Email provider advice, who? Not Greenby.

[#1]

Possibly, but wouldn't that mean they are always going to be interdependent rather than fully separate entities?

If so, it makes me wonder why plusnet would hive off email to a different company in the first place. Wouldn't it have made more sense for plusnet to charge, say £15 extra per year to continue providing an integral email service (hopefully improved)?

I probably haven't read enough plusnet blogs but I don't really get the rationale for this less than smooth transfer

[#2]

They are AFAIK moving people over in batches NOT everyone at once so are they doing something funny?

But basically .. On the internet there is more than one way of assigning "how do I speak to the server that handles blah.blah". There is the standard DNS (basically looks up the blah.blah and finds an IP address) but for email there is something similar but different called an MX record. Same idea. So the mail system knows to route email for @blah.blah to that email server. IT's entire possible for them to wildly different, like a domain pointing at a server in the US for web, and a server in germany from a different company for mail. I hope this is all correct.

Ahh wait a minute, an mx record can be done by subdomain and we are user@user.plus.com NOT username@plus.com so they can handle each mx record separately I believe? 

Actually looking at Greenby settings they seem to indicate the mx record for my email is still mail.plus.net so maybe it's not that clever, just email comes and it gets to plusnet and they have logic that says "not moved, go there, moved, go to Greenby"..

[#3]

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@Bookworms wrote:

I probably haven't read enough plusnet blogs but I don't really get the rationale for this less than smooth transfer

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Although I MAY be wrong - I'm sure some-one will correct me if I am - but the rationale is that BT (as the parent company) have decided that the Plusnet brand - because that is all  it is now - will be a bare-bones internet-only provider, with absolutely no other function.

[#4]

This is chatgpt take on this which makes sense to me.

"Even though Greenby is now processing and storing the emails, the address itself (@plus.net) is still entirely dependent on the domain owned by Plusnet.
Here’s what that really means in practical terms:
🔹 Who controls what?
Greenby controls:
The mail servers
Storage of your mailbox
Spam filtering
The technical processing of messages
Plusnet controls:
The plus.net domain
The routing instructions (MX records)
Whether the domain continues to exist
Whether email for that domain continues to be supported
🔹 So yes — you are still dependent on Plusnet
Even though your emails are physically handled by Greenby’s systems:
If Plusnet removed the MX records pointing to Greenby, mail would stop flowing.
If Plusnet ever retired legacy email domains, the address would cease to function.
Greenby cannot continue offering @plus.net independently without Plusnet’s authorisation.
Greenby is effectively acting under Plusnet’s delegation.
🔹 Think of it like this
Plusnet owns the name on the front of the shop.
Greenby runs the counter inside.
If the shop owner closes the premises, the counter can’t keep trading under that name.
🔹 What this means for reliability
Your reliability now depends on two organisations instead of one:
Greenby’s technical stability
Plusnet’s decision to continue supporting the plus.net domain"

So in theory BT could at some time in the future still pull the plug on Plusnet email unless of course they sold the domain to Greenby?
It's not clean as a migration as might have been thought. Greenby are in effect an email services provider for Plusnet.

[#5]

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@jab1 wrote:

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correct me if I am - but the rationale is that BT (as the parent company) have decided that the Plusnet brand - because that is all  it is now - will be a bare-bones internet-only provider, with absolutely no other function.

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That is pretty much what I've been thinking but I would still have thought they'd be able to go on providing email support for 'legacy' members, albeit for a small added fee, if needs be.

With email and home phone both on the way out, what is there to keep once loyal customers carrying on with plusnet?

I think the plusnet brand has been badly tarnished by this downgrading of the service.

I am currently on FTTC but a couple of different providers have recently laid full fibre in my street.

I am now seriously thinking of switching away from plusnet but will that mean I will lose the plusnet email identities even though they are now handled by Greenby?

By paring down the service, I feel plusnet have shot themsleves in the foot as far as exisitng customers are concerned.

[#6]

They don't want to provide the service, and it cuts their costs as they will not have to run/maintain the mail servers.

There is little to keep them - I  actually moved ISP in 2021, not because I was dissatisfied, but because I  could see their intentions to make it a bare-bones service in the BT mould, and having experienced that via other family members, I made the decision to move.

Unfortunately, I didn't see quite how bare they were going to make it, so retained my mail account, although that decision is now set to change after the car-crash of the move.

If you have been moved to Greenby - successfully, I hope - you will retain your PN mail service.

[#7]

Well I have been moved to Greenby though I'm not sure how successful it has been!

At least Plusnet still has this forum...but for how much longer, I wonder?