Greenby migration now I can't send emails. Raging.

[#1]

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@Chris_P wrote:

But as I noted in my first post in this thread, I have no record of Greenby notifying me of any change at all since migration.

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That thought points to detailed semantics in change management.  This was not actually a Greenby change, but rather a change to SMTP routing for Plusnet brand email users - migrated or not.

One might hope that the SMTP configuration for PlusNet, Force9 (f9) and free-online GREENBY SMTP services were identical.  The user population for Plusnet is vastly larger than that of either of the other two.  For the other two brands, the SMTP services were switched to the Greenby arbitration proxy servers BEFORE any users were migrated.

That was attempted for the Plusnet SMTP service (relay.plus.com) ... and the service fried for a few days because of the massively different size of the user base.  Plusnet user migration programme commenced after the completion of the other two brands user base was migrated, HOWEVER migrated users continued to use the Plusnet SMTP service for outbound whilst using Greenby's servers for inbound.  Thereby early migrated users have not seen any outbound issues.

Within the last couple of weeks, two new developments have happened...

• Users having their own hosted domain names have just been migrated (mine was Monday just passed)
• The relay.plus.net service was switched to the Greenby proxy

Thereafter a degree of mayhem has erupted: the FROM addressee now needs to be configured explicitly, which from a security perspective this is good belt AND braces practice ... which was signposted in the more recent migration comms.

I have no recollection of this arising as an issue with Force9 or free-online users when sending from catch-all aliases - that suggests either those SMTP servers are configured differently or their user base is not big enough to have encountered the issue AND come here to complain.

The business has been asked for comment by two of the super users.

[#2]

@Townman 

relay.force9.net was one of three fore-runners of the stricter sender policy.
But must have had a more aligned customer base as I concur, very few questions / gripes arose.

Testing just now via relay.force9.net I tried to send as carp.<account>.plus.com 

and my fishy From: address was rewarded with ; 

Send test e-mail message: Cannot send the message.
Verify the e-mail address in your account properties. 
The server responded: 550 5.7.1 Unknown sender

and this was no surprise, it would have done the same in March 2026 too.

PS

Of the initial three, all of the metronet email servers lack SSL/TLS and STARTTLS
as do all the other legacy brands. 

What decade are these people in ? 

[#3]

@Townman I will think about the semantics and change management!  You wrote earlier "This change is clearly signposted in the most recent version of the email migration advisory email..."  Is this migration advisory email (i) something that was, or should have been, sent to all applicable users?  Or (ii) someting a user has to sign up in advance to receive? Or (iii) not intended for users?  (Or (iv) none of the above.)

Thanks for raising this issue with the business, I will await their response.

[#4]

@Townman 

You said:

I have no recollection of this arising as an issue with Force9 or free-online users when sending from catch-all aliases -

But it DID affect relay.force.net

As a Force9 user I was migrated in early December, and I could still send from [email protected], and there were no warnings in any emails about requiring aliases.

In the middle of January something was changed to enforce the alias requirement, without any warning -  and it caused me (and other similar f9 accounts I support) major problems as I was on holiday.

The communication from Greenby is worse than appalling - it is non existent!

And they have obviously not learned since January - hence the chaos caused to plus.net users recently.

[#5]

@PhilipHeyes 

A pure ISP smtp server did not really need much security - as it should only accept connections from within the ISP network. 

Hence accepting any 'from' email addresses from the user end as long as the user authenticated correctly from a correct end point

I suppose the risk of infected botnet user machines is higher now - or is that spam also a bit last decade ? 

[#6]

Just hit this issue, as I'm (or was) using relay.plus.net on my own hosted domains

Checking my emails, I've had ZERO notification from plusnet about this. No emails at all about this change in service. Nothing about the email migration to greenby. Lots of emails about billing, raising of prices etc., but not about something that affects the service I'm paying for.

Seriously, [-Censored-]? No notice at all? 

Now I have to scrabble around finding an alternative under time pressure rather than being able to plan it.

Thanks Plusnet.

[#7]

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@Chris_P wrote:

@Townman I will think about the semantics and change management!  You wrote earlier "This change is clearly signposted in the most recent version of the email migration advisory email..."  Is this migration advisory email (i) something that was, or should have been, sent to all applicable users?  Or (ii) someting a user has to sign up in advance to receive? Or (iii) not intended for users?  (Or (iv) none of the above.)

Thanks for raising this issue with the business, I will await their response.

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I was referring to the most recent cohort's advisory service migration email.

Was it something which should have been sent to ALL users on the switch of the Plusnet SMTP relay ... is most pertinent.