anyone by stating that the email server names are same
for every one of us. The incoming mail server might be "pop.mail.com" and the
outgoing server "smtp.mail.com". Of course every one of us has been assigned its
own user name, same for incoming and outgoing mail server. So the user names
might be "father", "mother", "son" and "daughter". So the email addresses might
look like this - "[e-mail]", "[e-mail]"......and so on.

I have managed to setup separate identities in the Thunderbird, with separate
"incoming mail servers" settings for every user. However, the "outgoing mail
server" can be set once only (under single name like "smtp.mail.com") and is
shared between all users. I can not specify separate "outgoing mail server's
user name" for each user using the same mail server (or rather mail server with
identical name)

Receiving mail works like a charm. However, the mail sending does not.

When I create new mail as the  "father", I select in the "From:" field from a
pull down list as the "[e-mail]". Then type the message and press send.

The problem is that the IPS has extra security checking for sending mail. What
it does, it checks the body of the email for the "From:" info (in my case
"[e-mail]") with the user name supplied with the outgoing mail server,
which is different for every mail account (father, mother, son, daughter....). 

So, since in thunderbird account setup I can specify only ONE user name for the
outgoing server (shared by rest of the family), I can send mail only from one
account, the one which user name is specified in the Account Setup/outgoing Server.

One solution might be to change ISP to one that does not provide the extra level
of security, but its like living your house open after loosing the keys.

The other is to setup duplicate "outgoing servers" (Tools/Account
Settings/Outgoing Server SMTP/Advanced/Add....)with exactly same server name but
different user name, one for each family member. Then its only matter of luck or
perseverance to align each user with the appropriate (seemingly identical)
server (Tools/Account Settings/Server Settings(for a particular user - not the
global outgoing)/Advanced/SMTP.....pull down the list and play the Russian
roulette! Good Luck! I have made it and it works!!!

PS: Would it not be nice in next versions, to be able to specify the outgoing
servers specifications separately for each identity? May be under the same tab
that the incoming server specifications are listed now? But that would be to
logical, wouldn't it? (to much Outlook Express?)

Or at least being able to name the outgoing servers so there is no confusion in
case of multiple users sharing the same outgoing server name but with different
user name.

Comment 3

[David :Bienvenu]

In 1.1, you can manage multiple identities fairly easily, so in a sense, this is
fixed on the trunk.

Comment 4

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
this problem in the latest version of the product (see below for how to obtain a
copy) or, for feature requests, if it's not present in the latest version and
you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
(given at the top of this mail) and add a comment to that effect, giving more
reproduction information if you have it.

If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
changed in any way in the next two weeks, it will be automatically resolved.
Thank you for your help in this matter.

The latest beta releases can be obtained from:
Firefox:     http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/
Thunderbird: http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/releases/1.5beta1.html
Seamonkey:   http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Comment 5

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This bug has been automatically resolved after a period of inactivity (see above
comment). If anyone thinks this is incorrect, they should feel free to reopen it.