Update your Bluewin email settings now

I’m already looking forward to all the great calls 🙂

Your hotliners will definitely be too 😉

We will be making a few more “tightening measures” in the next few weeks/months. Unfortunately it’s always a tightrope act, but it has to be done.

So: help your families and friends make the necessary settings. Thanks for that.

Guido

Yes, by the way, I think it’s very good that it’s announced here in advance!

So you know right from the start what it’s about when the first calls come.

If you only hear something like that paraphrased “2nd hand” by someone on the phone without seeing it, you might not know at first glance (or “listen”) whether it’s a real message or some kind of phishing scam. attempt is.

As expected, we are now receiving inquiries about this topic.

Here are a few questions and comments:

1. What I would be interested in is how long in the past the last unencrypted access has to be so that you do NOT receive this email.

For example, today I had two cases of customers whose mail client was set up to be encrypted, but whose PCs (new devices) we set up not too long ago. This means that at most the connection was not encrypted on the old previous device.

One of these devices was set up in early April and another in February.

2. Some of the customers initially called the Swisscom hotline and were not particularly enthusiastic. Everyone should probably be redirected to MyService.

3. With a customer who ran this mail updater tool from Swisscom, I later came across this:

It looks to me as if the mail updater installed an older version of Thunderbird parallel to the existing, newer version.

Accordingly, there were two desktop icons and the different versions always tried to snatch the “standard mail client” from each other, which led to permanent corresponding messages.

If this Swisscom update tool actually does something like that, you might have to go to the books 😉

Simple questions, simple answers:

1: We took a thirty-day period in February/March in which the customers were selected. It can therefore happen that a device has been set up perfectly and you still receive an email. Unfortunately, there will be so few false notifications that I can live with it.

2: Email accounts on your own devices is not a free support service. Should be normal, I think. That’s why we offer customers MyService if they don’t want to or can’t do it alone. We offer all information on our homepage.

3: If you send me the specific case, I can pass it on internally. The company that developed the tool will then take a look at it. I’m not a Windows expert, but I’m surprised that you can install the same software twice. Or is she using a Mac, it should be possible there.

Great, thank you.

Regarding 1: Yes, I assumed, given the time, plus-minus also fits. This means that these are actually customers who still had the outdated settings on their old devices (which they no longer have).

Regarding 2: I basically see it that way too. (As a provider of paid support services, we are essentially a profiteer.) However, customers sometimes have a slightly different opinion. It probably also has to do with Swisscom’s image. (The customer assumes that he is paying a higher price in order to be able to claim a more comprehensive support service in case of doubt. At least that is what I hear from customers.)

Regarding 3.: This is Windows 10. I suspect the regular Thunderbird installer would not allow a double installation or at least not “encourage” it, i.e. it would normally do an update.

Therefore, it is conceivable that the mail update tool performs some irregular installation method.
It may also be because the version installed later is an older version. This means that the Thunderbird installer may not allow you to install an older version over an (already existing) newer version, so in this case there will be a double installation. This raises the question of why the update tool (presumably) tries to install a version that is not the most current.

Unfortunately, I can’t provide any more specific information/investigations because the affected device is at the customer’s home and I therefore have no access to it without “bothering” the customer. (And I don’t want to use them for ‘research purposes’ now.)

A Swisscom update tool that also reinstalls an entire email program without control by the user?

Sounds quite adventurous.

If that were actually the case, it would actually have to be classified as malware.

But it would also be completely unnecessary, since at most the existing Bluewin mail account should be changed or reinstalled within the existing Thunderbird installation.

If the “Updater” not only provides help with the account specifications, but actually actively installs something, only its programmers can probably judge exactly what they actually wanted to do…

By the way, I would recommend that users who are affected by this change not to use any “update software” from anyone, but rather to simply delete the outdated Bluewin account in Thunderbird and then create a new one.

With the new system, Thunderbird itself will automatically install it correctly according to the new standards.

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@Werner wrote:

A Swisscom update tool that also reinstalls an entire email program without control by the user?

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As I said, I don’t know 100% whether this is the case, as I haven’t observed it with my own eyes.

But I at least noticed the “result” shown in the screenshot, along with the customer’s statement that she ran this tool. So that seems somewhat plausible to me.

Apart from that: Yes, deleting an account and creating a new one is of course possible. Or you can simply change the settings in your existing account. You just have to switch from unencrypted to SSL in two places in the drop-down list and change the port numbers. (If these don’t even change themselves, I wasn’t paying any attention.)

Such “tools” are of course basically for the trash. But today, when the “normal user” thinks he can’t follow illustrated instructions in three steps, I can still somewhat understand why they want to fob him off with some kind of tool if they hope to relieve the burden on the hotline.

