really? i can't see them in any of those programs.  
I am logging on with my username ecpcfs... is that wrong?   
oh! I never thought to use the email address as the username (why would i? it asks for a username, not an email address! And it does actually log in to something which has a place to check email with that user name!) 
But you questioning me on the username made me try it.  
sorted.  
Thanks for the help.  
Though i must say - next time someone has this problem, probably the first thing you should tell them is to make sure they are checking their email here  http://stevie.heliohost.org:2095/webmail/x3/index.html 
and that their username is the email address they are trying to check.  
If somebody said that to me 7 days ago it would have saved a lot of hassel, wasted time, and being abused by someone who also makes spelling mistakes and non-clear replys about my use of bad grammer and spelling and not being able to be understood!