Legacy domain and migration to Greenby

[#1]

People who have been Plusnet customers for many years may remember the email security breach. This was pre BT days. In recompense, those affected were offered a free domain name and hosting. I’ve had mine since then. Perhaps there aren’t many of us left. I am wondering what Plusnet intends to do with our accounts? Will they be transferred to Greenby under the same terms and conditions? 

[#2]

I have no idea what the terms will be, but I too have the "free for life" domain from way back when. I'm sure there are a few more of use still hanging around here.

[#3]

My personal thoughts:

I suggest that you refer back to the Ts & Cs of the original offer of a free domain. Specifically how/if 'lifetime' is defined and consider how this affects likely charges..

For example, I have a satnav with 'free for life' map updates. I have recently realised (I had not thought about it before) that the manufacturer was not referring to my lifetime, but what it decides is the supportable lifetime of the product. This has now been declared obsolete, so my perfectly working device no longer receives updates.

The positive aspect is that Plusnet is not just pulling the plug on a service from which they are withdrawing, they are arranging the transfer of the service to Greenby at a very reasonable cost.

[#4]

@RPMozley Glad it’s not just me. 

@Baldrick1 As RPM has said, we were not given any terms and conditions. This was way back before BT came on the scene. Hopefully this will continue to be honoured. I think it should be because those of us who are left are clearly very loyal customers. PN has been my Internet/telephone provider for twenty one years. My ISP is Force9 which was the original name of the company before it became Plusnet. 

[#5]

Has it really been 21 years!!!. I started with PN when it was still dial-up.

My assumption is our legacy domains would be transferred over, but we would have to pay when the 2 years is up. Greenby won't really care what the domain is. If that's right, £15 a year is not unreasonable. I was paying £8 to maintain a .eu address until we left the EU and it was taken away.

One potential benefit for us is we would be no longer tied to Plusnet so could go for the cheapest broadband option once the transfer has taken place. Its one of the reasons I've stayed loyal since the beginning I didn't want to lose my own domain. - I also used to live in Sheffield and the office was across the road from mine.

It would be helpful to have an approximate timeline.

[#6]

It is a long time ago but fortunately I do remember the email breach incident quite well. I too was on dial-up with Force 9 and used to pay (I think) £4.99 pm for so many minutes - think it might have been 100 but could be 1000.

I was just thinking about the dial-up tone the other day. Quite distinctive and you couldn't use the telephone when on the Internet. When I transferred to broadband it was £15 pm but wasn't unlimited. Can't remember the limit. Was sent a Voyager 105 modem.

The domain was one of my reasons for staying with PN too. However, I wouldn't have left because I've had no problems that I recall and if it isn't broken, it doesn't need fixing. Also the company is based in Sheffield, and that's my home city.

Just as a matter of interest, do you remember the open days they had when at Tenter Street? A group of us customers were invited to look round. We had a lovely day and were made most welcome. I visited twice.    

Anyway, I will leave it up to PN to sort out. Not heard from them as yet. If I have to pay then it hopefully won't be too much and it will be worth it to save the hassle of changing email addresses.  

[#7]

If one has their own domain name and has not given out the underlying @account.plus.com email addresses, one could have moved at anytime thought suitable.  Moving hosting services for an owned domain name is not overly complicated.

[#8]

Thank you for your reply. The underlying account is the email address that was breached so it has been given out although after all these years it will maybe have been abandoned by the spammers. 

I like my domain email address and don’t want to lose it, not least because of the hassle of changing it. That being said, I’m old now and my email usage has reduced significantly. Having reflected on it, if the move to Greenby is going to be bothersome then I will probably just use an alternative email address. It’s not about the potential cost but more about keeping things simple. 

[#9]

The move should be fairly transparent.  At worst some users might need to make minor changes to their connection settings.

[#10]

Yes. Sadly couldn’t attend any of them☹️

[#11]

The emphasis being on SHOULD. I’m glad us old stagers won’t be the first to move. Moving a domain may be fairly easy and I’ve thought of doing it before, but I didn’t really have the need. I’m reasonably happy with Plusnet and if it’s it not broke why fix it?

[#12]

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@dgp wrote:

I’m reasonably happy with Plusnet and if it’s it not broke why fix it?

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With lots of things that aren't broken it can be wise for some occasional preventative maintenance in order to keep it all working, and to ensure that you are in control of things should there be a problem in the future.

[#13]

@Townman Thank you for the information. I use eM Client on the laptop so will have to change the server settings I suppose. Ditto the iPad/iPhone. Been using the Force9 ones for so many years that I know them off by heart. Do not like change unfortunately but will have to deal with it if/when necessary.

@dgp It’s good that we are being left alone for a while but I wonder how long it will be. I’m in the process of winding up a website and another domain at the moment so it’s coincidence that this is happening at a similar time. Will see how it goes and if it is too much bother I will maybe use one of my free email addresses. I’m at the stage of life where I prefer to keep things simple. 

[#14]

The most change that is likely to be required (with some of the brands) is to change the logon userID from account to you@account.brand.tld (that is use your email address rather than account name).

Presently email address works with all brands except some free-online mailboxes.  When they come, communications will identify what if any pre-migration changes are required.  The email server diagnostics (see link below) details the right settings for each brand.

[#15]

Thank you Townman. It just occurred to me that from time to time (not often) I go into my PN account to create or delete an alias. Can also block an email address in there. Will this function be removed from the portal and if so, will it be available in a separate Greenby account? Also, does Greenby use RoundCube? If Greenby has an app, that would useful.