Network Solutions web provider

This is an unusual approach for what seems to be rotating some probably-expiring security certificates.

Expiring security certificates is not unusual, as those certificates increasingly expire yearly, and variously more often than that.

There are other similar reports to yours posted around the ‘net, involving other mail servers within that same domain.

I’d keep the suggested change in mind, and would ignore going through the change and would watch and see what happens with arriving mail after the cut-over date.

If your existing mail server is that same host, then removing and re-adding the account is harmless.

And use of IMAP is commonly recommended over POP, as the latter downloads mail to the first mail client requesting it that of all clients that might be sharing that same mail server account.

I would also consider finding a different mail provider.

I have had POP email addresses forever and for my own idiosyncratic reasons I don't want to change them. Here's how I manage them so that nothing is lost:

• On all email clients on all devices, I download incoming emails but leave copies on the server for 30 days. So all incoming emails go to all devices and there is no "download race." At any given time, the last 30 days of emails are still on the server, so if there is some issue or emergency, the most recent emails are all available.
• All email clients on all devices are set to bcc the sender on all sent emails. So all emails sent from all devices are available on all devices.
• My Macs are set up to update bootable backup drives every night, so all of my downloaded emails are saved.

It's not the right way or wrong way but my way, and it works well enough for me! As for the Network Solutions server update issue, see my reply earlier today.

TW2210 wrote:

Is the email regarding a change in the SSL certificate for Network Solutions Apple customers real?

https://www.networksolutions.com/knowledge

Open a Customer Support Request | Network Solutions

Network Solutions/Customer service

1 (800) 333-7680

I received a similar email, though my deadline is October 13th. I also checked Network Solution's website, where there is no mention of the change. So I tried calling.

After 30 minutes on hold, I spoke to a customer service representative who barely spoke English. She confirmed that the email is legit, but when I started asking more technical questions she was clueless. I ended up hanging up in frustration.

I've decided to wait this one out. If things stop working I will fix them.

What I don't understand is why I have to delete the account on my Apple device before applying the new settings? I should be able to update the mailservers without deleting the account. (Something I have done many times.)

Oh, I agree with you about that! NS is shameless, relentless, misleading with their upselling.

I once clicked on the big blue button instead of the tiny gray button and instantly signed up for an NS service that was expensive and useless. No way to cancel online. Nope, I had to call NS and waste another half hour of my life to cancel the service. They didn't let me out easily. Since then I am very careful when I'm on their website.

Let's hope someone else has more luck than we have had.

I too received this notice from NS (October 6th changeof settings) and thought it was spam. I forwarded the email to NS and have not heard back. I did not change any of the settings on my desktop Mac and "mail" seems to be working fine. However, this morning I tried to send an email from my iPhone, and it would not send stating the certificate could not be trusted. I did not change anything on the iPhone settings but I do see that the certificate reads that the host is *.hostingplatform.com. I am not sure how this happened and even though I dread calling NS, I will try later. I fear if make this change more damage will be done. I do really despise NS and although I think it's better to change mail providers, I am not sure which one to use.

For the certificate error, you can remove and re-add the mail account which resets the server connection, or can potentially access a website protected by the same certificate (possibly your webmail?) and accept and mark it trusted there. (It’s still odd that any of this is necessary.)

I’m using MacHighway for hosting, which has been stable for the last several years (they had a rough patch a while back), and haven’t been inclined to look elsewhere.

POP is a mess and downloads stuff locally, yes.

Which makes multiple clients sharing a mail account into a race, figuring out which client checked first and scored the download, while all the others get a consolation prize of a download error or missing out entirely.

Apple is also making POP harder to get at, particularly when both POP and IMAP are available.

And if you have the option to switch from POP to IMAP, I'd recommend that switch to IMAP.

