Emails to one recipient no longer working

[#1]

Thank you. What would you do in my position. The email problem is not a game-changer. But I'm also switching to full fibre in a couple of weeks and ditching my landline. If PN really can be so cavalier about customers' problems, I'm wondering if staying with them for anything is a good idea? 

[#2]

If PN really can be so cavalier about customers' problems, I'm wondering if staying with them for anything is a good idea? 

In my experience, the support (or lack of it!) problem is confined to 'legacy' functionality such as email and domains. These facilities havent been provided to new customers for some time now and so suppoirting them is becoming more & more difficult as first line staff have no (or very little) knowledge. Hence the plan to migrate them to Greenby!

What would you do in my position

Well TBH I expected the Greenby migration to be much smoother than it seems to be! I had one of my domains with Ecohosting (another brand of the Enix group of which Greenby is part) and the service was fine, but Greenby seem to be struggling!

I've had my domains with Mythic Beasts for a couple of years now and the service and support is excellent. As it happens I had cause to raise a ticket this morning regarding my addition of another domain. It was replied to with 30 mins and the problem fixed first time! 

So if I were you , I'd move my domain to Mythic, a basic email only package is £20/yr if paid annually https://www.mythic-beasts.com/hosting. Whilst in theory there's a method to transfer email without any downtime (https://www.mythic-beasts.com/support/domains/transfer-no-downtime), because the Plusnet domain control is so limited, you would need to transfer the registration to Mythic as well (£7/yr) and there would be up to 24 hr downtime whilst the nameserver changes propagate.

[#3]

Thank you @MisterW. I'll follow up your suggestion.

[#4]

I've been looking at how to move my domain to mythic beasts, following that link you provided. Although mythic beasts seem to provide a DIY process to achieve this, the PN web page for domains says:-

"If you want to transfer your domain, please call us on 0800 432 0200"

[#5]

Yes, once you've got the Mythic account open, mailboxes configured and any existing mail transferred, you will need to transfer the domain registration.mMost domain control systems provide a mechanism to  change the  IPSTAG, the Plusnet one doesn't and so you have to get Plusnet to do it manually. Calling customer support MAY work if you get someone who understands the request, otherwise posting on here usually works. 

[#6]

"... and any existing mail transferred"

I don't quite understand you here ... my apologies for my stupidity (old age actually). I only use my own domain for email. How would I transfer "any existing" on PN to my new account on mythic beasts (MB)? 

[#7]

Oh, and on MB can I continue to have email transferred by POP3 to any of my mail clients (Thunderbird on my linux PC, and gmail on my phone), so that it's always available on the hosting server via webmail in case of emergencies? 

[#8]

POP3 normally downloads email to the local device and deletes from the server.

Do you really mean IMAP ? or are you using POP3 with 'leave on server' option ?

[#9]

"POP3 normally downloads email to the local device and deletes from the server.

Do you really mean IMAP ? or are you using POP3 with 'leave on server' option ?"

On PN it's currently configured to POP3. However Thunderbird and gmail  are both configured to use IMAP. So I guess its the latter. Anyway, when I said "emergencies" earlier, I meant situations when I'm in a foreign country, there's internet connectivity and I've lost my phonel, and my PC at home is switched off. I those cases, the mail (via webmail) would not have left the server (yet).

[#10]

I approached my transfer by setting up an account, registering a new domain with MB, getting e-mail set up on that and functioning, and used to advise others/contacts of changes in contact e-mail addresses, including away from Plusnet related e-mails. Then I initiated the transfer of the domain that was registered with Plusnet (or, IRC, with Force9).

The domain I transferred from Plusnet/Force9 is not really used much now. (But e-mail stuff is mostly non-commercial here abouts)

[#11]

@breslaw 

On PN it's currently configured to POP3.

I understand where that's displayed, but it really doesnt mean that. It just means that mail is stored on the Plusnet server rather than being sent directly to your own mail server.

Its the client that's configured to collect the mail either by POP3 or IMAP.

A POP3 client downloads the mail and deletes it from the server. An IMAP client accesses mail on the server in situ and only deletes mail when you specifically delete an email via the client. 

However Thunderbird and gmail  are both configured to use IMAP. So I guess its the latter

So in your case, your historical mail is held on the Plusnet server and all clients ( including webmail which is really just another IMAP client ) have access to it.

So when you transfer your mail service from PLusnet to Mythic Beasts you need to copy all the existing mail from the PLusnet server to the Mythic Beasts server. One option is to create local folders in Thunderbird and copy all the existing mail (inbox,Sent etc) to those folders ( I assume you already do something like that to keep an archive? ). Then when connected to the Mythic server , you can copy email back from the local folders to the Inbox,Sent etc . Another option is to use a tool to copy whole mailbox accounts from one server to another, such as https://imapsync.lamiral.info/.

Please be aware, moving email from one provider to another is not a trivial operation, its not difficult, but you do need to understand the process, make a plan and take a logical approach.

[#12]

I need to transfer my existing domain from PN to MB. The instructions on MB require various DNS changes to be made on PN, but I believe it is no longer possible to do this from the "manage domains" link on PN, and I should call them instead.

The first change is:-

"Go to your DNS control panel at your existing provider. Reduce the TTL on all records to the minimum"

However @MisterW says they (PN) may no longer know how to deal with my request.

Before I call PN and (possibly) get into a mess, is there a safe way forward here?

[#13]

So I called PN, just to ask how I could get the TTL set to minimum, and they didn't know what I was talking about, but insisted it was something my new provider MB would do.

They did say they could raise a ticket to transfer me, but that would take days. 

Hmm.

[#14]

@breslaw 

I need to transfer my existing domain from PN to MB. The instructions on MB require various DNS changes to be made on PN, but I believe it is no longer possible to do this from the "manage domains" link on PN, and I should call them instead.

I thought I'd explained earlier that the 'no downtime' procedure outlined on the MB site is NOT possible when moving from PLusnet. The PN domain control system does not (and never has) provide the functionality to make those changes, either by the user or by staff!.

The ONLY way to make the move, is to ensure that the MB account, mailboxes are setup and then request the domain transfer by calling Plusnet or posting on here. It will take a few days for the transfer to be processed, in the meantime email will still be received by the Plusnet servers. Once the transfer happens, the nameservers can by switched to MB, SPF & DKIM setup and mail will now be processed by MB. There WILL be a period of around 24h during the nameserver switch where some mail will still go to PN but you will still have access to the mailboxes since they are shared between the native <account>.plus.com and the domain.

[#15]

"I thought I'd explained earlier that the 'no downtime' procedure outlined on the MB site is NOT possible when moving from PLusnet."

I'm so sorry I missed that bit.

I'm initiating the transfer from PN by calling them.