Switching over email without old info

[Krynn72]

So I set up a PC at a client's home so she could do some remote work (those Lenovo Tiny in One setups are slick). Its a very small business IT-wise. Before this their entire business had one single computer in their office. They have one email address for clients to email in orders and such.

When it was time to set up their email at the home PC, I just got crickets when I asked what their password was. They have it saved in Outlook 2003 on their office PC, and amazingly have never needed to retype it.

Problem is I think they set up their email and hosting through an old ISP (ChoiceOne) that, from my research had undergone a name change, then got bought out by EarthLink, who was then bought out by Windstream.

I called up Windstream and the guys I talked to had never heard of ChoiceOne and straight up said they can't help me with a password reset.

So I'm a bit out of my element with this kind of stuff, and wondering how you guys would handle it from here? Keep chasing down this legacy ISP to reset the password? Switch them over to something else? Can I even change the mx records without this password?

 

[allanc]

So I set up a PC at a client's home so she could do some remote work (those Lenovo Tiny in One setups are slick). Its a very small business IT-wise. Before this their entire business had one single computer in their office. They have one email address for clients to email in orders and such.

When it was time to set up their email at the home PC, I just got crickets when I asked what their password was. They have it saved in Outlook 2003 on their office PC, and amazingly have never needed to retype it.

Problem is I think they set up their email and hosting through an old ISP (ChoiceOne) that, from my research had undergone a name change, then got bought out by EarthLink, who was then bought out by Windstream.

I called up Windstream and the guys I talked to had never heard of ChoiceOne and straight up said they can't help me with a password reset.

So I'm a bit out of my element with this kind of stuff, and wondering how you guys would handle it from here? Keep chasing down this legacy ISP to reset the password? Switch them over to something else? Can I even change the mx records without this password?

MailPassView?

 

[Krynn72]

MailPassView?

... have you used this tool? I'm going to feel like a complete newb if this tool is common knowledge because I've never heard of it.

It would make this so much easier.

 

[Archon Prime]

I use it a lot. Especially for customers that think they know their password, but really don't. Some ISP's I prefer not to deal with. I launch Mailpassview and done.

 

[allanc]

... have you used this tool? I'm going to feel like a complete newb if this tool is common knowledge because I've never heard of it.

It would make this so much easier.

All the time.
It is available at NirSoft.
Edit: A/V love to flag it.
Also provides POP/SMTP server names, Port #, SSL status, etc.

 

[PR Tech]

We use it on a regular basis as well. It really helps cut down on the back and forth with customers.

 

[Porthos]

I'm going to feel like a complete newb if this tool is common knowledge because I've never heard of it.

 

[GTP]

... have you used this tool? I'm going to feel like a complete newb if this tool is common knowledge because I've never heard of it.

It would make this so much easier.

Download the complete Nirsoft Suite and see what else you're missing.

 

[glennd]

... have you used this tool? I'm going to feel like a complete newb if this tool is common knowledge because I've never heard of it.

It would make this so much easier.

It's the tool that Fabs uses to retrieve email passwords. And if Fabs uses it, it must be good, right?!!

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Switch them over to something else? Can I even change the mx records without this password?

Obtaining their old/current POP password to get them up and running "for now" should be a temporary task.
Once you get their email up and flowing....I would then focus on moving their email to a new supportable host. Such as Office 365.

Their POP mail password (or IMAP or even hosted Exchange if that's what it is) is nothing to do with their DNS records (such as their MX record). What you'll need is to find their registrar for their domain, and from there...find where their DNS control panel is..and log into it. Once you have access to that, you can move on to migrating their email to a supportable host.

 

[Tech Savvy]

Obtaining their old/current POP password to get them up and running "for now" should be a temporary task.
Once you get their email up and flowing....I would then focus on moving their email to a new supportable host. Such as Office 365.

Their POP mail password (or IMAP or even hosted Exchange if that's what it is) is nothing to do with their DNS records (such as their MX record). What you'll need is to find their registrar for their domain, and from there...find where their DNS control panel is..and log into it. Once you have access to that, you can move on to migrating their email to a supportable host.

My impression of the OP was that they have their generic company email through their ISP. Similar to how at least half of my Law Firm clients have an @aol.comaddress. Instead of @aol it would be their ISP i.e. @comcast, @optimum.net... @choiceone. *shriek*

I’m not sure, but that’s the impression I got, in which makes seamless migration impossible. They’d need to setup forwarding to the new address or at the very least, run both in parallel only replying from the new address. :/

 

[fencepost]

Yes, shifting them to a new more professional email setup can be a slow process, but it's not going to get any faster so sooner started, sooner done. The old address may stay around for years yet, but if you can get it down to a trickle of messages, eventually your client will realize that everything coming in on the old one is junk mail and agree to get rid of it.

Also, assuming you're using Outlook you can likely set up a filter so that any message coming in to the old email address gets highlighted or flagged so the user can be provided with the new address.

 

[Krynn72]

They actually do have their own domain. They've got an info@businessname.com address. From what I could garner their ISP did everything for them, phones, internet, web site hosting and email. The owners are very hands off when it comes to tech, which is a blessing and a curse as it's easy to get them to do the right things but it also means that they have no idea how their previous techs/administrators handled anything. This was all set up by their sons now ex wife some 10ish years ago!

It's using POP which... Uhg. Yeah this set up is a ticking time bomb. In fact, it's unexploded WWII ordinance sitting under their building. Once they said they didn't know the password I knew I had to start tip toeing around.

Going to meet with them this weekend to discuss it.

 

[Krynn72]

So I'm now a few more hours into this. I was able to get their password, find their Domain control panel and log in, and sign them up for O365 with email.

I tried to migrate them, but I got stuck. Right now MS *should* have control of the domain DNS, but its still not working right. From O365 I can send out emails, but not receive. Yet their POP email setup in Outlook 2003 is still 100% working, send and receive.

I suspect its something to do with the fact that when it said to copy over records from the registrar, I shouldn't have copied over all of them. Attached is a screen cap of the settings I copied over. Before I go fumbling around, can anyone confirm that is this probably why its not working?

 

[fencepost]

Is the registrar pointing to MS for DNS and has it propagated? You say you had MS copy the settings, but did you also change to having MS handle the domain registration?

 

[Krynn72]

Is the registrar pointing to MS for DNS and has it propagated? You say you had MS copy the settings, but did you also change to having MS handle the domain registration?

The only settings I changed on the registrar side was adding a mx record for verification so MS could take control, and changing out the name servers from Dotster's own, to the 4 MS provided.

 

[fencepost]

What is/was the TTL on the records on the old name servers? You may just be hitting mostly cached records.

 

[fencepost]

Actually, based on the info in the picture I'm not sure the name servers got updated on the domain registration. Whois (via mxtoolbox.com) still shows them pointing to Dotster, and I'm pretty sure propagation is generally faster than that even if technically it's allowed 24H (IIRC).

 

[frase]

Do they need to change/update the MX records as well?

 

[Krynn72]

Actually, based on the info in the picture I'm not sure the name servers got updated on the domain registration. Whois (via mxtoolbox.com) still shows them pointing to Dotster, and I'm pretty sure propagation is generally faster than that even if technically it's allowed 24H (IIRC).

Yeah, that is strange. I definitely removed the dotster name servers, I triple checked it when I starting having issues. During setup with O365 it also wouldn't let me proceed until I removed the dotster ones and only had the 4 from MS.

Do they need to change/update the MX records as well?

Who, dotster? I don't recall doing anything on Dotster's end to the MX records. I'd check and confirm but suddenly the password I have stopped working...