Hi TW2210, I got the same email at all of the addresses for my Network Solutions POP email accounts. The way Netsol handles this is terrible and wasted an afternoon of my time hunting down information when the solution is actually straightforward and didn't involve deleting any accounts. The deadline to change my accounts was today, and everything is working smoothly with no emails lost. Details:

The emails Netsol sent all stated simply that the incoming and outgoing servers needed to be updated to new addresses before 10-18-2021. However, the servers in the emails were clickable links. Clicking them took me to a page in Safari stating that these servers were not to be trusted -- which of course made me think they were phishing lures.

I logged in on Network Solutions' site and hunted around for information. This led me to the horrible, confusing help page they have for Apple devices with hard-to-follow instructions claiming that accounts needed to be deleted, emails moved, etc. I read these multiple times and couldn't make heads or tails of why any of this was needed. Finally, I checked all 4 of my Netsol email addresses and confirmed that they had all received the same Netsol email, and decided to just go with the email instructions to simply change the incoming and outgoing servers.

I changed the server names on my 2 Macs, 2 iPhones, and iPad. All was working fine 2 days before the deadline, and everything is working fine post-deadline, which is today, October 18. I did not have to change passwords, SSL settings, ports, or anything. And the same messages that were left on the server were present at the new server address. No issues, no errors.

FYI on POP: All of my email clients are set up to leave messages on the server for 30 days before deleting them, and all sent mail is bcc'd to the sender. This gives me a pseudo-IMAP setup and the ability to retrieve the most recent emails online if needed. And all of the downloaded emails on the desktop are backed up daily. As I said, the 30 days of emails for each email account were still present on the servers after I made the server name changes.

I hope all of this helps! And, very poor job, Netsol!

The email from Network Solutions about SSL certificate update was real. But mine said to use: mail1.hostingplatform.com And since updating, my Network Solutions email does not work at all in Mac Mail. I've spent days trying to fix it, and am going to give up using NS for email. I'll check on the the NS website to see my domain email. And when renewal times comes up, I won't renew NS.

When I asked for help, NS did point out that my email was working on their website, so my email problem isn't my fault. It has something to do with my settings in Mac Mail.

But I'd also like to point out that NS sends you a link to doc at knowledge.web that is supposed to help you set up in Mac Mail, but the doc is like 10 years old and has wrong information.

Make sure you’re on at least High Sierra for recent public root certificates, as El Capitan and older require extra manual steps to update the local root certificate list.

As for NS, this whole sequence seems unusual, and my best guess is that they’re migrating to new new host domains for their mail servers.

The host cited in the previous reply here by emmyluty22 is presenting what is a bogus (untrusted) certificate. That’s not going to work anywhere, as the host you’re connecting to is not the host listed in the certificate. That can be fixed with a new certificate that lists all the host names, and that might work if you reconfigure your email to connect and use the domain networksolutionsemail.com, as the certificate offered by that server will match any subdomain host name *.networksolutionsemail.com. That’s a guess too, as I’m not going to poke further at that server.

emmyluty22 wrote:

Do you think the server info NS gave me is bogus: mail1.hostingplatform.com I even went on their chat service and they said it was correct. Yikes.

When I click the link you provided—and click in to continue—

it takes me to this blank page:

https://www1.networksolutionsemail.com/edgedesk/cgi-bin/login.exe?xsl=login.xsl&bind=mail1.hostingplatform.com

Obviously associate with your < 1.networksolutionsmail.com >

The source code is blank/ the cgi (common gateway Interface) is broke or changed

I will add if you are not the OP ( TW2210 ), you are better off starting your own thread if you have an issue.

emmyluty22 wrote:

Do you think the server info NS gave me is bogus: mail1.hostingplatform.com I even went on their chat service and they said it was correct. Yikes.

I’m looking at the certificate associated with that hostingplatform host name. There’s a mismatch. Whatever the intention here might be, either that host name is wrong, or the certificate is wrong. My TLS tools ⚠️ lit up at that pairing. If the intent was to support several host names, then a multiple-domain certificate would be typical. I didn’t poke at the DNS translations to manually confirm that.