Email error with CenturyLink

[csdude55]

I'm helping my girlfriend's mom get her computer straightened out, and CenturyLink is giving me a headache >:-(

She has several email accounts, and I'm trying to combine them all in to one so that she doesn't have to manually check all of them. The easy option is to forward them all to Gmail, because it has the best filters to move everything around and eliminate YEARS worth of spam.

First, I set her Gmail to download her emails from CenturyLink via the "Accounts and Import" tab. That was easy enough:

Username: [e-mail]
POP3: pop.centurylink.net
Port: 995

There's another option for "Always use secure", but I don't remember the exact verbiage.

It worked the first day, I set up filters, everything was hunky dory. But then today she told me that she's been getting the following error for the last 2 days:

Error in RETR command: system failure: Unable to get content for Message 5305

I googled and found a few references to this error message, but no resolution.

I tried changing the POP3 server to mail.centurylink.net, pop3.centurylink.net, and mail.embarqmail.com. And I tried changing the port to all of the options that Gmail gave me, and tried removing the "Always use secure" option, so I ended up trying about 80 variations. All of them tried for a few minutes, then returned an error that the server was temporarily unavailable, and then threw the "Error in RETR command" message.

I'm about 90% sure that the problem is on CenturyLink's end... maybe their firewall is blocking Gmail?

Calling CenturyLink is going to be a nightmare, though, so that's the LAST thing I want to do after I've exhausted literally every other idea! So before I do that, can you guys and gals suggest anything else I might try?

[tangor]

Avoid gmail?

Set up Thunderbird, set up all three accounts (or as many as there are) and deal with it that way ... down load all each timed access and mama can just click each inbox to see what's there, make any replies, and move on...

Last think I would want is having everything in a "single" account! Besides, g reads everything. But that's a different subject. :)

[graeme_p]

@tangor I agree with that advice. Just use a mail client, and use IMAP if you want to use webmail or multiple devices too.

@csdude I would have thought that a firewall blocking Google's servers would have blocked the original connection or the LIST command before getting to RETR.

[csdude55]

I actually do have it set to IMAP the Gmail to Outlook... my new computer came with a subscription to 365 and I can have 5 accounts on it, so it's more or less free to give it to her. But I was troubleshooting using Gmail.com because I was trying to eliminate variables :-P

She already had a Gmail account set up by her daughter (my gf's sister) and likes it, that's why I was porting everything that way first. Well, and because Gmail allows wildcards in the filters, where I can't do that in Outlook or any of her other accounts, and she gets a TON of spam because she and her husband (who passed in June) kept signing up for newsletters and stuff. She keeps forgetting to check her work emails and misses important things, though, so my end goal was for her to be able to check Outlook or Gmail (whichever one she thinks to check) and it all be the same.