Computer help: Issues connecting to Bellsouth email account

Q: I cannot access my Bellsouth email account from my PC but can access it on my Android phone with no problem. When I try to access it on my PC, I am told that I have to change my password, and it also tries to make me access the account through AT&T, not Bellsouth. As I understand, I have no accounts with AT&T, my Android is through Consumer Cellular and my ISP is Xfinity Comcast. Ironically, when I call each of these companies directly, no one will tell me how to change my password. How can I fix this?

— Martha B., Vero Beach

A: It sounds like you are not connecting to the right email account on your PC.

Rather than reset your password, first make sure the account you are trying to access on the machine is the same one you are able to access successfully on your smartphone.

Keep in mind that AT&T acquired Bellsouth in 2006 but allowed existing subscribers to keep their Bellsouth email addresses if they wanted to. As such, entering your Bellsouth login credentials into an AT&T login page should still connect you to your Bellsouth email — and it also justifies the request for login on an AT&T domain instead of a Bellsouth one.

So start with that — go to the AT&T email login page on your computer and enter the same Bellsouth email account login and password you use on your smartphone there and see if that allows you access to the account. If you receive a prompt to change your password after doing so, then it may be due to the fact that you are not pointed to the correct account on the AT&T page or that your account might require a secondary form of verification for access — the latter of which will prompt you to change your password if you cannot properly provide the information requested of you at the time.

In that case, please contact AT&T support for help with your Bellsouth email account, as they should be able to clarify and provide additional instructions. AT&T email support can be reached via the information found at this URL: att.com/support/contact-us.

If you are not sure of your account login and password (since so many of us use saved passwords to log into accounts these days), then you can try to retrieve this information from your stored passwords on your smartphone and then enter that information on your computer to access the account there.

To access the stored passwords on your Android phone, follow the instructions found at this URL: support.google.com/chrome/answer/95606?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid.

In case the instructions at the link above do not work for you (since the instructions may not apply depending on the type and age of Android phone you have), please contact Consumer Cellular Support at 888-345-5509 and ask them to help you retrieve your login credentials on your Android phone.

Having said that, Consumer Cellular also uses AT&T (or T-Mobile, depending on the customer's location) as their subsidized phone carrier. Since you have a smartphone account with Consumer Cellular, then there's a good chance you also have a second AT&T email account through them as well (unless you've instructed them to sync that email account to your Bellsouth one). So if/when speaking with Consumer Cellular support, be sure to mention that the email account in question is your Bellsouth one and not theAT&T one native to your cell phone account, as support will most likely think that at first.

Out of the other companies mentioned, only Xfinity Comcast would not be able to provide much assistance here. While they are your ISP — meaning this is where you get your home internet from — and you have an email account with them, in all likelihood your account with Comcast will have a "@comcast.net" extension (as most Comcast accounts do) and not a Bellsouth one, so there is no reason to contact them for help here, since this isn't their product.

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Contact Eyal Goldshmid at egoldshmid@yahoo.com.