So if you take the trouble and check out the offers from Swisscom, i.e. E-Mail Updater and looks at my Swisscom Assistant to check whether another Thundebird installation is actually being carried out as described or assumed in the papers here, you find out that this is not the case.

If you change the access data to unencrypted and let the programs guess, you will only find the Outlook installation here. Yes, has the program overlooked Thunderbird?

A careful reading during download then shows: - Compatible with Windows 7, 8.x & 10 / Windows Live Mail, Windows 8 Mail and Office Outlook (2007 - 2019)
- Compatible with Mac OS 10.10, 10.11, 10.12 & 10.13 / Apple Mail, Microsoft® Office 2011, 2016 & 2019.

This means that Thunderbird is neither fixed nor reinstalled in any way.

Such a test takes about 5 minutes. Just in case Swisscom has already sent an incident to their supplier (probably 4 Quadrat or whatever the Össis are now called), just because Swisscom itself has no idea about the programs it offers other than branding. I’m just going to conclude this freely because there hasn’t been a meaningful, qualified reaction from Swisscom so far.

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@Tux0ne wrote:

So if you take the trouble and check out the offers from Swisscom, i.e. E-Mail Updater and my Swisscom Assistant to check whether another Thundebird installation is actually being carried out as described or assumed in the papers here, you find out that this is not the case.

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Interesting. I actually didn’t check it because even a disposable VM is too good for a tool like this (and I also don’t assume that what’s described is “normal behavior” because that would probably have been noticed).

It would now be extremely exciting to know where the second Thunderbird installation ultimately came from.

Their installation date exactly matches that of the Swisscom Assistant (see screenshot) and the customer only “confessed” to the installation/execution of the Swisscom tools and contact with the hotline. (Although they were brushed off at the hotline.)

There was also no Thunderbird installer in the downloads folder, only the installers for Swisscom Assistant and this updater tool, again from the said date.

Based on these “indications”, a connection actually seemed quite likely to me.

yes, exactly. We have received the reports. The app already downloaded for the MAC. But 3 email accounts were not automatically checked. Do I now have to choose the paid version? I mean, that would be a simple thing. After all, this isn’t the first time I’ve set up an email account.

No, if you can set up mail accounts, things are actually quite simple.

Here the data:

Server settings for the mail server | Swisscom

Incoming mail server

IMAP4: imaps.bluewin.ch (Port 993)
POP3: pop3s.bluewin.ch (Port 995)

Outgoing mail server

SMTP: smtpauths.bluewin.ch (Port 465)

password

Authentication: Password, normal or SPA disabled

Otherwise, there are also step-by-step instructions here: [https://www.swisscom.ch/de/privatkunden/hilfe/internet/e-mail-setup-ssl.html#!](https://www.swisscom .ch/de/privatkunden/hilfe/internet/e-mail-setup-ssl.html#!)

Has anyone tried updating the settings manually with Windows live mail 2011 on a Win7 PC? It can’t be that hard, but I can’t manage it. Is this still possible, or is the program simply too old? In the Swisscom instructions only Windows live mail 2012 is shown, an older one is no longer shown…

Thomas

ps: the newly installed Thunderbird works flawlessly…

While the change worked on the new iPhone, it does not work on the iPad 2 (iOS 9.3.5 - a newer OS cannot be installed on it). Since the change, I no longer receive any emails [Error message: "E-mails cannot be received - The mail server “imaps.bluewin.ch” is not responding…"]

How should I proceed? Without a suggested solution, I can’t help my family members with their iPads 2…

Stephen

@StefanZ

Completely delete the Bluewin email account in question in the iPad settings and simply reopen it.

All you need to know is your email address and your mailbox password (Important: This is not the password for your Swisscom login), the rest should then be created correctly again automatically.

@Shorty

Thanks for the quick feedback and the good tip - it worked perfectly!

@StefanZ

Glad the simple tip helped.

By the way, what I find really fascinating about the iPads 2 is that they still run reliably even after 7 years, even with the original battery.

The device was certainly ahead of its time back then and really a great piece of hardware and for nostalgia reasons I also kept one, although the change from the current iPad Pro 11 inch, which I normally use at the moment, back to the iPad 2 is slowing a bit difficult…

If only it were all that easy. The problem starts where, for example, there is a Mac that does not allow a higher operating system than OS X 10.9.5.

I’m almost inclined to say it’s “typically Swisscom”. I always notice that older operating systems are neglected. After all, OS X version 10.9.5 is not exactly “of today” but not ancient either.

@marthi

It’s so easy because the required settings have been around for many years and the email settings have absolutely nothing to do with the operating system.

Just delete the account and reopen it.

I assume the problem is solved under your OS X.