topic Re: Disappointing Service in Plusnet Feedback

Disappointing Service

gibbinsa — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:01:52 GMT

Having used PlusNet for several years, I was very disappointed at the lack of communication regarding e-mail services, which meant that I have to change my outgoing mail server settings whever I use another wireless network.
This wasn't communicated (or if it was, it wasn't done well) and follow-up the support requests was slow and in some cases, unhelpful.
Poor service and achnage which is very inconvenient for someone who travels frequently and needs to use alternative wireless networks

Re: Disappointing Service

pierre_pierre — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:09:56 GMT

welcome to the Forum
can you expand on what you mean, I have in the last month Used A)laptop on XP from home, B)Netbook on Linux from Eire, C)Netbook on XP from Eire, and from a pub and a BT ISP in Bury St Edmunds.
didnt have to change any of my settings

Re: Disappointing Service

Chris — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:22:15 GMT

Hi there, welcome to the forums.
We haven't made any recent changes to the relay.plus.net rules, you've never been able to use it without either:
- Being connected to the Plusnet network
- Using outbound authentication (need to use your default username and password)
If I've got confused and got what you're asking wrong please let me know.

Re: Disappointing Service

gibbinsa — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:50:33 GMT

I've had the problem since Friday last week. On raising a question, this is the response I've had
Dear Mr Gibbins,
Thanks for your query. You will need to use the outgoing mail server of whichever internet provider you are using, as the emails will be routed through their network as opposed to ours. Please contact us again if you have any further queries by responding to this question or calling us on 08451400200.
Kind regards,
[removed]
[Moderator's note by Dick(Strat) CSA named removed as per forum rules

Re: Disappointing Service

James — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:59:45 GMT

Hi,
Technically this is correct. If you are using a standard SMTP server, you need to use the outgoing mail server of whichever ISP or internet service you are connected to at the time.
However, you can use authenticated SMTP to allow you to use our email servers regardless of who you are connected to at the time. If you need further details on how to do this, please shout up.

Re: Disappointing Service

gibbinsa — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:58:46 GMT

Thanks - have fixed this now.
My grumble relates to the fact that I'd been using e-mail without outgoing server authentication for over 3 years, so to be suddenly, and without warning, unable to send e-mail and not understand why caused me a lot of hassle.
The feedback to my questions wasn't great for someone semi-computer literate like me

Re: Disappointing Service

James — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:08:54 GMT

Who were you using for email before?
If you were able to send email using them no matter where you were, it's horrifically insecure and a blatant cause of mass spam (not you personally of course)!

Re: Disappointing Service

gibbinsa — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:20:41 GMT

I have been using unsecured mail on PlusNet for the last 3 years

Re: Disappointing Service

James — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:24:00 GMT

Were you able to send email when you were not connected to us?
You shouldn't have been able to, but regardless, it's working now so it's all good

Re: Disappointing Service

gibbinsa — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:30:27 GMT

yes, from any wreless connection, until last Friday

Re: Disappointing Service

James — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:09:08 GMT

Odd. We've not changed anything.
I might dare to suggest that it wasn't something at our end that caused this to happen, but I'm not sure why your computer would suddenly have decided to stop sending email.

Re: Disappointing Service

MisterW — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:21:09 GMT

@gibbinsa,
I use plusnet email regularly from 'foreign' networks and I concur with James and Chris that its not been possible for some time ( years! ) to use the plusnet mail server ( relay.plus.net ) from another network without using authentication.
Could you possibly elaborate on what exactly you changed to get it to work ( but obviously dont post any userid/password info as this is a public forum ), so that we might understand why your setup worked up until Friday but then suddenly stopped working.

Re: Disappointing Service

gibbinsa — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:53:03 GMT

Until Friday I had simply used relay.plus.net as the outgoing server with no authentication, never had a poblem and have used 3-rd party wireless connections in UK, Europe and Middle East
I've now switched to using authentication using my primary userid and password

Re: Disappointing Service

MisterW — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:14:36 GMT

Quote
I've now switched to using authentication using my primary userid and password

Yes, thats whats neccessary to use relay.plus.net from another network and how it has been for a long time.
This is very puzzling... I dont see how you could possibly have sent email out via relay.plus.net without authentication when not connected to plusnet but I'm sure that If it has been possible then James/Chris would like to understand how.
So if you don't mind can I persevere and ask some more questions:-
What email client are you using ?
Do you have more than one smtp server configured in the client ?
When sending mail using a wireless connection do you use your normal email cleint or do you perhaps use webmail ?
Do you use a VPN connection back to home or your office ( I guess not but I'll ask anyway! ) when on foreign wireless networks ?

Re: Disappointing Service

gibbinsa — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:22:26 GMT

What email client are you using ? MS Outlook
Do you have more than one smtp server configured in the client ? I have 2 email accounts, one is a BT Connect, the other is Plusnet. The BTConnect account was set up with outgoing server authentication, the PlusNet was never set up in this way
When sending mail using a wireless connection do you use your normal email cleint or do you perhaps use webmail ? No
Do you use a VPN connection back to home or your office ( I guess not but I'll ask anyway! ) when on foreign wireless networks ? No

Re: Disappointing Service

James — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:58:20 GMT

I'd guess (perhaps incorrectly) that you were actually sending your email via BT Connect, because there's no way our outgoing mail server should have allowed you to send email unauthenticated.

Re: Disappointing Service

MisterW — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:02:57 GMT

@gibbinsa,
Thanks for persevering with me.

Quote
I have 2 email accounts, one is a BT Connect, the other is Plusnet. The BTConnect account was set up with outgoing server authentication, the PlusNet was never set up in this way

I suspect the answer is there. I'm not an Outlook expert but I believe when sending mail from Outlook, you can select which outgoing server to use and not just use the one set for that account. My guess is that you were actually sending mail via the BT connect smtp server.
Maybe someone more familiar with Outlook could pop in here and advise if that's a feasible explanation.
Edit: James beat me to it, he types faster ( or types less! )

Re: Disappointing Service

gibbinsa — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:16:43 GMT

Sorry guys but this isn't the case. The BT connect e-mail account is a business related account with different signatures. I'm very careful not to use this for personal e-mail
It was definitely the mail from the relay.plus.com that I was sending without authentication

Re: Disappointing Service

James — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:23:21 GMT

The outgoing mail server is the thing that transports the email.
It doesn't set the signature. It's just the thing that actually sends it. I still think you were using the BT server to send your emails.

Re: Disappointing Service

gibbinsa — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:42:33 GMT

In Outlook 2003, I select the account for each e-mail that I send. Mine is set up with 2 options, plus net and BT connect, I've a separate signature on each. The plus net mail goes via the plus net server.
Also, I've only had the BT account for about a year and was using just relay.plus.net without authentication for quite some time before that